Sarah Connor. Now she is not the ordinary societal woman and
mother. Well, she was at first until Reese came amidst her life in the 1980’s.
Over the years, she has transformed herself from the mousy, timid woman seen at
the beginning of the first movie into a muscled, ferocious warrior, trying to
let humanity know about the upcoming apocalypse. We at first see her in the
confines of a mental institution, doing chin-ups. She is determined to escape
and destroy Skynet before they complete their most powerful creation, a cyborg.
From watching scenes of being tazed, tied-down to the bed, abused by the
guards, and nightmares of children on swings being destroyed by a blast—the audience
feels sympathy for her. However, her fixation
on the disaster, and also her obsessive desire to keep John safe has made her a
little mentally unstable and very violent, which is only aggravated by her fear
and hatred of the T-800.
Her anger drives her…which helps but really hurts her.
Even when she is escaping from the hospital, she encounters the T-800. Fear
ultimately overtakes her, but later anger. She does not believe that this
particular terminator is benevolent, no matter how many times her son pleads
with her. The past events have really influenced her view of the machines—she thinks
they are just plain evil. The audience can feel and view her frustration with the ignorance of society, her distrust
with the T-800, fear of the T-1000, anger with the difficulties of destroying
Skynet, and the worry of protecting her son, John. That is a lot of weight to
carry for one person. I feel this film focuses on Sarah more than anyone else.
Yes, Arnold with a giant gun, and the “Hasta la vista baby!” is cool, and the
CGU effects as well, however, most of the shots in the film focus on Sarah
Connor. Her character is crucial in the series (and later John Connor). She had
to deal with the terminators coming back time and time again most of her life.
Plus, taking care of John! She embodies the ultimate empowered woman. Feminists
must love her. She is wearing the “pants” (literally and metaphorically) and
knows how to shoot a gun (well, various ones that are also huge). Optimistically,
after all the struggle, anger, and finally destroying everything from Skynet
that will connect to the future destruction (fingers crossed!), she can sit
back and relax. Or maybe not.
I remember seeing this when it first came out, and I remembered the first Terminator movie really vividly. Arnie was really good at being really terrifying in that one, so I, and most audiences of the time, shared Sarah's initial reaction. It was a cool aspect of what Cameron was playing with, at the time. But this time through, I noticed the same thing you did, that sometimes her suspicion, fear and anger really got in her own way. Of course, it was a pretty bleak film anyway, and the ending isn't exactly happy.
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