This week, I chose to watch the movie, “The Terminator.” This movie was not my first choice. I wanted to watch “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” but after watching the trailer for it, I definitely thought I wasn’t going to be able to watch it. I went with “The Terminator” because I have heard great things about it and wanted to see if the hype is justified. Also, when I was watching the trailer for it, I was really intrigued as not like trailers for newer films, it does not give a lot of information about the plot of the movie. The film is about a machine, that is called “The Terminator” who was sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John Connor. By killing John, he would not exist to help the humans fight a war against the machines. Kyle Reese, who is one of the soldiers in the war was also sent back in time to stop the Terminator.
When I started watching it, the first scene when the spaceship was flying made me think if it was shot by using the stop-motion technique because how it was flying. And through out the movie, I did see that they used the stop-motion technique quite a lot. I could say that how they used this technique made the robot much scarier for me. Just how the way he was moving was making me uneasy. And even though the technique was a little bit “choppy,” it was still amazing. It looked unnatural, but in a good way. It was definitely a use of technology in an interesting way. Stop-Motion animation was invented in the 1800s and it has improved since then but if you look at the scenes where this was used in the movie, you could definitely tell that this is what they used. There were wires showing and you really could tell. It didn’t stop the scenes from scaring the movie watchers though. It definitely helped with the horror aspect of the film.
The most that the critics argued about this film is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of the cyborg killer. Critics argued about his lack of lines in this film. While others think that it was in his favor, a few think that he was hiding behind his Russian accent. After knowing about this movie, I could not see anyone else portraying the terminator other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. I could definitely say he was born for this role. In 1984, he only had a few films on his name. What made him really famous is his movie from 1982 when he was Conan. Him only having a few lines made the movie watchers appreciate his acting with his body and facial features.
The movie was definitely conventional because of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the terminator and James Cameron as the director and the movie as originally budgeted to $4 million but it went up to $6.4 million which I feel like a lot at this time especially since the movie made $38 million. The movie “Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon” which is also an action film that was made in 2000, used $15 million for their budget and made $213.5 million. It grossed $128 million in the United States alone, and it became the highest-grossing foreign-language film produced overseas in American history. It is a story about a warrior giving his sword, which is named “Green Destiny”, to his friend to deliver to safe keeping but gets stolen. And the story is the chase to find it.
Since this was a foreign film, unlike the movie “The Terminator” for the western audience, they are not familiar with the actors. Jet Li, who is an actor that is very popular with martial arts, was considered for this movie. According to Ang Lee, the director of the movie, “Yeah, Jet Li, the first thing you think about when doing a martial arts film is him. But at that time it was a much smaller project, I really intended to make the movie as Sense and Sensibility with martial arts [laughs]. . . a two woman story. . . So the men are just generally supporting roles, just a touch, just a vehicle for their romance and conflict.” But it didn’t work out with Jet Li. One would wonder what would’ve happened if they did use Jet Li as the main role. Would the main leads who are woman would get overshadowed? Maybe the western audience, even if the film was greatly accepted, would’ve wanted it more because they do like it when they are familiar with someone they are watching.
One of the critics states, “People laughed. That’s the thing I remember the most from the sleepy art-house cinema where I first saw Ang Lee’s 2000 wuxia epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” They laughed at the fight scenes because you could easily tell that they have used safety wires when bodies are sailing across rooftops which made it look weird. James Schamus, who is one of the people who wrote the film stated, ““They fight. They will be the greatest fight scenes ever written in cinema history. Period.” There are a lot of people that agreed with what he stated but being Asian, I was familiar with how fight scenes are in Chinese action films so I would not be able to call it the greatest fights scenes I have ever seen but to the western audience, who is not familiar with it might be the case.
With the movie, “The Terminator” using stop-motion as one of their filming effects, the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” used minimal effects. In the fight scene between Li Mu Bai and Jen above the trees, the only CGI used was removing the safety wires. Most of the scene was also by the real actors and not their stunt doubles. CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) is the creation of still or animated visual content with imaging software while stop-motion also called stop frame animation is animation that is captured one frame at a time, with physical objects that are moved between frames. With the movie “The Terminator” being released in 1984 and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, being released in 2000, one would wonder what would be the outcome if “The Terminator” could’ve used CGI and the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” wouldn’t have been able to use it. How different would the films be?
Resources:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/nov/07/3
https://filmschoolrejects.com/terminator-1984-what-critics-thought/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/terminator-review-movie-1984-743708
Hi Francesa,
We both watched The Terminator but I watched a different foreign film. I really enjoyed learning more about different technologies in your post such as stop-motion and the history of its use. I liked how you explored other technologies available at the time of release for each film, particularly as they were released 16 years apart.
I admire the comparisons you made between each film such as the different use of technology, the box office numbers and what the critics said.
Great work!
Francesa,
Same as you, I had worked with a conventional movie which had not generated a big success, especially on the budget. Giallo and The Terminator seem to share the same characteristics. I have seen those fighting scenes and they have not failed to impress me but I did not know that they were consideres as on of the best ever. I really like how you put the big course questions on this essay, and how you relate that between two different movies. Great job on picking movies with similar genre!
Isuf
Hello Francesa,
This was the only other blog posted so far this week. I am guilty because I have not had time to write mine yet. I noticed that we didn’t choose any of the same movies. I however was interested in watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre as one of my films. I am really curious as to why you chose to not watch it. Was it too scary? Too real life? I enjoyed reading your blog and I need to remember to attach the links to my resources at the end like you did!
Hi Francesca,
I saw the Terminator for my movie too. I wasn’t really a big fan of it and felt that it wasn’t that good of a movie honestly. I thought that the stop motion was more choppy and unrealistic than intimidating and feel like using puppetry or anything else would have been better. What are your thoughts on the movie as a whole? Keep up the good work!
-Will
Hi Francesa,
I like your angle of comparing these two movies, with time and types of action films. I have watched both of them before, and they gave me very different impressions. I agree with you that the using of CGI technology is a big difference between these two movies. And I think the way of expressing fighting scenes are also very different. Thanks for sharing your post!