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| Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn,
Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield, Lance Henrikson, Earl Boen |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Kyle
Reese (Michael Biehn): Listen! And understand! That terminator is
out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It
doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop,
ever, until you are dead!
A
cyborg from the year 2029 is sent back to the present to eliminate the
woman who will one day be the mother of a son who will lead a rebellion
against the powerful robots in the future.
 When
The Terminator was released in 1984 it was targeted at an audience
of young thrill-seeking boys, the kind that favor big guns and explosions.
It turned out that a far larger audience than that particular demographic
was able to relate to the story. James Cameron had created a fast-paced
science-fiction action flick with clearly defined characters (even the
terminator comes across perfectly, although he only has about seven
lines of dialogue) and it struck a nerve by showing what might happen
when technology eventually does take over everything in our lives.
The storyline as presented on screen is deceptively straightforward,
and the ideas about the way the future and the present intertwining
are both complex and consistent (see the murky waters that T2
tended to drown in). As it stands, The Terminator has a lot going
for it with the exciting action pieces and its unrelenting, superbly
handled build-up being the most impressive. The sequence in the police
station
is both brutal and beautiful to look at while the scene in the disco
never fails to astonish with each viewing: the classic image of the
terminator's laser-guided weapon on Sarah Connor's forehead has an immediacy
that never fails to make an impact. Cameron worked nothing short of
miracles out of a limited budget and manages to cram the movie full
of what we can now recognize as his trademark flourishes. And lucky
for him that whatever he'll do in the future, the past cannot be undone. |
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A
non-anamorphic movie-only edition from Image Entertainment went out
of print in Region 1 some time ago. A Special Edition has since been
released by MGM/UA [see separate
review].
A similar Special Edition release was made available in early 2001 as
a two-disc set for Region 2 and Region 4. One minor difference between
the two versions is that the captions that appear on-screen throughout
the film (eg. indications of time and place, etc.) are language-specific
player-generated white captions on the Region 2 release, whereas the
Region 1 version boasts the original optical prints of these captions
as they appeared in the film's original release. The Region 2/4 two-disc
release served as a basis for this review.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and
looks astonishing. The compression is very well done with the bit rate
constantly hovering around the 9Mb/s. As a result there's no low-level
noise or other distracting patterns in the transfer. The grain inherent
in the original picture is there, as is minor damage to the source material,
but this isn't too distracting and is the one thing that betrays its
origins as a relatively low-budget action flick. Colors and shadow detail
are very much improved from previous versions, resulting in a sharp
and detailed picture.
What puts this DVD edition into a league of its own is the newly mastered
Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Surround channels are perfectly integrated
with the front soundstage which has an amazing wide and deep presence.
The subwoofer is used to great effect in all action scenes and nothing
sounds distorted or compromised. You'd never believe this all came from
a mono source. It would have been a nice gesture to have included the
original mono mix as well, as it takes up relatively little disc space
and represents a nice addition - as well as a valuable comparison and
resource for audio purists.
The most important extra is the all-new documentary 'Other Voices'
which runs for 59 minutes and includes interviews with James Cameron (taken
from an older source), Gale Anne Hurd (producer), Bill Wisher (Cameron
Collaborator), Stan Winston (Make-up and Effects Creator), Gene Warren
Jr (Fantasy II VFX Supervisor), Arnold Schwarzenegger (from older source),
Linda Hamilton (from the same source as the T2 interview), Michael Biehn
(actor) and Brad Fiedel (Music Composer). All aspects of the production
are touched upon, from conception to its release in the theaters. It's
an excellent documentary that easily makes up for the lack of any audio
commentary on the first disc.
The featurette 'Terminator: A Retrospective' (18 minutes) dates
back to 1992 and has James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger talking together
informally about the movie and the days when they (*gulp*) still had to
drive themselves to the set (imagine that!). Cameron also provides
more background on the concepts he had in mind and the effect Schwarzenegger
had on the eventual outcome.
The 'Terminated Scenes' section consists of nearly 10 minutes of deleted
scenes, all of them in excellent (but non-anamorphic) widescreen quality.
All scenes are preceded by a short text introduction explaining what the
reason for the cut was. They mostly involve fleshing out of characters
but two of them were cut because of conflicting story lines (the seeds
for T2 were indeed already there). Good stuff.
The original theatrical trailers are of excellent quality and presented
in anamorphic widescreen, the TV spots are full-frame of course.
The
stills section has James Cameron's Original 1982 Treatment, various
artwork and illustrations by James Cameron, production photographs,
makeup effects (Stan Winston), visual effects and publicity
material. The first disc holds some excellent DVD-ROM material
(for once made available for both Windows and Macintosh users). This consists
of the Screenplay (4th Draft), the Original Treatment and the Final Shooting
Script. The final script is laid out in an especially nice way as you
can have the script on the right hand side of the screen while you watch
the corresponding scene in a small window on the left. This is very cool
and it reminds me of the similar feature on The Matrix DVD.
 3D
animated menus open both discs, slightly similar to those on T2: Ultimate
Edition DVD but moving outward from the CPU in the terminator's head
instead of inward from a more elaborate exterior. Music from the movie
is in the background with an endoskeleton head slowly rotating on the
screen with images and details from the movie incorporated in the menus.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Terminator .
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to return to the front page.
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