Pumping Iron

He's big, he's burly, he's buff, he's beefcake, he's ARNOLD circa 1975. This surprisingly good documentary from George Butler and Robert Fiore chronicles the participation of several professional bodybuilders in the contests for Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia, including Schwarzenegger, who was trying for his seventh title before officially retiring from competition. Given the muscular Austrian's recent penchant for right-wing politics (at the GOP convention a few years back he referred to "these Democrats" as "a bunch of girlymen"), it is a treat to watch him in the days when he was merely a self-important, arrogant Neanderthal, as opposed to a talentless movie star rubbing elbows with Reagan and Bush. Watch him smoke a post-victory joint! Hear him compare bodybuilding to sex! ("It's as satisfying to me as coming is; I am coming day and night, it's fantastic!") He describes his tendency to cut himself off from his emotions and become "totally cold" when in training, to the point where he refused to attend his own father's funeral. Perhaps most disturbing of all, a grinning Schwarzenegger (whose name means "black plowman") admits to psyching out his opponents in order to make them lose: giving bogus advice to amateurs, and endlessly tormenting a hapless young Lou ("The Incredible Hulk") Ferrigno.

-- Peg Aloi