James Cameron Feels The Terminator Is Not ‘Holy Grail’ As He Finds Some Parts 'Cringeworthy'

James Cameron recently looked back at his impressive 40-year filmmaking journey, which includes iconic films like Titanic, The Terminator and the record breaking Avatar. Despite his success, the Oscar winning director shared that he finds some elements of the 1984 classic, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, to be “cringeworthy.” In the movie, Arnold plays a time traveling assassin sent to eliminate Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, before her son could be born to save humanity. In a conversation with Empire, the legendary filmmaker discussed the film’s plot and claimed that he doesn’t see it as a perfect masterpiece, as there are moments he wishes could be improved. However, he praised the script, saying it is still good even though they had some challenges during the production.

Cameron said, “I don’t think of it as some Holy Grail, that’s for sure. I look at it now and there are parts of it that are pretty cringeworthy and parts of it that are like, ‘Yeah, we did pretty well for the resources we had available.’ I don’t cringe on any of the dialogue, but I have a lower cringe factor than, apparently, a lot of people do around the dialogue that I write.”

When James Cameron directed The Terminator, he was just 29 years old. Although he received his first directing credit for Piranha 2, he feels that The Terminator was truly his first film. He has a special attachment with the Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer because it kick started his journey as a director.

“I think a lot of filmmakers, especially first-time filmmakers, get very, very stuck in a vision, because of insecurity. I’m proud of the fact that we weren’t stuck enough to not be able to see how it could work with Arnold, because it wasn’t our vision. Sometimes, when you look back from the vantage point, we could have made a great little film from a production value standpoint, and it would have been nothing if we hadn’t made that one decision that captured the imagination of people,” Cameron added.

Although Avatar is James Cameron’s highest grossing film, The Terminator also made a major impact at the box office, as it earned over $78 million worldwide in 1984. The success played a key role in starting the Hollywood careers of both Cameron and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.