Happy Birthday to 1984’s ‘The Terminator’!
Today is the date that the movie premiered back in 1984, and it was released at 1,005 theaters, grossing 4 million dollars in a week – making it top of the box office.
Yesterday was also the birthday of T1 and T2 Producer Gale Anne Hurd and today is the birthday of THE TERMINATOR (1984)!
While subsequent sequels always aimed for the summer July weekend market the first movie turned up just around Halloween (which is the perfect time to release an actual Terminator movie) because the majority of the very first Terminator fans technically expected this to be the next big mindless must-see horror/slasher movie but they were in for a real treat, the movie would be more than a mindless sci-fi horror it would have intellect and class, heart and soul. “The Terminator” IS a great cinematic horror icon in itself through pure genius character creation and practical effects.
The Terminator would become even more of a success on the home video market, popularity would continue to rise and the demand for a sequel became greater and the phenomenal success of Terminator 2 proved one thing… people fucking loved THE TERMINATOR and wanted more.
1984’s The Terminator is a work of art. Jim Cameron was fucking hungry, he had an axe to grind and The Terminator was sick in an extremely good way. Arnold Schwarzenegger performed the role of The Terminator perfectly and still, to this day, it is the best and most memorable performance of his entire career and his most fondly remembered character regardless of its evil programming.
The Terminator wasn’t your average horror franchise the spin was that he wasn’t human; it isn’t just some deranged mad man or a supernatural adversary but instead a machine;- made by mankind’s own hands, and between Jim Cameron, Stan Winston (and his excellent team) and Make-Up Artist Jeff Dawn- Arnold Schwarzenegger became transformed into the ultimate villain and the ultimate weapon at the same time THE TERMINATOR.
Like many Jim Cameron films The Terminator is Romeo and Juliet but on heroin, dirty stinking downtown used needle filled back alleys, seedy nightclubs, assassinations, carnage, chases galore and it barely lets you come back up for air… Everyone in the movie was perfectly cast.
The Terminator is Terminator in its purest and most honest form; whether we will see that from this franchise again is questionable even though we have spent years trying to voice the need for an R Rating to retain integrity, the market has been changing for some time and Hollywood got set in their ways of product marketing and not movie making… One good thing the internet has done is give fans a voice now- meaning Hollywood really does need to come up with the goods for positive word of mouth to spread about their fantastic movie project or prepare for the pitchforks and angry internet tirades… but beware an honest opinion will be termed as naysaying by the corporate voice and its echoes. Experience the backlash while it matters for the agenda.
The new wave of Rated R popularity continues and the Terminator franchise needs to get on board- can we catch the next available wave and make a real Terminator film with the original creators once again?