Movie Review: The Terminator (1984)

“Listen. And understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.” – Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn)

Director: James Cameron

Writers: James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd, William Wisher (additional dialogue), Harlan Ellison (The Outer Limits teleplays "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand")

Producers: John Daly, Derek Gibson and Gale Ann Hurd

Studio: Orion Pictures (later bought by MGM in 1998)

Major Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen

This (along with Aliens) is the movie that forgives Cameron all his subsequent hubris. Filmed on a shoestring budget of just $6.4 million, The Terminator became a sleeper hit and then exploded into the insane mega-franchise we know today. Oh, and it helped that Schwarzenegger fellow really launch his career.

No one saw this film coming. In 1984 the big buzz was about movies like Ghostbusters, Star Trek III and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Then in late October this movie about an unstoppable robot killer from the future hit the screens. And would my parents (i.e. mom) let me see it? No. Apparently killer robots are too intense for a 12-year-old. So I would have to wait until it came out on VHS in 1985 and I could cajole my dad into renting it.

It blew me the Hell away. And the more I watched it in years to come, it still blew me away. It’s this perfect little story but with the action and tension of a much larger film. You’re dealing with the salvation of the human race, but remain focused on just three characters.

It’s hard to picture now, what with two (increasingly larger) sequels, then Terminator: Salvation and now Terminator: Genesis will happen in 2015. But at the time, The Terminator was unlike anything else anyone had seen on a movie screen. Unless you count the Harlan Ellison Outer Limits stories which Cameron unwisely mentioned as inspiring him. Ellison jumped all over him and got a retroactive credit.

For me the iconic scene of The Terminator character isn’t the massacre at the police station, his impromptu eye surgery or even the final scene in the factory. It’s when that child’s toy gets crushed and you see the cyborg begin his methodical killing of everyone named Sarah Connor. It drives home that this relentless machine cares about only one thing and would torch the world if that is what it took for him to complete his assignment.

Why Accuracy Matters When Talking About Cultural Problems

How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like “Neighbors” and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of “sex and fun and pleasure”? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, “It’s not fair”?

- Ann Hornaday, Washington Post Film Critic: In a final videotaped message, a sad reflection of the sexist stories we so often see on screen

In the wake of the mass killing committed by Elliot Rodger at UC - Santa Barbara, there has been a focus on three things.

1. The availability of firearms to anyone and the death that results
2. Mental illness and this country's seeming unwillingness to properly deal with it
3. A cultural reinforcement of misogynistic thought that dehumanizes women

The face of what happens when mental illness, misogyny and easy access to firearms intersect

I am not going to argue any of those points, because I think they are all accurate. Nor am I going to argue with Ms. Hornaday's overall point:

If our cinematic grammar is one of violence, sexual conquest and macho swagger — thanks to male studio executives who green-light projects according to their own pathetic predilections — no one should be surprised when those impulses take luridly literal form in the culture at large.

The cold truth is that our culture does dehumanize women into objects that are "rewards" for the "nice guy". Look at a classic movie like "Say Anything". Lloyd Dobler is a borderline stalker in real-life. But in a movie he shows that persistence and never taking "no" for an answer will get you a girlfriend. Over and over the message that "nice guys get the girl" is pounded into our heads.

So what happens in real life when the girl says "no" to the "nice guy"?

A lot of times...nothing. A majority of men are not predatory misogynists who see women as objects or rewards. They are human beings with good points and bad points, ups and downs... and they know something important. Something Elliot Rodger never quite understood.

Life owes you nothing. Women owe you nothing. No one owes you anything. And a majority of men get that.

But there is a sizable minority of men who don't understand that. Who see women as rewards. Who desire women, are scared that women have that power (in their minds) over them and then hate them for making them scared. This is where rape finds it's genesis, where the burqa was born, where mentally ill animals like Elliot Rodger find their justification for violence. It's why the most dangerous thing on this planet to women ... is men.

And this has to be confronted and addressed. This isn't blaming media for violence or saying that video games/movies cause mass killings. It's saying that the messages we communicate in our culture, regardless of the medium, can create ideas and beliefs that are dangerous and that can find root in a sizable minority of the population.

Donavan Left Off of U.S. World Cup Roster

Klinsmann had better know what he's doing

Well, I guess it doesn't get much more blunt than that, does it?

The decision by Jurgen Klinsmann to leave Landon Donovan at home for the 2014 World Cup caught most everyone by surprise. The second-most capped player in US Men's National Team history, the general consensus was than Donovan would be on the squad.

After all, Donovan has scored 57 goals for the US side. The next closest active player is Clint Dempsey with 36. Donovan's 57 assists are also the most for any US player.He has been in the past three World Cups. It seems it would be a no-brainer for Donovan to be on the team.

Instead, Donovan will watch the World Cup on television while Aron Johannsson will try to justify Klinsmann's decision.

Donovan could be looking back on the end of a great national career

Johannsson, who plays for AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch Eredivisie, is an American by fortune of being born in Mobile, Alabama to Icelandic parents. He moved back to Iceland at age 3. Since then he has developed into quite a solid player. He scored 17 goals for AZ in the 2013-14 season. He is also 23 years old and I think that played a big role in Klinsmann's decision.

The United States has an absolutely brutal schedule at the World Cup. First off, they have to play Germany (one of the best sides in the world), Portugal (has the best player in the world) and Ghana (has beaten the US in the last two World Cups) in the group stage. That is hard enough.

The travel makes it worse. The US team will have to travel from Natal to Manaus to Recife over a 10 day period. Recife and Natal are on the northern Brazilian coast, not too far from one another. Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. The distance between Natal and Manaus is a little over 4,600 kilometers, or 2,900 miles. The distance from Manaus to Recife is about the same.

It's like flying across the US twice in less than 10 days. Except you have to play three games of soccer. And one of those games is in the middle of a sweltering, humid rain forest. The average daytime temperature in Manaus in June approaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit, along with extreme humidity.

Republicans' New Target: Kids

Politics is a bloodsport. Anyone who thinks otherwise really hasn't been paying attention. But you'd like to think there were some limits. Kids, for instance. You'd like to think that targeting children in bills would be off-limits. Because, you know, they're kids.

Well, don't fool yourself. GOP members in the House, known for their high-levels of assholery to begin with, have reached new heights of being assholes.

I'm not sure why this isn't a bigger deal. I hadn't heard about it other than in this brief passage tucked away in a Politico article about the House GOP agriculture bill. But it takes a small program intended provide meals to children in the school lunch program during the summer months and says it can now only be used to benefit kids in "rural areas".

This is a program that dovetails off of the "Head Start" programs that help to make sure that kids get breakfast and lunch at school if they qualify. Because kids going hungry is not only morally repugnant, but it negatively impacts their ability to learn. This program simply makes sure that these kids eat in the summer as well. This should be pretty non-controversial. But no one should be surprised that the Republicans have decided to make it very controversial indeed.

So why should only "rural" kids benefit from this program? I am sure that Republicans have some wonderfully vague and nondescript talking points. But here are the real reasons:

1. Rural kids live in rural families in rural areas that tend to vote Republican. Urban kids live in urban families in urban areas that tend to vote Democratic.
2. Rural families tend to be white. Urban families tend to be non-white.

Sorry kid, but giving you lunch is a step too far for the GOP

Argue all you want against those two statements. But at the end of the day, it fits with the way the modern Republican Party works.

And here is a bonus reason. The reason the Republican party gets poor white people to vote against their best interests and voting Republican is by using coded racist language and appeals to racial fears (e.g. immigration). Had the Republicans killed funding for this altogether, then poor whites and non-whites alike would have a common reason to attack the Republican Party. And the last thing they ever want is poor people, regardless of race or ethnicity, coming together in common cause.

So, you "divide and conquer". They write-in the program for poor, white rural families and cast urban residents to the side. The divide is kept intact. And, when someone inevitably points out that this is bullshit and urban kids count too, the Republicans can talk about immigrants and/or the lazy poor getting "your" benefits. Which reinforces the white/non-white divide in the lower class.

When Jesus said "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me", he didn't mean "make them suffer". Someone should clue the GOP into that.

Another "Just Kidding" Moment About Racism on Fox

Unless you just popped in from Mars (greetings and salutations if you have), then you must be aware of the kerfuffle over Megyn Kelly at Fox News saying that of course Santa Claus and Jesus are white and you'd be crazy to suggest otherwise. This was in response to an article at Slate.com by Aisha Harris that argues having only white Santas perpetuates a "white-as-default" culture that can have a negative effect on non-white families.

Now, as a white guy, I have never given this much thought. Which is at the same time the benefit of being a white male in current-day America and the curse of being completely clueless about how other people perceive what we may consider "normal". The goal is to recognize that what I experience in this country is not what most people experience, and to be empathetic and to try and see things from other points of view. I really sucked at this when I was younger but I like to think I have gotten better at this as I have aged. Which is the long way of saying that Ms. Harris has a completely legitimate point. And while she couched it in a tongue-in-cheek suggestion we turn our symbol of Christmas into a penguin, it's a point worth looking at and discussing.

Unless you are on Fox. Enter Megyn Kelly:

"By the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa. Santa is what he is and just so you know, we are debating this because someone wrote about it, kids."

....

"Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change...Jesus was a white man, too. He was a historical figure. That's a verifiable fact -- as is Santa. I just want the kids watching to know that. My point is, how do you just revise it in the middle of the legacy of the story and change Santa from white to black?"

As Jesus himself said, "Suffer little children to come unto me...so that I may use them to shield my blatant racism." Or something like that.