Dreaming Aloud: The Life and Films of James Cameron

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

“Obsessed” and “excessive” best describe the life and films of
Canadian-born Hollywood director James Cameron, as portrayed in this
book by Toronto film critic Christopher Heard. Cameron’s obsession
with every detail (from initial conception to final credits) of each of
his 15 feature films is well documented with on-the-set anecdotes and
quotes from cast and crew members and from the director himself. His
colleagues’ comments either reinforce or contradict Cameron’s
reputation as a tyrannical taskmaster who has sacrificed everything to
his art, including three of his marriages.

The first four chapters outline Cameron’s early life as a filmmaker
and visual artist obsessed with learning his craft. The remaining
chapters detail the excesses in his films. They provide fascinating,
behind-the-camera accounts of the ingenuity with which Cameron and his
colleagues solved technical, financial, and artistic problems in order
to bring The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, and
Titanic to the big screen. One absorbing chapter describes the creation
of a $60-million high-tech short film, T2–3-D, and the establishment
of Cameron’s newest production facility, Digital Domain, where the
film was created.

With these trendsetting accomplishments behind him, what will the
obsessive dreammaker do for an encore? The author speculates that
“Cameron will continue to dream big dreams and to make even bigger
movies. And people around the world will continue to dream along with
him.” It is to be hoped that Christopher Heard will be there to
popularize the dreammaker’s efforts in as objective, entertaining, and
informative a fashion as he has done here.