Other Voices: Creating 'The Terminator' (2001) (V)

Director:

Van Ling

Genre:

Documentary | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Many cast and crew interviews cue us in on the making of the film Terminator, The (1984). From James...

Plot Keywords:

Interview | Film Making | Making Of | Behind The Scenes | The Terminator

Cast

James Cameron	...	Himself
William Wisher Jr.	...	Himself (as Bill Wisher)
Stan Winston	...	Himself
Gene Warren Jr.	...	Himself
Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Himself
Linda Hamilton	...	Herself
Gale Anne Hurd	...	Herself
Michael Biehn	...	Himself
Joe Viskocil	...	Himself
Mark Goldblatt	...	Himself
Brad Fiedel	...	Himself
Christopher Warren	...	Himself

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

MGM Home Entertainment

Trivia:

This making-of is featured on the Special Edition DVD of The Terminator (1984).

Movie Connections:

References The War of the Worlds (1953)

Interesting look back.

I get the feeling that this retrospective documentary was made as a TV spot in response to the tremendous success of Terminator 2, which was released the year before this documentary was made. As is almost always the case with these making-of or retrospective documentaries that often accompany movies on DVD, this one has garnered a ridiculously and inexplicably low user rating on the IMDb. Once again, here is a documentary that is vastly superior to the rating that people have given it on this site.

Whenever I rate one of these documentaries, because they vary so much in their subject matter, I always try to concentrate mostly on whether or not it succeeds in delivering what it sets out to deliver, especially according to the title. What I can't stand is when someone makes a documentary and then gives it a clever sounding title that ends up having almost nothing to do with what is actually in it (see "Making the Earth Stand Still").

This one is exactly what it claims to be, a documentary about the creation of the Terminator, the distinction from "making" the Terminator being that this is not about the making of the movie as much as it is about the conceptualization of the character and some of the things that Arnold and James Cameron discussed during production as far as who the Terminator should be and how he should act.

James Cameron came up with the idea of the Terminator while he was down with the sickness in a Rome hotel room, so he was able to relate to Reese and the Terminator being in a foreign environment since they were from the future. They both tell some pretty interesting stories about production, such as the fact that the hardest thing for Arnold was not any of the extensive stunt work but the few scenes where he had acid poured over him so that he would be smoking, as well as the fact that the production offices wanted more of the movie to take place at night to save money on shooting, but Cameron held out because he thought it was important for the style of the movie that it take place mostly at night. Good thing, too!

All in all this is a very interesting documentary , even though it is simply made. All it really is is a conversation between Cameron and Arnold as they talk about the movie and their experiences involved with it, with various clips from the film edited in to complement what they are talking about. I am always suspicious of supplemental documentaries that include too much footage from the movie you just finished watching, but they are provided in a very complementary way in this documentary. Arnold and Cameron are talking about the production of the concept of the movie just as much as the shooting process itself, so it's not a problem that there is no behind-the-scenes footage. Very informative and interesting.