
Cinema Terminal is sold out for ‘Barton Fink’.
So I take a quick look at SE7E’s film listings and see that in a quarter of an hour Fink is showing at São Jorge, ten minutes walk away up Avenida da Liberdade.
There I scurry, only to find a queue so long that I would have missed the start of the film.
Schwarzenegger to the rescue! Terminator 2 is showing in Almada at 9.30 p.m.
Plenty time to get there, and it’s on my way home anyway.
In the meantime, I can’t resist taking the Glória funicular up from Restauradores to Rua São Pedro de Alcântara.
It’s a scene out of one of those wonderful old Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce: a turn of the century funicular tram trundling through smoke drifting up from chestnut vendors’ charcoal fires, an evening of mist and mystery.
Hanging inside the tram is a framed copy of a municipal edict dated April 21 1927, stating the rules for passengers travelling on this vehicle.
Paragraph 4a states, “It is absolutely forbidden for anyone to descend anywhere en route. Penalty 20 escudos”, easily the lowest fine I have ever seen, about twelve pence in British money, although back then it would have been more of a deterrent.
I walk down Rua do Alecrim to Cais do Sodré, where the 1936-built ferry Setubelense takes me across to Cacilhas.
The April 25 suspension bridge is looking good off to the west, illuminated gracefully in green and orange.
By the dockside at Cacilhas a musician is simultaneously playing a battered old tin accordion and a penny whistle. It’s that jolly sort of music that gets everyone grinning.
A small group of passers-by has gathered to listen.
Realizing that he has got an audience, the musician really gets into it.
His elbows pump like pistons whilst his right foot stomps the beat on the pavement.
His ditty squirts to a finish.
One of his mates cheers. The rest of the onlookers just smile and wander off.
When I get to Almada’s Academia cinema for ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, the box office cashier is busy knitting a yellow pullover.
“One ticket please.”
I didn’t pick up anything at all from her reply.
“Sorry, I don’t understand.”
“For today?”
“Yes, today.”
“For nine-thirty?”
“Yes. Near the front, please.”
“No no no. At the front you can’t see.”
“At the front is ok, it’s ok!”
“No no no. Here you are.”
She hands me my ticket for seat number 21 in row R, about halfway back, plum in the middle of the row. It’s a good place to sit so I forgive the box office person for refusing to give me a seat at the front.
But it can be good to be right up by the screen, where the colours and movement flow over you.
Maybe I’ll sneak down to the front during the interval.
Academia is a great cinema, with a massive screen.
It’s a rowdy crowd in here tonight for Arnie’s Almada premiere.
I am intrigued as to whether this hi-tech movie is going to be an exhibition of mindless machismo or, as some have claimed, a witty and ironic condemnation of violence and current American adulation of such.
You could read the poster for ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ either way: Arnie looking extraordinarily slick and mean mounted on a beast of a bike, brandishing a weapon that looks like a portable cannon.
Kurosawa’s ‘Rhapsody in August’, which I saw recently, was great in an earnest arty way. But in its own way, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ here tonight is equally superb cinema.
Thrilling and hilarious and full of dry humour, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ goes down a storm with the Almada locals, who erupt with frequent cheers and applause.
From the opening moments of the film with Dwight Yoakam singing Guitars, Cadillacs, I know that this is going to be something special.
At the end of the film I leave the cinema feeling totally exhilarated.
Everything about ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ is magnificent.
The actors are perfectly cast.
As Sarah Connor, Linda Hamilton sustains her justified obsession in the face of constant institutionalized persecution, her commitment to the cause temporarily overriding her motherly emotions towards John Connor the future savior.
John Connor, played by Edward Furlong as the ultimate sensitive semi-delinquent, bosses around ‘his’ terminator.
Schwarzenegger is assured enough to indulge in self-deprecating incidents like the scene in which he stands on one leg merely because Furlong tells him to.
The reflective desert scenes are beautifully shot.
As Hamilton and Schwarzenegger and Furlong gather their strength, the tranquil skies and soft breezes blowing over the desert and glowing hills remind us of what they are fighting for.
Arnie holds up a baby at arm’s length, the killing machine turning human.
The special effects in ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’are astounding, but they never overwhelm the story or the performances.
Roll on Terminator 3.
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