Movies That Changed My Life – October 2010
October 4, 2010 by Editor
Filed under Movies That Changed My Life
Movies That Changed My Life – October 2010
The Terminator (1984)
Written By: Ken Knight
Mondo Film & Video Guide Feature Contributor
Without a doubt one of the most revered and memorable sci-fi flick (next to STAR WARS) for anyone over the age of 12 who has caught it either at the theater back in ’84 (like I did) on Beta/VHS, DVD, or on TV since it’s October 1984 release. Panned as a
“B-movie” by critics at the time, I had to see THE TERMINATOR despite being just about 15 years of age needing one of my parents to buy the ticket for me and get me in to see the R-rated film.
I remember sitting in the dark theater when the movie began it’s darkly-attuned opening scene of “the future” where man was hunted by machines he built and being informed that the “final battle” wouldn’t be fought in 2029 but in OUR present, TONIGHT!
Then the arrival of “The Terminator” (Body-building champ Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Los Angeles to quickly get himself clothes and weapons while casually killing the humans in his way en route to wipe out every woman in the Los Angeles phone book with the name “Sarah Connor” because a Sarah Connor was the mother of the yet-to-be-born human resistance leader in the future, John Connor. Of course there is a hero sent back to protect her because the human resistance knew of the time-traveling Cyborg “Terminator” (Schwarzenegger) and so the one man who could make the trip was sent back via a time machine to stop the unstoppable Cyborg seeking a retroactive-abortion of the future human resistance leader who would eventually kick the machines’ metallic asses just 40 years later! Yes, as it’s said in the film: “One could go crazy thinking about this” but instead of going crazy over James Cameron’s hit storyline, I became enthralled by it and a Fan-For-Life of The Terminator films and TV series to come out later on.
I remember sitting there thinking the story was similar to “Frankenstein” in the sense that a creation born of mankind (this case autonomous machines and software) turned on its creator and wreaked havoc. I would later read that much like the author of “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley, James Cameron concocted the idea for THE TERMINATOR story after a vivid dream he had one night!
I was also smitten with the young and gorgeous Linda Hamilton after seeing her in THE TERMINATOR, the film that really launched her as an Actress so of course I had to go out and see her latter 80′s films just because she was in them, and yes…even the suck-ass flick KING KONG LIVES! Once the film came out on videotape and Cable TV in 1985, I watched it over and over again (losing count after 35) and my Dad would tease me about watching THE TERMINATOR so often that whenever I’d go downstairs to watch Cable TV on a Friday night he’d say “Watching The Terminator again?” jokingly.
With the world-renown lines such as “I’ll be back” and a universal recognition for Schwarzenegger as “The Terminator”, I daresay that this film is as enjoyed, celebrated, panned, and joked about as often (or perhaps more so) as STAR WARS.
*When I met one of my favorite Playboy(r) 1984 Playmates years ago, she told me that when she saw THE TERMINATOR in an L.A. theater back in ’84 and accepted a dare from a friend sitting beside her to strip off all her clothes and walk naked down the aisle then back to her seat, and she did it, claiming she got away with it because the movie was so “dark” no one saw her streaking down the aisle! (No, I won’t tell you her name just that she was a 1984 Centerfold Playmate hahaha)*.
I have fond memories of movie-going back in the 1980s and seeing THE TERMINATOR was one of them, not to mention watching it over and over again in my parents’ dark basement den those nights when my homework was done. It was and still is a film that has a dark appeal to it not just for it’s human-survival story but for it’s acting performances, stunts, and macabre sense of humor, not to mention the popularly-recited dream people report of having an unstoppable man or machine chasing them….so in that vein, I think “The Terminator” is almost a human subconscious entity that kinda haunts us, reminding the dreamer that he or she best not rest on their laurels for too long….there’s something out there that will not stop….ever…until you are…..well, whatever!
Ken Knight is a Feature Contributor here at The Mondo Film & Video Guide. He’s the author of several books including, The Midnight Show: Guy Flicks Of The 80′s, and the newly released zombie novel, Dirge. For more information on Ken, please visit the Mondo “About Us” section.
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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