James Cameron week: Day 1

This week we take a look at the one and only James Cameron.

Or Big Jim as we like to call him.

He definitively is the Babe Ruth of Hollywood, hitting nothing but home runs. 

With Avatar: The Way of Water hitting theaters on the 16th it gives us the perfect time to reflect on his work. 

Specifically, we wanted to take a look at his action set pieces because there might not be anyone better at making big thing go boom.

Let's talk about the power a director holds over a star’s image.

We all know Arnold Schwarzenegger now, the giant mountain of a man who has made at least half a dozen classics and could open a movie big just by being attached to it. But think back to when this movie came out, Arnold was “Conan the Barbarian,” “Hercules in New York” and the guy that lost out on being the Hulk to Lou Ferrigno.

The man with that accent never should have been any more than a cult figure in the vein of Scott Adkins.

With the help of James Cameron that wasn’t the case. Jim has a fantastic understanding of how to elevate an actor to movie star status, don’t believe us, just ask Schwarzenegger, Dicaprio, Winslet, or Saldaña. 

Cameron initially wanted an average-looking man to play the T800 until he said fuck that noise.

 Let's make him the most cartoonish-looking man we can find. After meeting with Schwarzenegger to play the Kyle Reese part Jim just knew that this statuesque figure would be perfect to carry the film.

As you watch today’s clip really think about how Cameron frames Schwarzenegger, slightly low and fairly closeup to make him feel even bigger and more intimidating than Arnold already is.

Enjoy the scene that created a star, an icon, and inadvertently a governor.