Look's Like There's A Storm Coming In

On This Day In History
1934: Federal prisoners land on Alcatraz

Quote Of The Day
"From 1934 to 1963, the biggest criminals in America ended up on Alcatraz. Nowadays they end up on Wall Street."
(Craig Ferguson)

In 1985, I went to see a film that changed my life. That film was The Terminator. I can clearly remember how I was still buzzing from watching that film for several days afterwards, replaying those adrenalin charged action scenes in my head. I watched it quite a few times on DVD afterwards, but seeing it on TV was not the same as watching it at the cinema.

This morning, 36 years later, I went to see The Terminator at the cinema. I was delighted to discover that Lucasfilm had enhanced the audio with their THX sound system, so the impact was even more powerful than when I saw the film originally. (My only disappointment when I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey at the cinema a couple of weeks ago was that the soundtrack lacked the separation and space of contemporary films. I wish Lucasfilm could have applied THX sound to 2001.)

Brad Fiedl's music in THX sound; magnificent! Lasers, explosions, machine guns, rifles, heavy machinery; staggering. But most of all, what I appreciated more than ever before was the incredible performance of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. She truly lived that role. Her terror and her vulnerability when she is being hunted by what at first appears to be two crazed killers. Her grief upon learning that her housemate has been murdered.The broad range of thoughts and emotions that broadcast on her face when Kyle Reese informs her of the impending nuclear holocaust. The empathy she feels for Reese as he describes his loneliness in the future, and the increasing confidence and strength she gains as she learns to be a soldier by Reese's side. All those feelings are quite palpable. Little wonder, then, that the tree Terminator films in which Linda Hamilton stars are the only three that I can really regard as canon. I must say, though, that Michael Biehn was also intense as Kyle Reese, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was, well, a megastar.

Another thing which gave this film additional emotional impact since the first viewing was knowing how many times scenes like The Terminator massacring people in the nightclub and the police station have since played out in real life. It’s a tragic, “I told you so,” kind of feeling.

I shed a tear with that final line, "Looks like there's a storm coming in." We know what fate is approaching Sarah Connor; it is dark, tragic and terrifying. I feel for her.

Here is an awesome cover of Brad Fiedl's epic Terminator Theme.

The image is a portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator that I drew a couple of years ago.