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Sorry, this movie sucks

One of my all time favorites.

Load of rubbish!!

Best movie ever!

I watched this film a number of times when it first came out, and not again for forty years until catching it last night. What a blast down memory lane. I was a follower of bodybuilding back in the Seventies so the names were all familiar to me when the documentary was released. It was fun seeing muscle men like Mike Katz, Ken Waller, Franco Columbu, Serge Nubret and Lou Ferrigno in the story, but the center stage guy was Austrian strong man Arnold Schwarzenegger. I still remembered his put downs to Ferrigno and his father, meant to both demoralize and psych out his main opponent for the upcoming (1975) Mr. Olympia contest. It's comical to watch, but as part of Ah-nold's strategy, it worked to have it's effect on the second place finisher.One thing I noticed today that didn't get my attention back in the day, was how the crowds at the bodybuilding shows mixed out pretty closely to fifty-fifty, men and women. You wouldn't think so, figuring most followers of the sport would be similar minded muscle heads (like myself), mostly men. I haven't followed the sport for almost as many years now as this film exists, but to my mind, there was one bodybuilder who might have been slightly better than Arnie in one of the early Olympia contests. That being Sergio Oliva, but he wasn't in this film.I happened to catch Lou Ferrigno at a Chicago Comic-Con quite a few years ago, well after his heyday as a bodybuilder and star of the late Seventies/early Eighties TV series, "The Incredible Hulk". 'Louie' was signing autographs and trading stories with fans, still in great shape, and to my mind, with a build that looked a lot like the character he portrayed. It's good to see both Arnold and Lou still going strong today.

The Documentary, Pumping Iron is gritty, old school bodybuilding documentary during the "Golden Era" of bodybuilding. It's natural lighting and older graphics do not interfere with the meaning of the film. The documentary has the major themes of hard work paying off, and a light-hearted, fun view of bodybuilding in general. Its audience is specifically for anyone interested in bodybuilding, and would not be very appealing to those who aren't interested. The camera angles are mainly medium – close ups of the bodybuilders preparing for their shows, but it also has extreme close ups of the muscles that were developed to show the detail and vascularity. If you like bodybuilding, you would probably enjoy the film. Throughout the film, you have the same theme of hard work paying off. The film captures rewards of success by showing the jubilant Arnold at the top of the sport. You see Arnold at the beach hanging out with beautiful women and drinking beer when he was done with the grinding work at the gym. As for others, they show all the medals and trophies that they have gotten through bodybuilding while other people doubted them on their journey. It is more of a motivational documentary than informative. To give you a feel of the film, it starts off with Arnold Schwarzenegger learning posing routines, and then showing others how to pose for contests. Arnold explains why bodybuilding is different from other sports and arts, and he is really the star of the show, but that's about all the information the film gives. You get to know Arnold's personality throughout the film. For example, when he poses in prison at the beginning of the film, he is very lax about the prisoners making jokes about him, and jokes back with them. Later other bodybuilders, such as Franco Colombo, and Amateur Mike Kats are featured in the film also giving a view of their personalities and the struggles they faced to reach their levels. Franco was shown to be a prominent boxer in Italy, even after he was being brought down by his mom for not having a job. By seeing Franco and Arnold training together you can tell what kind of people they are when they are in difficult positions and in intense pain.Finally, should you watch this film? There's no definite answer. If you're looking to learn about bodybuilding and how to be successful in transforming your body, then this isn't the film to watch, as there's not much information to learn from. Now, if you want to have a good time and feel good about it then this is right for you. It has many good feeling traits, such as the bodybuilders smiling and relaxing, and it shows the rewards from the work they put in. The film is something you can watch by yourself at night after a workout if you're feeling down or after a bad day. Personally, I enjoyed it, but I wish they had more information on how to get big. Pumping Iron was a good documentary for its purpose and was well made.

From Gold's Gym in Venice Beach California to the showdown in Pretoria, amateur and professional bodybuilders prepare for the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe contests in this part-scripted, part- documentary film. Pumping Iron was such a great Documentary i mean the way it portrays the lives of all this guys is amazing and even sad sometimes especially Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger basically plays himself this big muscular guy who is pretty much a goofball in real life and he makes sure he has fun every day of his life which he did the man is 69 years old today and he still stars in Terminator Movies and attends The Arnold Classic every year and he brings more new stories to tell to the younger audience but also those who lived and spend their lives watching him competing in Bodybuilding or just watched all of his movies. Franco Columbu also has a great story to tell and Mike Katz with his 2 little children and pretty much everyone. This isn't a movie about big guys holding weapons it's based on actual events and it rocks as both a movie and a documentary 2 Thumbs Up 10/10.

Pumping Iron is a strange documentary, and an example of how documentaries can take some liberties in how it portrays its subjects. There's an interesting parallel to be made between this and other documentaries following competitions, like The King of Kong, as they usually try to heighten the intensity, and reduce the subjects to good/bad.Thankfully it's not that simple in Pumping Iron. Arnold is definitely shown in a bad light, but rather that of one that gives everything for the competition, rather than one that is genuinely evil. At the same time, Lou is not shown to be a hero, but rather a young, rather passive, man under a lot of pressure. This dynamic works really well, even though (as it turns out), much of it is fabricated.Despite the fabrications, the documentary succeeds in creating a story that is not only compelling, but also humanizing. It takes these huge men and gives them a personality that you don't see on the stage. I'm sure this is why this documentary managed to have such a big impact.I don't really find body building that interesting, so parts of this documentary did little for me. It was the characters that saved it, and made this into an interesting movie.