James Cameron has gifted viewers with some of the best cinematic experiences. Therefore it is unsurprising when he looks back at his old work and finds an error. ‘The Terminator’ director, cannot help feeling parts of his 1984 were “pretty cringeworthy”. Cameron launched Arnold Schwarzenegger in his acting debut as the cyborg assassin, T-800 sent from the future.
‘The Terminator’ was widely appreciated for its new thriller concept and was a treat for the viewers who loved gun-firing action. However, every idea does not age well with time, and the Canadian filmmaker has a different perspective on the film than he did four decades ago. Nonetheless, the film remains a groundbreaking science-fiction that sprouted six franchise films.
“I Was Just A Punk Starting Out”: ‘The Terminator Was James Cameron’s First Directing Gig
James Cameron remembered his Terminator days as the film completed forty years. Talking to Empire the filmmaker said, “I was just a punk starting out when I directed The Terminator. I think I was 29 at the time, and it was my first directing gig. Terminator was my first film and it’s near and dear for that reason.” However, Cameron does not blindly put his directional debut on a pedestal.
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“I don’t think of it as some Holy Grail, that’s for sure,” he said. “ I look at it now and there are parts of it that are pretty cringeworthy, and parts of it that are like, ‘Yeah, we did pretty well for the resources we had available.’ Just the production value, you know?“
The budget for ‘The Terminator’ at the time was $6.4 million. Hence, the technology used could not perfectly execute the filmmaker’s vision of sci-fi. Arnold’s dummy scene, for instance, would be found “cringeworthy” today.
“I Don’t Cringe On Any Of The Dialogue“: Cameron Defends The Terminator’s Dialogues
James Cameron stated that according to the budget at the time they exceeded their expectations in executing their vision for ‘The Terminator’. “Sometimes, when you look back from the vantage point — at this point 40 years — we could have made a great little film from a production-value standpoint, and it would have been nothing if we hadn’t made that one decision that captured the imagination of people,” he said.
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Apart from some scenes, Cameron does not find fault with his dialogues. He said, “I don’t cringe on any of the dialogue, but I have a lower cringe factor than, apparently, a lot of people do around the dialogue that I write.” The celebrated fimmaker added, “You know what? Let me see your three-out-of-the-four-highest-grossing films — then we’ll talk about dialogue effectiveness.“
Cameron has directed three out of four of the biggest grossing films, including ‘Titanic‘ (1997), ‘Avatar‘ (2009), and ‘Avatar: Way of The Water’ (2022).
