Pumping iron documentary full biography

Review by Byron Bixler
From the October 2015 Issue As someone who generally finds bodybuilding to be kind of repulsive, I’m pleasantly surprised to say that I found Pumping Iron to be an enthralling documentary on the subject. The film brings attention to the many personalities training at Gold’s Gym in California and beyond as they prepare for the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe contests. What we get from this is a straightforward look at the nature of the sport, an insider’s view of the workout sessions, and the mentoring and mental conditioning that goes into an exercise that I previously saw as mere exhibitionism – a novelty and nothing more.

Several titans of the bodybuilding game share the screen in the film, but it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger who ultimately gets the spotlight. This is Arnold way before the Hollywood fame, long before his iconic roles in The Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, and even the Conan films. I’ve never seen so much candid footage of the man, and watching him here, it isn’t shocking that he came to be the star we know him as now. His grin lights up the room and in between the intense, vein-pulsing weight work, he displays an effortless natural charm in his exchanges with fellow bodybuilders. He’s repeatedly touted as “the best” and “the one and only”. When other muscle-men speak about competition, “Arnold” is the hottest name on their tongues. Dethroning the champ is their great aspiration and making Schwarzenegger the documentary’s centerpiece was a good move.

It’s important to note that the film is not about Arnold, though. There’s a rich tapestry of similarly hard-working athletes in this film and although I think the exploration of each one could have been more thorough, their time on screen is nothing less than captivating. I use the word “athlete” because after seeing the amount of work these

1977 docudrama about the world of bodybuilding directed by George Butler

Pumping Iron is a 1977 American docudrama about the world of professional bodybuilding, with a focus on the 1975 IFBB Mr. Universe and 1975 Mr. Olympia competitions. Directed by George Butler and Robert Fiore and edited by Geof Bartz and Larry Silk, it is inspired by the 1974 book of the same name by photographer Butler and writer Charles Gaines and nominally centers on the competition between Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of his primary competitors for the title of Mr. Olympia, Lou Ferrigno. The film also features segments on bodybuilders Franco Columbu and Mike Katz, in addition to appearances by Ken Waller, Ed Corney, Serge Nubret, and other famous bodybuilders of the era.

Shot during the 100 days leading up to the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia competitions and during the competitions themselves, the filmmakers ran out of funds to finish production and it stalled for two years. Ultimately, Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders featured in the film helped raise funds to complete production, and it was released in 1977. The film became a box office success, making Schwarzenegger a household name. The film also served to popularize the culture of bodybuilding, which was somewhat niche at the time, and helped inspire the fitness craze of the 1980s; following the film's release, there was a marked increase in the number of commercial gyms in the U.S.

The film was released on CED and VHS, and then re-released on DVD in 2003 for the 25th anniversary of the theatrical debut. The film inspired three sequels: George Butler's Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985), a documentary about the world of female bodybuilding; David and Scott McVeigh's Raw Iron (2002), a documentary about the making of Pumping Iron and how the film affected the lives of those who appeared in it; and Vlad Yudin's Generation Iron (2013), a documentary on which Pumping Iron

The 1977 classic documentary Pumping Iron catches a pre-fame Arnold Schwarzenegger and original Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno and many other colorful characters competing to be Mr. Universe 1975. If you like Love Lies Bleeding (Glass, 2024), sports documentaries, 1980s action movies, and Conan the Barbarian vs. the Hulk, Pumping Iron is for you. Free popcorn! Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Introduction by Casey Ryan Kelly, Professor of Rhetoric & Public Culture, University of Nebraska.

About the Topic 

Pumping Iron (1977), a documentary about the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe competitions, cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as a household name and popularized the subcultural sport of bodybuilding. But, more recently, bodybuilding and extreme fitness have become central preoccupations for the contemporary digital far-right who valorize the golden-age bodybuilder aesthetic, diet, and lifestyle as the masculine embodiment of white nationalism. How was a quirky sporting subculture appropriated into far-right politics? Why does the far-right view bodies as indexes of national health and morality? Although neither bodybuilding nor the documentary share an inherent relationship with far-right politics, the 1977 film offers some clues as to how the superlatively capacitated male body lends itself to what Walter Benjamin called the “aestheticization of politics,” wherein democratic governance and civil society are supplanted by mythologizing visual spectacles of violence.  

About the Presenter

Casey Ryan Kelly is Professor of Rhetoric & Public Culture in the Department of Communication Studies. He is also Editor-Elect of the Quarterly Journal of Speech. He researches the political and cultural rhetoric of the U.S. far right, primarily through the lens of psychoanalytical theory. He has also published work on the rhetoric of white masculinity in film, television, a