For these writers, not only did Schwarzenegger’s lack of dialogue work in his favor - the half-serious guesses at his number of actual lines range from eight to a dozen to 16-plus - they also allowed audiences to focus on his gifts as a physical performer. “It is a monument to Schwarzenegger’s acting,” O’Connor wrote, “that the metal wires are more eloquent than him.” When he finally circled back to Schwarzenegger as a performer, he was less than charitable. Similarly, Bill O’Connor of the Akron Beacon Journal spent a total of eight paragraphs dissecting Schwarzenegger’s star power - including a curious departure on his appeal within the gay community - before he offered a single word of analysis of the film. “Protected by the impenetrable thickness of his accent,” Ryan wrote, “Schwarzenneger cannot be stopped by bullets … it is the kind of nonsense that cries out for the summary termination of his career in movies.” Some, like The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Desmond Ryan, felt that The Terminator served as the final word on Schwarzenneger’s acting career. This background made him something of a polarizing choice for the movie. By 1984, Schwarzenegger had a small selection of acting credits to his name, none as influential as his two Conan the Barbarian films. While Cameron’s classic has long-since earned its place as a landmark science fiction film, the initial reviews were also fairly favorable if we were to apply the T-Meter specifications to that day and age, a cross-section of 26 reviews - ranging from Oregon newspapers to publications like The New York Times - places the film at a respectable 69%.įor many critics, the most significant talking point in the film - literally and metaphorically - was the performance of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the cyborg killer. The Terminator landed in more than a thousand theaters on October 26, 1984, and quickly shot to the top of the box office. With Alita: Battle Angelin theaters this weekend and James Cameron dominating headlines as only he can, this week we look at some of the original reviews for The Terminator to see how contemporary critics accepted the madcap adventures of a time-traveling robot. These reviews are fascinating historical objects, shining a light on both the audiences of these publications and the public perception of films and their stars. Those few reviews dated pre-2000 are often tied to the output of an individual critic (Roger Ebert probably) or connected to a newspaper that has the resources to create a digital archive.īack in the heyday of American newspapers, countless trips to the multiplex were informed by a paper’s local critic, someone who - either by aptitude or availability - had been named to the film beat. Look no further than a site like RottenTomatoes even if you ignore the standard arguments about the site’s binary output, most of the reviews referenced on the site date back a decade or two.
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