© 2010 Nick Zegarac
The Terminator, T2: Judgment Day, The Godfather Trilogy (Blu-Ray)
In the days before real life looming apocalypses of global warming, terrorism and the end of days circa 2012 took their place of central importance in the North American pop landscape, Hollywood occasionally found it quite fashionable to ravage theatre audiences with "what if" projections of futurism run amuck that cursed the human race to near extinction. Of these like-minded scenarios, director James Cameron's The Terminator (1984) was - at least for a time - certainly the most depressingly creative.
As scripted by Cameron, Gail Anne Hurd and William Wisher Jr., the tale of a post-apocalyptic 2029, when artificial intelligence has sought to obliterate mankind from the earth, seemed quaintly compelling and yet totally unrealistic. After all, these were the days before either the "thinking computer" or the Internet: two technological advancements that ironically have brought us closer to The Terminator's vision of tomorrow.
In the battle for survival, the humans have a small chance at defeating the machines, prompting the latter to send back through time to Los Angeles circa 1984 a cyborg assassin that is programmed to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the yet-unborn future leader of the human resistance, John Conner. This killer, a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), will stop at nothing to see that Sarah never realizes her destiny.
All is not lost, however, as the human faction have also mastered a teleportation device to send back Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), the father of John Conner. The Terminator arrives first and sets about murdering anyone in the L.A. phone directory who has the name Sarah Connor. Oblivious to the danger she is in, Sarah and her roommate Ginger Ventura (Bess Motta) plan a night out on the town with Ginger's boyfriend, Matt Buchanan (Rick Rossovich), and a blind date for Sarah who never shows up.
Unhappy chance for Ginger and Matt, because the Terminator arrives for his next kill at the apartment Ginger shares with Sarah after she has already left. Meanwhile, Sarah learns of the serial killings of two other women with her name and attempts to warn Ginger by phone. Leaving the safety of the restaurant she's in, Sarah next finds herself being followed down a lonely street by Kyle. Believing that he is the serial killer, Sarah ducks into a dance club where the Terminator is waiting to kill her. Kyle enters the club. In the hailstorm of gunfire exchanged between him and the Terminator, many are wounded. But Kyle rescues Sarah from certain death. After a harrowing car chase, police arrest Sarah and Kyle, taking them to the local precinct where Sarah is informed by Police Lieutenant Ed Traxler (Paul Winfield) that Ginger and Matt are dead. Driving a stolen vehicle through the front window of the station, the Terminator proceeds to annihilate the entire police force. Kyle and Sarah narrowly escape and for the next several days Kyle informs Sarah of her role in preventing the total destruction of mankind.
Sarah reluctantly accepts her lot, and she and Kyle make love eventually. She is impregnated with the future leader of human freedom. After several close shaves, the Terminator catches up to Kyle and Sarah inside an abandoned factory. Kyle valiantly attempts to stop the Terminator from murdering Sarah but is killed by the Terminator instead, leaving Sarah to fend for herself. She succeeds by crushing the skeletal remains of her futuristic assassin in a machine press. However, several months later Sarah is seen pregnant and driving her jeep into a gas stop near the U.S./Mexican border. The old proprietor of the establishment tells her that there is a storm coming - referring to inclement weather - but to which the now world-wise Sarah soberly declares "I know."
Produced on a shoestring budget for Hemdale and Orion Pictures, The Terminator went on to gross $78 million worldwide and establish both James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger as forces to be reckoned with in the film industry. Initially, Cameron conceived of the Terminator as a small man who would conspicuously blend into the background. Offering the part first to Lance Henriksen (who would end up playing Police Detective Hal Vukovich instead), Cameron was forced to rethink his choice in casting when his pick for Reese - Arnold Schwarzenegger - expressed his interest in playing the evil cyborg instead. It was a pivotal decision in Schwarzenegger's then precariously perched movie career that would ultimately make him a star.
Viewed today, The Terminator isn't quite as impressive or apocalyptic as it seemed in 1984, perhaps partly because the advancement of digital effects have made much of this film's pyrotechnics quaint and tame by comparison. Yes, the narrative still works on a superficial level with Schwarzenegger's methodical menacing the biggest asset. But on the whole, the movie seems to have dated badly in its bleak view of the future: an implausible alternative to the arguably more predictable bleakness we face from the real world of today.
MGM Home Video's Blu-Ray easily bests any of its previous standard DVD incarnations. The image lacks the overall punch in color fidelity, but remains relatively true to the original filmic origins. Flesh tones are more accurately realized, with Schwarzenegger's pasty pale make up giving his cyborg skin a slightly artificial sheen that suits the character well. Fine details are realized in close up and medium shots, but long shots still tend to have a softer feel with not quite as much fine rendering in background detail. Perhaps, this is due to the limited budget of the film when it was shot or simply the slow degeneration of Eastman Kodak film stock from this vintage. Whatever the case, the image is solid and will not disappoint, even if it does not exactly impress. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital, dated but adequate for this presentation. Extras are direct imports from MGM's standard DVD issue and include a look back with candid interviews from James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as a peak behind the scenes at Stan Winston's then state of the art effects.
Owing to the phenomenal success of The Terminator (1984), director James Cameron always intended to follow up this film with a sequel. For one reason or another, seven years would elapse before Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991) made it to the big screen. By then, Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie career had made him a household word, but in the intervening years he was no longer the physical Colossus he had once been. As such, Schwarzenegger's robust bodybuilding physique so prominently showcased in the first film is largely kept under a brutally weather beaten leather jacket in T2 with only brief glimpses from the chest up during an early bar room brawl.
The wrinkle in T2's script by James Cameron and William Wisher Jr. is that Schwarzenegger's Terminator is no longer the bad guy. He has been reprogrammed in the future by the human resistance and sent back to 1995, this time as the protector of Sarah Connor's child, John (Edward Furlong). Meanwhile, after having attempted to blow up Cyberdyne Systems - the company inadvertently responsible for the looming future apocalypse - Sarah (Linda Hamilton) has been incarcerated in a maximum-security mental institution for the criminally insane.
John's foster parents, Janelle (Jenette Goldstein) and Todd (Xander Berkeley), have a loose hold on their young charge who has been reduced to the status of a common punk in the absence of any real parenting. Meanwhile, John's futurist assassin, the T-1000 Terminator (Robert Patrick) has arrived in the present to destroy him. Able to assume the body of anyone he touches, the T-1000 murders a police officer and assimilates his appearance to search for John.
Discovering John at a local arcade, the T-1000 is thwarted by the original Terminator. After a harrowing chase on motorcycle, the Terminator and John become more intimately acquainted, and John realizes that all the stories his mother told him while he was growing up about being a great warrior for the future of mankind are true. The Terminator and John break into the facility housing Sarah on the eve that she has staged a daring escape. The T-1000 arrives and another violent confrontation occurs with The Terminator, Sarah and John narrowly escaping.
Isolated and alone once again, Sarah is determined to murder Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson (Joe Morton), the brilliant computer systems engineer who will inadvertently create the technology that destroys civilization. Paring off from John and The Terminator, Sarah arrives at Miles stately home and narrowly carries out her plan. She is prevented in completing the assassination by John and the Terminator with Miles learning the truth about his stake in the future and thereafter vowing to help Sarah, John and the Terminator destroy all of his research currently housed at Cyberdyne Systems.
Unfortunately, the police are alerted to the break in at Cyberdyne. In the resulting mayhem, Miles is killed by sniper fire and the T-1000 relocates Sarah, John and The Terminator. Racing down a lonely California highway, the T-1000 meets up with his targets at a steel smelting plant. The Terminator fires several rounds into a tank of liquid nitrogen and momentarily freezes the T-1000. However, the intense heat from the smelting reverses this effect, and the T-1000 pursues John and Sarah to a scaffold high above a pit of molten steel. The Terminator, badly beaten by the T-1000, manages to fire several rounds into the T-1000, knocking it into the boiling pit of fire below. In order to secure a different future for humanity, the Terminator reasons that he too must be destroyed. Sarah agrees and lowers him into the fire.
The most expensive movie made to its date, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was an even more bleak and depressing film than its predecessor. Yes, there are memorable action sequences a plenty and, then, state-of-the-art special effects supplied by Industrial Light and Magic and Stan Winston to distract the viewer from the obvious message beneath all the pyrotechnics. However, the sobering reality that mankind may one day invent its own destructor is ultimately what remains most enduring about the film. On its release, T2 grossed a whopping $519 million worldwide, reaffirming that Cameron and company would return yet again for another bite at apple.However, in the years since the film's release, the reality of world events that seem to suggest we may somehow actually be nearer to that dangerous timeline of extinction have superseded any fictionalized account that Hollywood film making of this ilk could offer. In the final analysis, T2 is a film of few questions and even fewer answers.
Alliance Atlantis Skynet Blu-Ray edition of T2 easily bests any of multiple reissues the film has endured on standard DVD. One immediate complaint this reviewer has about the Blu-Ray is its delayed upload on standard players as this disc's programming is set to search for a Blu-Ray player hooked up to the Internet in order to download additional content only available online. After several long moments, a message appears on players not hooked up to the Internet suggesting to either retry the disc or cancel its operation entire. Selecting "cancel" will force independent players to upload content available on the disc only.
As for the image, it is much improved over previously issued DVDs. However, it is far from perfect. The biggest complaint I have here is that a lot of the image seems more softly focused than I remember it being in theatres. Contrast levels are a tad too weak with a loss of fine detail as the direct result. Colors too are less punchy than I expected. Closeups and medium shots look the best, but long shots seem to have a rather unimpressive rendering on the whole. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital and not up to snuff for a thrill ride experience of this vintage. Extras on the disc alone are limited to audio commentaries and a few vintage junkets. This reviewer did not have the time to evaluate online content for this disc at the time of this review.
To say that Francis Ford
Coppola's
The Godfather
(1972) was a highly anticipated movie upon its initial release is an
overstatement. Despite its pedigree, including a best-selling novel by
Mario Puzo and a cast headlined by Marlon Brando, Paramount executives
were less than enthusiastic about the project. Only part of their
apprehension pertained to the fact that the film had common thugs,
gangsters and organized crime syndicates as its heroes. After all, this
was the 1970s: the very center of the universe where movie antiheroes
were concerned. No, the gravest concern derived from Coppola's
insistence on casting Brando in the lead.
Ever since costly delays on MGM's disastrous remake of
Mutiny On the Bounty
(1962), Brando had acquired a fabled reputation for being difficult and
undisciplined on set. It did not help matters that Brando was a
perfectionist with a will and mindset that frequently conflicted with
his directors. As a result, Brando was persona non grata in Hollywood by
1970 and quite out of the loop for plum roles such as this one.
Worse, by 1971 Paramount Studios were precariously teetering on
financial ruin and unprepared to incur delays on any project. Hence,
Coppola found himself under a very tight contractual agreement and
constant scrutiny from the front office. In fact, the studio even
contemplated replacing Coppola as director on more than one occasion.
The Godfather's brilliant script by Mario Puzo, Coppola and Robert Towne
opens this epic mafia movie on the afternoon of Connie Corleone's (Talia
Shire) wedding to Carlo Rizzi (Giani Russo). While the outdoor reception
is in full swing, Connie's father, Don Vito Coreleone (Marlon Brando) is
fulfilling favors and requests from guests inside his darkly lit
study.
The family's youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), has just
returned from active duty in the war with girlfriend, Kay Adams (Diane
Keaton), at his side. Middle son, Santino (James Caan), is heavily
involved in the Don's "family business," while the eldest, Fredo (John
Cazale), is quietly overlooked because of his less-than-stellar
intelligence. Meanwhile, the Don's nephew, singer Johnny Fontane (Al
Martino), approaches with a dispute involving Hollywood film director,
Jack Woltz (John Marley).
The Don's first move is to send his trusted advisor Tom Hagen (Robert
Duvall) to Hollywood to negotiate a truce so that Johnny can get a part
in Woltz's next movie. However, the production chief is hardhearted. So
the Don is forced to take a different approach. In one of many iconic
moments from this film, Woltz awakens to discover the bloody
severed head of his prized racing stallion in his bed. The message is
clear: a request from the Don is a command.
The narrative advances to the Christmas season. Several of the Don's
close associates are murdered by rival kingpin, Virgil Sollozzo (Al
Lettieri), and the Don narrowly escapes becoming the victim of a botched
assassination attempt. While he convalesces at the hospital, Michael
assumes responsibility for exacting the family's revenge. He kills Sollozzo and his police stooge Capt. McKluskey (Sterling Hayden) before escaping to Sicily.
There, Michael falls in love with and marries Apollonia Vitelli (Simonetta
Stefanelli). But their life together is tragically cut short when
another botched assassination attempt claims Apollonia's life instead of
Michael's. Michael returns to the U.S. and pursues Kay - a relationship
built on mistrust and lies almost from the word "go." Owing to the fact
that he is involved with the Don's arch rival, Carlo sets up Santino,
who is brutally assassinated at a toll booth, forcing Michael to assume
control of the family business and pick off his enemies one by one. It's
not war - just business.
The Godfather
is a sprawling, hot-blooded and intense family saga with Coppolla
pushing the boundaries of screen violence in new directions. What was
unique to Coppolla's saga then - but endlessly parodied and borrowed
from today - is its treatment of these warring factions, not as the
cliched street criminals in days of yore, but rather, just common folk, immigrants who came in search of a better life, only to be forced to
defend themselves at the most base level of human integrity. An overwhelming critical
and financial success,
The Godfather
would eventually go on to become Paramount's most successful film to
date. Today, it continues to hover on "ten best" lists as one of the top
three greatest movies of all time, definitive proof that Coppolla knew
what he was doing all along.
It rarely happens that a sequel proves to be just as good, if not
better, than the original film that spawned the franchise. It is even
more unique that any sequel should win a Best Picture Oscar. Indeed,
immediately following the release of Francis Ford Coppola's
The Godfather
(1972), Paramount was frantic for a follow-up. By now, Coppola's place
in the cinema firmament - made precarious a few scant years before by a
few abysmal misfires - was now secure for the ages. Flush with this
success, and already immersed in the material, Coppola brought Mario Puzo in to co-write
The Godfather Part II
(1974): both a sequel and a prequel to his original movie.
In splitting the narrative into flashback and a continuing saga, Part II
developed a cinema language all its own: drawing parallels between the
young Vito Corleone (now played by Robert DeNiro) and his son, Michael
(Al Pacino) assuming control of the family business after the Don's
demise. Originally, Coppolla had wanted to bring back Marlon Brando to
reprise his role. Paramount executives balked at the suggestion, forcing
Coppolla to work around Brando's absence.
The present-day narrative
charts Michael's rise to prominence as the head of the Corleone family.
While vacationing with his wife Kay (Diane Keaton) and their children in
Lake Tahoe, Michael becomes the intended victim of a botched
assassination attempt. He suspects but cannot confirm that one of his
father's old-time associates, Hyman Roth (Lee Strassberg) is responsible
for the coup.
Instead of retaliating, Michael infiltrates Roth's organization by
pretending to desire an alliance. The ruse works, and Michael soon
learns that his brother Fredo (John Cazale) was actually the one who
informed Roth's associates of his whereabouts. On the eve that the
provisional Castro government seizes control of Cuba, Michael confronts Fredo with this knowledge, forcing him into exile.
The 1917-1925 flashback is almost as compelling. Young Vito Corleone
becomes the target of a Don in Sicily who desires to murder his entire
family. Friends smuggle the boy to relative safety in America. However,
Vito grows up in squalor and poverty. As a young man, Vito (Robert DeNiro) befriends Peter Clemenza (Bruno Kirby) and the two begin a modest crime
syndicate to advance their social standing and personal wealth. But
their escapades pit them against wealthy prig, Don Fanucci (Gastone
Moschin). To set the tone of their new regime, Vito assassinates Fanucci
in a stairwell and thereafter sets up his stronghold in the neighborhood
for his own success.
Many of the scenarios developed in Part II were in fact direct imports
from unused bits in Puzo's original novel, so expansive in its detail
that the subject matter proved too great for just one film. Apart from
Brando's absence, the entire cast is reunited in Part II - a nearly
impossible accomplishment and major coup for Coppolla who, only two
years before, had had to beg Paramount executives for every casting
choice made along the way.
Reportedly, after screening Coppolla's five-hour rough cut, fellow filmmaker George Lucas told his friend,
"You have two films. Take one
away."
Instead, Coppolla chose to rework both into a revised parallel: cutting
between past and present in unconventional ways. In the final analysis,
The Godfather Part II is grandiose beyond most expectations. It
excels at expanding the already rich canvas of family drama explored in the
original film, while bringing new light to characters and places the
audience only thought they knew.
In 1990, prompted by inquiries from fans and the studio - both of whom
considered the Corleone family saga incomplete - Coppolla agreed to
revisit the franchise for a third and final installment with The
Godfather III. But by then the
power and shock value of the human drama had worn thin. There are those
among the critics even today who center their denouncements and blame on Coppolla's final chapter squarely on the shoulders of his choice in
casting daughter Sophia in the pivotal role as Michael's daughter, Mary.
There are also those who consider Andy Garcia's over-the-top performance
as Sonny's illegitimate son, Vincent Mancini, a tad grating and out of
step. For this critic's palette, the question of the third film's
failure has never been about its central casting but rather its obvious
retreading over of familiar plot elements. For example, the final act
of
Part III
is a virtual regurgitation of the montage slaughter sequences in The
Godfather and Part II.
On this final outing, Michael Corleone (Pacino looking ragged and
careworn) is the aged patriarch of a crumbling Mafia empire that no one
seems to want. Estranged from Kay and his adult son, Anthony Vito (Franc D'Ambrosio), Michael suffers from diabetes and succumbs to a near fatal
stroke after an attempt on his life by rival gang leader, Joey Zasa (Joe
Mantegna). Zasa assumes the role of the Janus-faced hypocrite vacated
by Hyman Roth in Part II.
His inroad to Michael's family comes from trusted
advisor, Don Altobello (Eli Wallach): shades of Part II's Frankie
Pantangelli (Michael V. Gazzo). Michael's secret investment in the
Vatican's international banking apparatus is secured through corrupt
clergy, Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly), a man plotting his own purge
of the Corleone family through spurious connections with other European
crime syndicates. With so many of the principle cast from the first two
films already wearing toe tags, Part III also suffers from an infusion
of too many new characters that have not been developed even as
secondary bit parts in the first two films. For example, the screenplay
inexplicably refocuses on a doomed love interest between Vincent and
Mary in the middle and final acts of Part III, even though neither
character appeared in either the first or second movie. Hence, the first
act of Part III spends far too much time explaining to the audience who
these people are and what their histories have been in order to engage
the audience later on and make us care about what happens to them before
the final fade out. It may seem to some that this critic is being far too
critical about this final act in the Corleone saga. I am not suggesting
that there is no spark of brilliance to be had in Part III. However, the
overall arch in narrative excitement that was in the original film and
Part II is wholly absent. Characters float in and out of the story without having
an impact. The central narrative focused on Michael's vain attempts to
finally legitimize the family business, as well as the exposure of
corruption and murder at the highest levels of the Catholic Church is
frequently muddied by long interruptions - trailing the narrative in
directions that do not support this central plot.
And then, of course, there are the "copy cat" moments in Part III that
seem to suggest Coppolla has run out of ideas as per how to resolve all
the loose threads of a story he began to tell more successfully two
decades earlier. Zasa's assassination mirrors Vito's killing of Fanucci
in Part II - even down to its staged festival atmosphere. Michael's
death in Part III mirrors his own father's in the original film. Are these
deliberate homages inserted by Coppella to suggest some sublime and
inescapable symmetry to the tale, or are they merely easy ways to resolve
certain complexities in storytelling that Coppolla has neither the time
nor the interest to properly explore and resolve?
In the final analysis,
The Godfather Part III
is an artistic failure - but a masterfully concocted one that bears
further review.
At long last, Paramount Home Video has seen the light. I can recall my
waited anticipation when Paramount announced the anniversary re-releases
of all three Godfather films to theaters in the late 1990s, and I also
remember how I was somewhat disappointed even then by the quality - or
lack thereof - of the image. Its de-saturated palette of colors seemed
more faded than stylized.
Sure enough, when the films finally arrived as a collection on DVD in
1998, much to my horror, the movies not only looked much older than
their years - they also suffered from a gross mess of digital
artefacts that rendered much of the enjoyment for reviving these movies
on a digital format colossally moot. Not only were there age related
artefacts, scratches and chips glaringly present, but contrast levels
were so low that many of the night scenes were an undistinguished mess
of muddy browns and grays.
Worse, a barrage of edge enhancement, pixelization and other digital
anomalies made the overall presentation harsh and distracting to the
eyes. And then there was the marketing curiosity of splitting Part II
across two discs at the film's midway point, even though it ran a modest
12 minutes longer that the original film, which fit quite nicely on one DVD!
No, the original release of
The Godfather
movies on DVD was a colossal waste of time and money that infuriated
this critic to no end. I know I was not alone. But now a new concern and
cause for criticism has emerged with the remastered
Coppolla Restoration
editions on Blu-Ray. Viewing the image quality side by side with the old
transfers reveals a night and day revelation. Image quality exhibits
marked improvement.
The chief concern this time around seems to be a rather fruitless
discussion on what some are referring to as a re-imagining of the
original film's color scheme. I would argue that what we are seeing on
this Blu-Ray for the first time is a more accurate presentation of the
original films.
Colors are dated but fully saturated, recreating the
"aged photograph" look that Coppola was striving for while making the
movies. Outdoor scenes seem a tad too brightly rendered,
particularly Connie's wedding in The Godfather where whites are glaringly
pronounced and often obscure fine detail momentarily. But the vintage
quality of Coppola's original photography now seems much more vibrant
and sustained.
Overall, fine details are far more clear and sharp on this outing. for
example, this reviewer never noticed the Academy Award somewhat
prominently featured on the nightstand after Woltz discovers his horse's
head in The Godfather. I also do not remember seeing quite so much blood on
Mary's dress in Part III before.
Again, critics have
analyzed the Coppola Restorations as not remaining faithful to the
original color scheme, grain patina or contrast levels. However, it is
important to note that any digital transfer of an organic film can only
be an approximation at best of what the original filmic image looked
like. On that score, the Coppola Restorations excel, giving us all
three movies in a rendering that is fit for our sustained and
everlasting enjoyment!
Sonically, the restorations are on much more solid ground with a 5.1
Dolby Digital mix that creates a more spacious acoustic backdrop. This
reviewer can recall how strident and lacking in bass tonality the
dialogue, music and effects sounded in The Godfather and Part II on the original
DVD transfers. These oversights have been smoothed over and/or corrected
on the Coppola Restorations. There are no drop outs and no crackling. Is
the audio up to today's standards? Certainly not. Is it the best it can
ever be for home viewing? Arguably, yes - and that is saying much for
the efforts put forth.
Extras exclusive to the
Godfather
trilogy
set include two discs of goodies: the first a retread of the previously
released trilogy's supplements, the latter previously unseen. The extras
directly imported from the original release retain their rather poor
visual quality - gritty, grainy and slightly out of focus. The "new to
this edition" extras fair much better in terms of visual impact.
Clearly, Paramount Home Video has rethought its skin-flint strategy of
yore to deliver an appealing assortment of extras guaranteed to
entertain as well as educate. In totem, four hours saturate the viewer's
experience and understanding of these landmark movies. While there are
those that will continue to poo-poo the transfers as less than what they
out to be, this critic would argue that the Coppella Restorations
provide the best possible source material and image quality yet for this
trilogy on home video. In its Blu-Ray incarnation, the Godfather
trilogy
is a must-have. Highly recommended!
All reviews are copyrighted property of Nick Zegarac.