The Terminator (Special Edition) [DVD] Region 2 Review

Original DVD Release Date: 19 March 2001

Special Features: “The Terminator: A Retrospective” Documentary; “Other Voices” Documentary; “Terminated Scenes” With James Cameron Audio Commentary; Original Treatment; Stills Galleries; Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots; Hidden Menu Features; DVD-ROM Materials; Collectible Booklet.

“Listen and understand. The Terminator is out there. It cannot be bargained with. It cannot be reasoned with. It does not feel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop- ever! Until you are dead.”

Most people are fans of the Terminator. Who wouldn’t be? It has a little something for every viewer; for the blokes it’s the edge of your seat- white knuckled- joy ride filled with explosions, car chases and shootouts. For the more genteel viewer it’s the age old story of love and sacrifice- one man traveling back in time to save the life of the woman he loves. The plot is pretty simple; a Cyborg is sent back through time to exterminate the mother of his greatest enemy. Thus preventing the birth of a resistance that would bring about a future found undesirable by the machines. But the machine’s enemy sends a protector back to rescue his mother, initiating a race against time to see who will get to her first. All in all a great film- end of.
This isn’t the first time the Terminator has been released on DVD, as a movie only disc from Image Entertainment. But now MGM has decided to release a fully loaded special edition. And this disc will blow you away motherf*cker. I’m not saying it’s perfect, by no means, but I have to say it may be the perfect DVD for this film. Firstly, the video quality is superb, though the Terminator was made on a very low budget, B-grade Sci-Fi flick, thrown out by some wide-eyed wannabes with a fistful of hope, a head full of dreams and the tentative backing of some money men, even then only giving T1 a budget of 6 million dollars, with sequels T2 (92 million) and T3 (200 million) dollar budgets. Innovative ideas and tremendous imagination went into this film and you can see it in every scene, hear it in every line. But the Terminator was never the most technically or aesthetically advanced film ever made. Though somehow with this new super deluxe Hi-Def transfer, MGM has managed to fix most of the problems nicely. Effectively making it look as though it could have been produced in an indy studio yesterday.
There are no unwanted relics, or even a hint of edginess to be seen in this anamorphic widescreen transfer. The trademark cold blue hues of Cameron’s lighting are in full mouth-watering force and beautiful to the eye. The Terminator has never looked this good, and I truly mean that. I doubt even the original print of this movie could match up.

The sound is also of notable improvement. Well, that is to say the Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track is pretty smooth. Based on comments made by disc producer Van Ling, at the DVD panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, Brad Fiedel went back into the studio and re-orchestrated some of the track for the new mix. For the most part the sound track is rather vibrant. It doesn’t have as much of a kick to it as it could do, but the sounds are spatial and scattered which plays nicely in the surrounds. It manages to maintain the character of the original whilst breathing fresh air into a classic track.

A film like the Terminator has to have history and thankfully, this DVD presents it to the viewer like a buffet for the faithful with a veritable Aladdin’s cave of extras for your money.

There are seven deleted scenes included here in surprising quality, which won’t necessarily add anything to your viewing experience, but they’re significant because they feature an optional commentary by James Cameron- a first for any writer/director. All of this will have you enthralled and when you eventually finish with that you can wrap it up by reading Cameron’s original story treatment for the film, it shows that he had a firm grasp on the progress of the story from the very beginning. The Terminator is a must have for any DVD library. For fans of the film There’s a lot of nutritional value here- plenty to get your teeth into. The overall quality of both sound and video is great and as a lone metal assassin once said: “I’ll be back” How right he was.