Terminator is in no way a popcorn film. It is a film that
has stood out from the waves of shallow, ephemeral commercial films and has
established itself as a cultural icon. Along with films like ‘Blade Runner’ and
‘Pulp Fiction’, Terminator films become one of the epitomes of Postmodern
cinema, and through a fictional plot, it facilitates us to philosophize about
the modern condition. In a world defined by superficial images, Terminator
helps us to confront our intellectual depths.
The postmodern condition does not come out from nowhere. It
is a continuation of Modernism, an artistic engagement that was originated from
the dawn of the 20th century. Modernism takes a critical stance, and
asks questions about our established beliefs and core values since the Enlightenment.
To coin a term highly related to Postmodernism, Modernist art poses challenges
to the metanarratives – the values that we believe to be normal and thus govern
our thinking in a given era. Some examples are reason (rationality), progress
and liberal humanism. From philosophers like Descartes, Kant, and Hegel, we
arrive at a position to be so confident about what it is to be human – we
exercise reason, time is a linear flow towards the Absolute, and a person has a
unique identity. Yet as time goes away, our experiences start to question about
many of these ideals. Modernism allows a creative freedom to go against the grains
that allows non-linear narratives, stream of consciousness, and non-rational
philosophizing. Indeed, with the cutting-edge uses of filmic techniques, cinema
can be seen as a modernist art, and our perceptions about difference possible
experiences have been broadened since the advent of motion pictures. Indeed,
another reason why Modernism is so associated with cinematic art is due to
cinema’s emphasis on movement. Through movement, the static images on the film
stock contribute to the dynamic sequence in the final film.
At the second half of the 20th century, Modernist
thinkings have been evolved into Postmodernism, due to an explosive development
in technology, entertainment and consumer products. We no longer need definite
answers, we just need open-end questions! Indeed, there are a number of key
themes to characterize Postmodernism, and here I summarize it.
1. Denial of metanarratives. In the philosopher Lyotard’s
wording, it is a denial of grand narratives. The so-called normal major ideas
are challenged, and every individual has his own opinions on what is most
important for him, no matter how minor or low-culture it may seem.
2. Surface.
Things are superficial in the Postmodern condition. No one asks for
meanings or understandings, they just ask for superficial representations.
A famous painting by Picasso, after making into millions of copies,
becomes ‘post-modernized’ as a result.
3. Identity.
Postmodern identity is not stable, and it is always subject to change. Form
Saussure’s classical theory, a signifier, which is a defined word, should
point to a definite thing it represents, the signified. In a post-modern
world, this is no longer important. As the signifiers never have a stable
meaning or representation, the meaning of a signifier can change from time
to time, it ‘just depends’. The meaning is always sliding, and also
slippery. Postmodern era is the age
of ‘signifiers’.
4. Simulation.
This is Baudillard’s idea. The postmodern condition is a bit like inside
an imaginary world, exploring inside a computer game. We cannot live
without the cyberspace, a rhizomatic zone as Deleuze would have put it. We
are all connected – to the computer world, and we are literally like the
‘SIMS’ – we are like components in a simulated, virtual world. Humanity,
tragically, is now more subject to machine control.
5. Illusion
vs. Reality. This is no cliché here, the question of reality is the key
theme of Metaphysics, and for thousands of years philosophers asked for
valid arguments to establish an objective reality. Postmodernists take the
‘Anti-Metaphycis’ stance, and they believe the boundary between illusion
and reality is more blurred than ever. They are not alone – indeed
throughout the history of humanity there are maverick Postmodernists –
Zhuang Tzu (with his famous Qi Wu Lun), Nietzsche, Heidegger were all
against the possibility of Metaphysics.
6. Juxtaposition. Postmodernism is all about
mixing news and olds, and someone will see it as ‘retro’ or showing a
nostalgic sentiment. This characteristic is more relevant to the cases of
‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Akira’, which I will discuss in the future.
I have talked loads about what it is to be postmodernism,
yet with all these information, we will start to appreciate why ‘The
Terminator’, the exemplary Postmodern film, is such a cultural phenomenon.
High tech, low life – Terminator as Cyberpunk
As I have mentioned in the first article, Terminator films
belong to the Cyberpunk genre, which is a sub-genre of science fiction.
Cyberpunk movies can be succinctly stated under the slogan of ‘High Tech, Low Life’. These films take a
bleak view of our future times, and often take place in a washed-up, dystopian
future. Ironically, this is often realistic and foreseeable, and movie
audiences can therefore easily project to these. Cyberpunk movies do not adhere
to the sort of ‘This-is-not-Kansas-anymore’ fairy tale world, yet there are
still wicked witches in these films. Very often, some sort of conspiracy is
evident in a cyberpunk film, and it is often responsible for the nasty
conditions in the film.
Why is ‘The Terminator’ so relevant to our experiences?
Because, like ‘Blade Runner’, Terminator films challenge the delicate boundary between
human and machines, if there really exists one. Terminators are cyborgs, which
is ‘cybernetic organisms’ for short. While this type of species is controlled
by computers, after all there may be NO difference between a human and a
terminator. That is certainly a sweeping statement, so let me explain. First,
cyborg is a term hard to arrive at a clear definition. In short, ‘cyborg’
implies something in-between, a ‘cyb’ and an ‘org’. It is standing at the thin
line between an organic whole and a mechanical machine. While the word cyborg
can mean Arnold-like robots, it seems to take further meanings. In feminism,
the philosopher Donna Harraway has provided a more culturally-oriented meaning
for the word. She sees the ‘cyborg’ as a creature of the postgender world, for
which the established meanings of gender have been shaken in a more diverse and
gender-equal society. We even have female Terminators now! In short, a cyborg
is something in between human and non-human, it is the ultimate product of postmodernism.
So how do we all become Terminators?! Well, Terminator films
illustrate the idea of post-humanism, as it challenges the whole conception of
being human. A terminator is a humanoid robot, with human-like flesh and skin
outside, yet a computer and metal-endoskeletons inside (with a monotone Arnold voice too...). It
is the most explicit example of a trans-human, and indeed, it is the plot in
‘Terminator: Salvation’, where the Sam Worthington character is the proto-type
of future terminators! Of course, a similar idea is also present in the
‘RoboCop’ movies. If you are into cult movies, films by Shinya Tsukamoto (such
as Tetsuo: Body Hammer) and the body horrors by David Cronenberg share similar
themes.
Let’s expand ourselves further on the cultural perspective
of ‘cyborg’. As I have mentioned, we are all connected to machines somehow, and
it is not too far away from the case of ‘The Matrix’ (don’t even day-dream on
brawling with a hundred Agent Smiths!). Isn’t
it the case? We rely on tools to complement with our lack and human
limitations. When we are not strong
enough to lift a 100-tonne weight, we use our intelligence to develop a machine
to help us. We can wash 10 kg of dirty laundry in 20 minutes, we invent washing
machines. We wear spectacles, and medical robots, or even in the future,
‘nano-bots’ may help us to clear the cholesterol that blocks our blood vessels!
And you are now online when you are reading this, right? Since our lives have
become so connected to machines, it can be argued (at lease in a rhetorical
sense) we are all ‘cyborg’. In the modern era, our human existences cannot be
disconnected from the influence of machines, and that is what makes our
experiences so postmodern.
This sentiment is something that James Cameron has carefully
shared in all the Terminator films. In almost every key sequence throughout the
series, it is almost always about interactions between humans and machines or
tools. Be it cars, computer decoders, Gatling minigun, steel mills, or
‘plastiques’, which are likely to be Sarah and Reese’s supper. In a postmodern
universe, every facet of life is related to, or intertwined with machines. Our
direction is driven by the advancement in technology. When we become more like
a machine, will the most fundamental human qualities be gone?
Sarah Connor, Mother of the Future
I know the last paragraph belongs to my appreciation of
Sarah Connor, a female character I like very much. Indeed, I have discussed
about this in an earlier article, ‘Films And Feminism’. I suppose one of the
reasons why some many female audience are driven to such a masculine film like
Terminator is due to an identification with Sarah’s character. ‘Terminator’ is
literally a Bildungsroman of Sarah. How this lady changes from a vulnerable
young lady, who cannot even hold your chequebook tightly, to a mature, driven feminine
warrior, ready to take on the dark sides of the future. Through the education and
encouragement, and the ‘No Fate’ motto she has given to John, she gives John
inspirations and channels up his confidence to stand up to the powerful robots.
She may still not able to balance out her monetary issue, but now with a sniper
rifle on one hand and a wasted robot skull on the other, what else does she need?
Final words
Terminator is a dark film. It is not like some sentimental,
blindly optimistic, and pretentious wanna-be movies that makes you feel good
afterwards. The film gives us thrills, and makes us conscious of a potential
future we are marching towards. After all the pains, it offers us hopes, the
humanistic values that we treasure all along. While it is a supposedly
Postmodern film, there are so much depths and meanings that I have been
inspired by. It certainly is one of the most important films I have ever
watched, and it will always be my favorite film of all time.
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(3/3)
by Ed Law
18/7/2015
Film Analysis - 50
