The Terminator and House of The Flying Daggers are two different films that somehow have similar things to compare. The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day become a savior against machines in a post-apocalyptic future.

House of Flying Daggers is a 2004 wuxia romance film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Unlike other wuxia films, it is more of a love story than purely a martial arts film. In AD 859, as the Tang Dynasty declines, several rebel groups are established, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Fengtian, who battle the corrupt government that oppresses the people. Two police officers, Leo and Jin—who are best friends—are ordered to kill the leader of the group within ten days, a task that appears to be impossible as no one knows who the leader of the House of the Flying Daggers is.

How do changes in technology affect movies as a business, a social-political force, and an art form? How do social and political issues affect movies at specific moments in history? How do movies explore and potentially affect society and politics?How does the need to make money from movies affect what movies get made?

Technology is an important issue, and it always affect the way a film is made; for example, Cameron had to change his initial idea for the film, because he didn’t had the necessary technology. The initial outline of the script involved two Terminators being sent to the past. The first was similar to the Terminator in the film, while the second was made of liquid metal and could not be destroyed with conventional weaponry. Cameron felt that the technology of the time was unable to create the liquid Terminator. But while Cameron struggled with the lack of technology, Yimou did not have any kind of inconvenience, Yimou had more advanced technology due to the year it was recorded. Social and political issues come with both of the films, the only difference is that with Cameron the criticisms were positive and with Yimou negative. The Terminator was meaningful, because they gave the woman an important role, they showed her strong and gave her power. This was an important step in the history of the film and something unusual that was well received. While with Yimou there was controversy, close members of his family were shamed and humiliated for opposing the Communist government. It was a controversial issue, since Zhang gave his opinion about historic politic. “The objective of any form of art is not political. I had no political intentions. I am not interested in politics,” he said. Money controls every detail in the films. While Cameron battled for lack of money, Yimou did not do it at all, he had the resources he needed. The expectations for the success of The Terminator were low, the first time Cameron showed his work, his agent agent disliked the Terminator concept and requested that he work on something else. After this, Cameron dismissed his agent. Then he showed his work to Orion Pictures, they accepted to do the film. Orion Pictures did not have faith in The Terminator performing well at the box office and feared a negative critical reception; meanwhile, the money wasn’t a problem for Zhang, he was successful for his other works, and that helped him.

We can see that the process for making both films were totally different, but the outcome was the same, both films were successful.

In all movies there will always be positive and negative reviews. For The Terminator almost all of the critics were positive, people really liked the film.  Most critics talk about the good work of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the felling that the film is transmitted. In the article, “The Terminator” written by Michael Sragow for The New Yorker, Sragow states that “Much of the film’s popularity derived from the use of Schwarzenegger as a monolithic sight gag. But every bit of action, each pungent joke or detail, adds to the director James Cameron’s master plan”.

I agree with Sragow, I believe that Schwarzenegger was an important fact, his acting was very good, and without Cameron’s master plan, the film wouldn’t been successful. Cameron did a great job, his budget was low, so he had to give the right use wisely the tools that he had. He gave appropriate use to the materials he had at his disposal to make his film a success. All the factors together made the film triumph, but without the Cameron organization the film would definitely not have been a success.

In the essay, “30 Minutes: On The Terminator” Roger Ebert states that “Cameron’s screenplay connects the survival of one species or the other (the machines or the humans) to a series of skirmishes that happen in contained spaces and that visit discrete but horrifying injuries upon individual bodies… You don’t just hear and see the blood and pain, you feel it. It’s the emotion that makes the movie, and that always makes the difference”.

I totally agree with Ebert, the film makes you feel, it shows injuries upon individual bodies and somehow you get to feel some of that pain in a different sensation. That’s what makes the film unique. The critics also talk about the female character, Sarah, and how she becomes in a strong woman. I really liked Sarah’s character, at first it seems like her character is going to be weak, but through the story develops, we can see the power and strength that Sarah acquires. I liked that it was not the typical cliche story where man saves the woman in everything, I liked the fact that Sarah also saved Reese in dangerous parts. I liked that inside the fictional, they showed reactions and real situations.The film showed that both, men and women, need each other to survive.

The textbook A Short History of the Movies states that “The Hollywood Renaissance ended shortly after the film industry became more interested in making deals than in making movies” and “Most films were approved for production on the basis of market research, rather than experience and confident instinct. New ideas were rare, and if they succeeded, they were repeat in sequels” (373). At the beginning nobody thought that The Terminator film was going to be successful, that’s way they gave a small budget to Cameron, in this way, if the film wasn’t successful, the company wouldn’t lose. The historical evidence is related, due to the success of the film, they decided to make a sequel, having assured the success this time.

On the other hand, the reviews for House of The Flying daggers were also good, but some people thought it had too many unnecessary fight scenes. In the essay, “Film critic of Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers” the author states that “House of the flying daggers is more directed towards a commercial market that could only be stimulated with too many actions scenes and has less regard for character of thematic development…”. After watching and analyzing the film, I can agree partially. The film is focus to a public that enjoys the action scenes, but it doesn’t affect the development of the thematic character. These fight scenes introduces the thematic and personality of the characters; they are part of Yimou’s main idea, he wanted to show the art through his film, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. In the article, “Silk Brocade Soaked in Blood and Passion” A.O. Scott states that “House of Flying Daggers is a gorgeous entertainment, a feast of blood, passion and silk brocade. But though the picture is full of swirling, ecstatic motion, it is not especially moving. A Chinese mainlander’s tribute to the sword and martial arts epics of the past, most of which were produced in Taiwan and Hong Kong, it also echoes the widescreen Technicolor westerns and musicals that the Hollywood studios cranked out in their early battle against television” I agree with Scott, the film a tribute to the sword and martial arts epics of the past, it’s full of colors and that’s what makes the film beautiful.

Like most of the critics claim, the love story line is a bit weak; I believe that Yimou could’ve done better, personally I did not feel so much empathy for what happened at the end with each character, I think Yimou could have made the viewer feel a stronger connection with the protagonists.

House of The Flying Daggers and The Terminator are a mainstream films, but they also have unconventional characteristics. House of The Flying Daggers story line is controversial, giving a different point of view about historical events, and The Terminator gives a different view about how technology can become bad. The endings are not as the typical ones and the audience might not be happy at all with it.

I recommend both films, House of The Flying Daggers has a lot of elements like the colors and fight scenes that makes the movie amazing, and The Terminator counts with a great story line that keeps you in constant suspense. I loved that both films didn’t had the typical happy ending.