‘The Terminator’: Smashing on Disc

Before you catch Arnold Schwarzenegger reborn as “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” you might want to see why the original was destined to future life--and to see it as director James Cameron saw it.

Image Entertainment is releasing “The Terminator” in a remastered, 109-minute, letterboxed laser disc with digital audio sound in its theatrical aspect ratio, approximately 1.85:1. And like the ’84 film, it’s smashing.

Anyone who’s only watched this film on panned-and-scanned videotape or panned-and-scanned cable or broadcast TV didn’t see much of co-writer-director James Cameron’s concept, a vision that fills every inch of the wide screen with almost nonstop action.

The laser disc looks and sounds as good as the theatrical version. If the digital soundtrack is a bit more subtle than similar action films--”RoboCop” and “Die Hard” on laser disc are louder and more spectacular--it still captures all of the ambience and sound effects clearly and precisely.

Though it was a sleeper when first released, “The Terminator” was spotted as a comer by many critics:

* Time magazine’s Richard Corliss said it “barrels with swank relentlessness through a giddily complicated premise” and that “on one level, ‘The Terminator’ is a hip retelling of the Annunciation.”

* Newsweek’s Jack Kroll called it “a nearly perfect example of the genre” and tabbed Cameron as a director with “loads of talent” and “a dynamic eye.”

* The New York Times’ Janet Maslin said that “much of it . . . has suspense and personality, and only the obligatory mayhem becomes dull.”

* Patrick Goldstein in The Times said, “this ominous fantasy will prick up your ears--it has the unsettling air of a scare story that doesn’t just send a shiver down your spine, but deftly collides with your imagination.”

Short of seeing “The Terminator” in a theater again, the Image version is the closest you’ll get to the original experience. And the 33 chapter stops included on the one disc make it possible to zip past too-violent scenes or to repeat favorite sequences, including the sensational, nail-biting final confrontation.