Some people just want to watch the world burn, and then beautifully capture it on film. Before helming some of the biggest films of all time, James Cameron came up through the Roger Corman system working on models and art design for such films as Galaxy Of Terror and directing Piranha Part 2: The Spawning. He then graduated to higher status with films like The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Titanic, and Avatar. While those earlier credits don’t make an appearance in the montage below, Martin Kessler has assembled an impressive edit that acts as an overview for some of the most iconic moments from the filmmaker’s career.
Titled “James Cameron—Cinema Of Flesh And Metal,” the video shows a man of two obsessions: creating giant spectacles that induce awe in the audience and then showing the inherent destructive properties of man (and nature) within those spectacles. With a focus on mechanical utilitarianism in much of his work, Cameron appears as interested in vehicles and tools as he is in the characters themselves, producing intricate machines and archetypal characters that serve his larger storytelling purposes. Joined by music from Aliens and Titanic, the result is a video that showcases these dual passions and reflects on a filmmaker who builds up incredible worlds, only to tear them down.
James Cameron – Cinema of Flesh and Metal from Martin Kessler on Vimeo.