Von Roland zu Arnold – Der Terminator als Übergangsfigur zwischen Standbild und Bewegungsbild

Abstract

Winfried Pauleit

From Roland to Arnold: The Terminator as a Transitional Figure between the Still and the Moving Image

Cinema, as the moving image, establishes its own visual discourse by claiming a visible reality beyond narrative. This paper discusses how cinematic discourse uses the manifold possibilities for constructing masculinity both in and as moving images. It thus sets in motion an otherwise static image, namely, the mythical figure of Roland. Such readying for action presupposes that motion is a knightly virtue and, moreover, that Roland would be inconceivable without his engagement in battle and action. Fundamental to this figuration is the combination of man and metal, which becomes dynamised in the Terminator as a moving image of the knight made of liquid metal. Not only does this dynamisation create a more actual image of knighthood in action, but it also reflects the medium of film, which enables the figuration of image and movement, of soft skin and metal, in the first place.