Pumping Iron (1977)

This would be a slightly dull documentary about muscular men, save for one thing: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Every line of his interviews in this film is amazing. It's worth watching just to listen to him babble and accidentally spout dozens of comedic gems!

Nicely filmed docudrama about the sport of bodybuilding. Ken Waller, Ed Corny, Mike Katz and Franco Columbu all make appearances, with the latter two having their own brief segments, but the film's main focus is on five-time champion Arnold Schwarzenegger defending his Mr. Olympia title against Lou Ferrigno and Serge Nubret. Partly scripted, with some stories being a bit embellished or possibly completely made up. Completion stalled for a couple of years due to budgetary problems, but Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders helped raise funds to continue filming. Yes, this is the movie where Arnold compares working out to sex—and it's a humorously ridiculous analogy even in the context of this film.*** (out of four)

Every now and then a film comes along that changes cinema or an aspect of it. In the way Enter the Dragon changed films, in that almost all film fight scenes now have martial arts in them. Pumping Iron changed the attitude of many towards muscles and muscle men. It is true to say that before Schwarzenegger came along, men with muscles in film were often portrayed as stupid or slow. Arnold showed in this film that he had tons of personality, his charisma was as big as his chest and he made Bodybuilding seem cool. Look at films made since Pumping Iron, the lead actor often has to have muscle. Stallone, Van damn etc all owe a lot to Schwarzenegger for their success. Pumping Iron itself is an interesting exploration into the strange world of competitive bodybuilding and it successfully shows the variety of characters that exist within the 'sport'. Since it was made bodybuilders are even bigger and certainly more muscular today than they were in Arnolds day. Truth is his build would not win today but at the time he was the best their was. There were more muscular men ( Franco is much more muscular )but he had the ability to show his body to the best advantage, hiding weaknesses and pushing his strong parts to the fore. Certain sides of bodybuilding are omitted ( drug taking, homosexuality ) but the film itself is very entertaining and crams a lot into a relatively short film.I recommend the DVD edition that others have mentioned as you get a lot more from it.

Pumping Iron is a great documentary. A rather revealing look at the then smaller world of body-building. Audiences are introduced to the charismatic, brash and overly-confident Arnold Schwarzenegger. Later we see the camaraderie between the muscle men at Arnold's gym in L.A. Thereis a huge contrast between the fun atmosphere of L.A. and the austere and dark gym where Lou Ferrigno trains under the rather obsessive watch of his father, Matty. While Ferrigno is bigger than Arnold, Arnold is considered to have the body with best symmetry and alignment, not to forget those 25 inch biceps. The scenes with Mike Katz, an amateur body-builder and former NY Jets player with an enormous chest are quite memorable and inspiring. Katz talks about the taunting he received as a kid and how this pushed him to train hard to achieve his goals. Try to watch the DVD which includes an update 30 years later. Included among several memorable scenes are: Arnold smoking a joint; Arnold talking about the pump and "coming" feeling; Arnold giving tips on how to pose; after Lou Ferrigno has finished an impressive set of military benches, his father tells that Arnold might be training twice as hard as he is; some body builders who can barely run normally thanks to so much muscle. Great Documnetary, don't miss it.