Alex Cox's introduction to James Cameron's The Terminator, from the 1990 series of BBC 2's Moviedrome, back in the days before Terminator 2 when the original film was apparently a cult movie. Cox seems quite fond of the film.
It's a strange situation when, back in the pre internet days, information was hard to come by but TV treated you like an intelligent being. Now with information about absolutely everything right at your fingertips, TV treats everyone as if they are dumb as rocks. What ever happened to intelligent television.
VonBlade the answer is that EVERYONE(smart and dumb alike) used to watch television and the market catered to that. In the 21st century, only stupid people still watch television and the market caters to that.
why is there not more programs like this on tv? used to love stuff like this. mark kermode did something like this on channel 4 but, that was years ago. 'normal' tv used to be epic!
Yep, Moviedrome was great, and Kermode did some fantastic documentaries on The Exorcist, French Connection, Shawshank... there was also an amazing series called Scene By Scene that had deep interviews with major filmmakers like David Lynch, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.
My father recorded the Moviedrome broadcast of The Terminator. I remember on the VHS tape, after the movie Alex Cox appears and mentioned that the movie in the following week's Moviedrome was Honeymoon Killers.
Thanks for sharing this. I haven't seen it since the original broadcast in 1990, which was how I first saw the Terminator. Ahhhh the days when you'd send a postal order or cheque to BSS. :)
I just got a massive nostalgia hit ... I remember watching this when I was 13 at the time .... the first time watching terminator late at night .... it's almost as great as blade runner as a sci fi concept but really Arnold ruined the rest of the sequals .... but like Cox said it's all about the box office ....
I'm sure I remember him introducing Trancers and Night of the comet as well. Great to be able to find this. I remember it because it was the first time I found out they were making T2.
Now I remember when this was released at the cinema and went to see it when I was 15 even though it was rated 18 at that time. I also remember Paul Gambaccini reviewed it on TV-AM and he did not like The Terminator at all and only gave it 1 out of 10.
Shame that this intro doesn't mention that the version of The Terminator presented here was heavily censored by the BBC for violence and swearing (the famous "Fuck you asshole" line was removed altogether). I seem to remember the BBC audio announcer did mention this but also advised that even in its cut form, its still a very violent movie. It also lead to the controversy where Virgin/Woolworths labelled their early 90s vhs releases of The Terminator as 'The complete uncut version', implying that this was some sort of extended directors cut. Consumers complained and Woolworths had to issue an apology and remove/cover up these stickers on the tapes.
Same here. I believe it might have been the first time on British TV for the film? Was a big deal for me as a young teen. Recorded it on the trusty family VHS (using the timer of course).
Even Andrei Tarkovsky liked it. You can't get a bigger honour than that, specially coming form a non commercial arthouse filmmaker to a Hollywood blockbuster.
"Unfortunately, Arnold isn't a native-born American, and so, he can never be President." That didn't stop people from trying to get the Constitution changed just after he became Governor of California in '03 so he could run for President down the line.
I had both Moviedrome guides, but lost them in a house move. Does anyone know if they are still available? I have tried, but nada. And this was the first time I saw The Terminator on this Sunday night in 1990.
@@RighteousBrother I hope you find them? Two invaluable additions to the great Moviedrome series with Alex. Wasn't as interested when Mark Cousins took over. I heard Alex left because of the lack of foreign language films that were shown?
