Pumping Iron - Gem of a Doc

Watching Pumping Iron was a fascinating experience for me, and brought back memories of working out with the cousins at Gold's Gym in Provo. This is a doc about Arnold Schwarzenneger's final defense of his Mr. Olympia (bodybuilding) title. The doc follows Schwarzennegger juxtaposed with Lou Ferrigno (T.V.'s The Hulk), who is hungry to win the title and beat Ahnuld. This is entertaining, funny, reflective, and suspensful documentary filmmaking. I highly recommend it.

And if only we would have known about this when we went to Golds! It would have taught us true techniques of how to conduct effective flexing sessions after lifting. Also, this film is motivating ; making me want to get out and lift and exercise.

And, the making-of bonus features are really insightful, where the filmmakers reveal how Schwarzennegger was an integral part of the production and how much of his outrageous dialogue was fabricated to make the movie a success. The movie really illustrates the fine line between reality and fiction in documentary film.

Here's a mash-up of Pumping Iron someone put on youtube; they put clips to the Gladiator theme song and called it AVL (Arnold vs. Lou). Enjoy