The Terminator: Science Fiction Masterpiece or 80s Slasher Film?

A.J. Waters

Many a time in my years of being a film buff have I had to endure the friendly (though sometimes not so friendly) debate on what genre a film comes under. Though we live in an age where sub-genres are the new black and basics are somewhat old hat, we still seem keen to fit certain movies into a single genre. Is SAW a horror or a psychological thriller? Is Star Wars sci-fi or fantasy adventure? Is Melancholia a drama or just pretentious wank?

These debates, and hundreds just like them, continue to pop up in my life and I’ve decided that I want in! So I ask you, is The Terminator sci-fi, or just another 80s slasher? Now before we dive into it, I would just like to make it 100% clear that I am not trying to slag off this film by any means. No! I am a HUGE fan of The Terminator and I always will be, however…I present my point of view.

The Scream-Queen

Linda Hamilton plays the sweet and ditzy, down on her luck Sarah Connor. No husband, no kids, a job that she hates, and she lives with a lizard & her pet iguana. Also, like all of our favourite scream-queens, she shares a lot of their traits that make you wonder how they made it this far into the film: on the one hand she’s sweet and likeable, but she breathes way too loudly when she’s supposed to be hiding. What's more, she can’t run for shit, falls over all the time and of course, as the name suggests, she screams a lot.

The Antagonist

An unstoppable killing machine (quite literally in this case) that fits the bill for slasher films old and new. Who is he? Where did he come from? What is his story? What the fuck is his problem? These questions and more are the sorts of things we ask ourselves when we watch him carry out his deadly pursuit, killing everything in his path to get to our aforementioned scream-queen. But it’s not just that that puts him in the running for slasher baddies - Oh no, sir! You can bet your bottom dollar on that, me ol’ mucker! Let’s take a closer look shall we?

He’s a supernatural being, much like our friends Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th, The Candyman in (shockingly) The Candyman, Chucky in Child’s Play and more! What else does he share? Well, he also wears a mask. While it's not the conventional kind sported by such classic film nasties as Leatherface, Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, it is a mask all the same in the sense that it covers his true identity (living tissue over a metal endoskeleton).

The Supporting Male Hero Figure

If there is one thing a scream-queen needs to survive, it’s a strong male figure to let her know that it’s all going to be okay (it was the 80s, alright? It was a different time back then). Child’s Play had Detective Mike Norris, A Nightmare on Elm Street had Glen Lantz, The Burning had Todd, and The Terminator has Kyle Reese. Granted, our Kyle is hella more badass than the former, but there he is, fulfilling his duty by travelling through time to hold the hand of our leading lady (n’aww). Kyle Reese puts life and limb on the line to make sure she’s okay, but for some reason keeps getting slowed down by her insistent need to fall over every fifteen seconds (sound familiar?) only to have the roles reversed when he cops a boo-boo.

Those idiot cops who just won’t believe our hero’s story

If there’s one thing a good slasher loves it’s a skeptical cop, and this bad boy has two of the bastards! Our heroine will turn on the waterworks and try her damnedest to convince our boys in blue that something is trying to kill them, whether that thing be a cyborg from the future, a serial killer reincarnated as a doll, a paedophile in a stripy jumper (though that last one isn’t too far-fetched), or if it really is just the Boogeyman. Don't forget of course that there’s that dreaded line that they all use: “You have to believe me.”

The “the bad guy is dead lol jk not really” routine

Slasher films *love* making us believe that our leading lady, despite her misery and turmoil, has finally prevailed and come out on top. She did it! She killed the bad guy and now she can live happily ever after! However, just as she begins to relax with heavy breathing and exhaustion, the antagonist jumps out of nowhere and shouts “surprise, cockfags!” and grabs her or emerges from the background or leaves some sort of hint that that shit ain’t over until it’s over, ya heard? The ‘false sense of security’ tactic is about as overused as the ‘per animal jump scare’, but hey, whatever works.

So there we have it folks. Stacked up side-by-side, we may have another horror contender in our midst and it was right under our noses this whole time. You may even find more similarities yourself! Of course, you are in no way inclined to agree with me, it’s just one fan’s interpretation of one of the greatest films of our generation. But it never hurts to have a fresh view on a classic that so many of us hold dear. What do you think?

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Well, what do you think folks? Is The Terminator sci-fi, slasher or does it not matter as long as we're all having a good time? Let us know in the comments below! Don't forget, if you like the cut of Mr Waters' gib, you can find his works at the links below. E14 encourages you to give his stuff a go!

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The Crazy Train! Episode 37 - "Rob's Renumie-numies!"

On Episode 37 of The Crazy Train:

• We talk briefly about Christmas
• Our conversation turns into a general conversation about gift-giving and vouchers
• Rob shares a bit of fun about the last episode
• We talk briefly about New Year
• Rob tells a story about a recent incident with his dad
• Brad tells a first-aid story
• Rob asks a question of the cast (not from the mailbag, just out of interest)
• Rob shares something he was doing to mess with Blake
• From the mailbag: If you could choose any job from fiction, what would you be and why?
• Blake reveals his life goal
• It all devolves into silliness

Starring: Rob Wade, Blake Harmer, Brad Harmer-Barnes, Sour Crouch.

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What Do You Mean You Hate Revenge Of The Sith?

At the beginning of January, I was featured indirectly on the excellent Talk Star Wars Podcast, where they read out one of my fan letters and posed my fan question to the cast, of whom I am a fan. With me so far? Fantastic. Sorry, last one, I promise. As a podcast host myself, I was pleased to see a group that engaged with their fans like that, especially being so kind about my question and giving it a good answer.

One thing they also did, to my amusement, was give me a good old-fashioned ribbing about my ranking of the Star Wars series, in particular the movie that occupies my second place position. For reference, my ordering goes thusly, from favourite to least favourite:

5, 3, 6, 4, 7, 1, 2.

So defensive was I about my enjoyment of Revenge of the Sith (your guess is as good as mine as to why I felt so defensive of my own preferences, but those are my issues to deal with) that I half-jokingly offered to break out the writing gear and pen a short piece explaining what it is I enjoy about the movie. However, the fine chaps at Talk Star Wars were kind enough to offer to host it once done, so I thought it would be a fun exercise in articulating my point of view on the movie. Obviously, being able to watch one of my favourites is always a plus as well (which goes for all the movies in the Star Wars series, by the way).

Let me start by saying that my objective here is not necessarily to change your point of view on Revenge of the Sith. If there's one thing I try to respect above all others, it's the right to hold differing opinions, as it's one of the things that makes life so interesting. Imagine the dreariness of a world where everyone agreed on everything all the time. The objective here is a simple one really: best case scenario, I hope to give you insight into what gives me joy when watching a movie, and demonstrate what it is about Revenge that elevates it in my mind. Worst case scenario, you'll read it, not agree with any, and nobody's the worse off for the experience. With that said, "this is where the fun begins".

Now, I'll happily admit that there are no perfect movies, and that even Empire has bits about it that I'm not wild about, though a much shorter list than Attack of the Clones. It's no surprise, then, that I am conscious of some of the complaints around the movie. What's more, even if I might not agree with them or dislike them to the same degree as others, I do see the arguments. For instance, I've heard it said that the CGI use overall in the prequels is excessive, and on that point I agree. Whether for cost reasons or the sake of ease, there are points in the prequel trilogy where the CGI feels unnecessary.

However, of the three prequels, my feeling is that Revenge does at least make use of it to deliver some stunning visuals, particularly the various planets visited over the course of the movie. From the extreme climate of Mustafar (putting it mildly!) to the stunning colour palettes of Felucia, there are some beautiful locations with immense scale in the movie. I get that if someone is violently opposed to the CGI, things like this could become lost in the mix, but this is certainly something I noticed on what I would call my "verification" watch while assembling this piece.

That said, I didn't take this opportunity purely to point out that the film has moments where it's awful purdy. My core reasoning behind my enjoyment of Revenge of the Sith is that it has some wonderful subtleties. Now, in some minds there, I can almost hear the squeal of the brakes on the mental train. "Subtlety?! From the movie that brought us 'Noooooooooooo'?!"

I get what you're saying. That line, while it sort of fits with Anakin's character over the prequels, doesn't really fit the ultimate badass Darth Vader we'd come to know and love, who doesn't laugh once in the entire original trilogy by the way. He makes a joke, but to the corpse of a bloke he's just killed with his mind. But I digress. The subtlety portrayed in the movie is what drives it for me. It's a movie about the struggles of Anakin Skywalker to reconcile what he has always come to believe (that the Jedi are just and pure), and what he is being told (that there is a way to save his wife which the Jedi will not teach him). Indeed, it should be pointed out that Anakin falls to the Dark Side out of desperation for the one he loves, not purely for the purposes of possessing power for power's sake. That's kind of cool, if you ask me, but mileage may vary.

The movie seeds this really early on, with Anakin's struggles to reconcile what he should do with what he must. He feels he *should* go back and save the Clone ships from Buzz droids, but he can't because he *must* reach the ship and rescue the Chancellor. What's great about the opening bit is that we start to see certain things bleeding through. Palpatine lets just the slightest hint of Sidious creep in when telling Anakin to kill Count Dooku to help end the war, which is audible in his voice when he growls "Do it!" Anakin obeys but backpedals on reflection because he knows that what he has just done isn't what he *should* do. There's a lot to like about the scene in general really, as the lightsaber battle between Anakin and Dooku is short and sweet, and shows just the slightest hint of anger and Dark Side energy working its way into Anakin's style as Dooku taunts him.

This subtle manipulation of Anakin by Darth Sidious is a key point throughout, and this movie does a wonderful job of showing just what a devious and indeed insidious (clever how they did that, eh?) Palpatine/Sidious is capable of being, with him constantly working in secrecy to unsettle Anakin's faith in the Jedi Order. He'll only speak of Darth Plagueis when they're alone. He'll only talk of offering Dark Side teachings when they're alone. What's more, he only reveals all the cards when he knows that Anakin has nowhere else to turn, and when he can strike. The smile alone makes the scene, but the dialogue, with the way he softly-softly implores Anakin to use his teachings and save his wife is superb.

Besides, it's not difficult to see why he is capable of succeeding, either, as in this prequel trilogy we see another side to the Jedi than the pure heroism of the original trilogy. We see a more dogmatic, rigid, stricter code of ethics to the Jedi. Yoda flat-out tells Anakin that the solution to his troubling visions of someone close to him dying is to learn not to fear loss. So much perfectly reasonable human reaction is a path to the Dark Side, and one could argue that if you have to start training them that young, you might be indoctrinating them. When you have one side offering that as a solution, it's not hard to see why "I can probably sort it, if you're willing to learn" became such an attractive prospect!

The movie, though, does a great job of showing Anakin being pulled from pillar to post by everyone from the Jedi, to Sidious, to even his loving wife. Here's another thing, and this might be the most contested thing you read in this piece, so consider yourself warned. Although Hayden Christensen's acting is often derided over the course of the prequels, I think it's fair to say that a lot of the issues center around the dialogue. A lot of the facial expressions are sufficiently well done to convey emotion, but then accompanied by a clunky line they can lose a certain lustre. However much easier it is to believe that a crappy line in a movie is down to poor delivery, often the line itself can be equally restrictive for an actor. Name one actor who could make lines about his distaste for the texture of sand a non-stop thrill ride. Maybe Di Caprio at a push, but he made his decision and we have to respect that.

And in the end, the longest lightsaber battle in the history of Star Wars is, in many ways, one of the most important (second, in my eyes, only to the second Luke/Vader battle on board the second Death Star). Throughout this movie, Lucas gives us plenty of evidence that Obi-Wan and Anakin have become accustomed to working together as a team when out on missions for the Jedi Council. From the earliest entrance of the characters in the film, flying in tandem to the capital ship followed by their tag-team destruction of several battle droids with minimal effort, the clear indication is that the pair is an effective team. What's more, some of Anakin's angst is caused by wanting to support Obi-Wan on his campaign to flush out and destroy General Grievous (who I'll concede, much like Boba Fett and Captain Phasma, is a cool-looking character that doesn't really get a lot of use).

One of the great things about the lightsaber battle is that there are a number of occasions where you can see the two engage in similar, if not identical, move patterns. To me, this battle feels like a fight between two powerful warriors, both of whom know each other inside out. As a result, they both look for openings in the other's patterns only to find that aside from environmental factors, there are none. However, the best part for me is the climax of the battle. Obi-Wan's experience gives him the upper hand in the duel, but Anakin's impetuous arrogance results in him coming off significantly worse than he would've had he just licked his wounds and come back stronger next time. At this point, it seems like all the adrenaline drains from Obi-Wan and he is faced with the reality of what has happened. He then delivers his wonderfully emotive speech, a speech full of despair and anguish at the fate of the galaxy. If only someone could've told him it'd work out in the end, eh? Well, not for him, but he strikes me as a "greater good" kind of chap.

So there you have it. Those are my reasons, and for these reasons I consider Episode III to be a stronger film than others might think. If reading any of these points that have changed your mind on the film, or made you want to watch it again to see if you see what I enjoy from the movie, then that's awesome. If not...Well then, you are lost! Nah, just kidding. Each to their own and all that. Thanks for reading.