James Cameron reveals why he finds ‘The Terminator’ production value ‘cringeworthy’

Los Angeles, Sep 20 (IANS) Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron has given an honest review of his 1984 movie “The Terminator”, which marks his 40 years as a director, and said that the movie’s production value was “pretty cringeworthy.”

“I don’t think of it as some Holy Grail, that’s for sure. 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’,” Cameron told Empire magazine.

Cameron added: “Just the production value, you know? 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,”

“You know what? Let me see your three-out-of-the-four-highest-grossing films — then we’ll talk about dialogue effectiveness.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer “The Terminator” grossed more than $78 million worldwide when it was released in 1984, reports deadline.com.

“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,” said Cameron. “Terminator was my first film, and it’s near and dear for that reason.”

Ever since it was released, the film has since launched a franchise consisting of multiple installments and television series.

The science-fiction action film had Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill the character Sarah Connor, a waitress, whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic future.

Michael Biehn played the role of Kyle Reese, a soldier, who is sent back in time to protect Sarah. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and Hurd, while co-writer William Wisher Jr. received an “additional dialogue” credit.

–IANS

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