How Pump­ing Iron set the stage for Arnold Schwarzenegger

1977 was an excit­ing year for cin­e­ma. Ground­break­ing movies like Star Wars, Close Encoun­ters of the Third Kind and Sat­ur­day Night Fever were all released. David Lynch and Dario Argen­to served up har­row­ing cin­e­mat­ic visions with Eraser­head and Sus­piria respec­tive­ly. New York, New York saw Mar­tin Scors­ese pro­duce a musi­cal and Wern­er Her­zog deliv­ered one of this best films in Stroszek. Mean­while, a future A‑lister was busy show­ing off his nat­ur­al charis­ma and con­sid­er­able stature in a doc­u­men­tary about bodybuilding.

Direct­ed by Robert Fiore and George But­ler, Pump­ing Iron offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the world of pro­fes­sion­al body­build­ing and the lives of its top names. Ken Waller, Serge Nubret and the future Incred­i­ble Hulk, Lou Fer­rig­no, were all huge names at the time – but Arnold Schwarzeneg­ger eclipsed them all. The future Hol­ly­wood icon was only 28 when the film was made. He had already tak­en the first steps of his act­ing career with roles in Her­cules in New York and The Long Good­bye. In 1976 he won the Gold­en Globe for Best Act­ing Debut for his per­for­mance in Bob Rafelson’s com­e­dy, Stay Hun­gry, but he still craved more main­stream expo­sure. Pump­ing Iron proved to be just the oppor­tu­ni­ty he needed.

Five years lat­er he would appear in his first major lead­ing role, as Conan the Bar­bar­ian. The film’s pro­duc­ers had watched a rough cut of Pump­ing Iron and agreed he was per­fect for the part. Just two years on and Schwarzeneg­ger land­ed the part that would change his life for­ev­er, The Ter­mi­na­tor. Over the next 10 years he con­tin­ued his ascent with Com­man­do, Preda­tor, The Run­ning Man, Total Recall and Ter­mi­na­tor 2 – yet Schwarzenegger’s sta­tus as a super­star was con­firmed but it might have nev­er hap­pened if he hadn’t starred in this land­mark documentary.

The film ini­tial­ly cen­tres on the build-up to 1975 IFBB Mr Uni­verse and Mr Olympia com­pe­ti­tions in Pre­to­ria, South Africa. As the four times reign­ing cham­pi­on, Schwarzeneg­ger faces stiff com­pe­ti­tion from then 24-year-old Fer­rig­no and the dif­fer­ence between the pair is strik­ing. Schwarzeneg­ger was seen as the untouch­able Euro­pean Ado­nis, with his rep­u­ta­tion as a fun-lov­ing wom­an­is­er already pre­ced­ing him.

In one scene he talks about the ecsta­sy he feels while body­build­ing, liken­ing it to ejac­u­lat­ing ²⁴⁄₇. He is effec­tive­ly the nar­cis­sis­tic vil­lain of the piece, who cold­ly dis­cuss­es the time he refused to go to his father’s funer­al because it occurred two months before a com­pe­ti­tion. Schwarzeneg­ger lat­er claimed that he had sug­gest­ed this addi­tion­al side to his per­sona to add a sense of dra­ma to proceedings.

In con­trast, Fer­rig­no is por­trayed as a much more down-to-earth indi­vid­ual, hav­ing grown up as a skin­ny kid in Brook­lyn before dis­cov­er­ing body­build­ing. His father, who is also his train­er, accom­pa­nies him every­where and is always on hand to give flat­ter­ing pep talks. Unlike the glitz and glam­our of Schwarzenegger’s world, Fer­rig­no trains in dim­ly lit gyms where he push­es him­self to his very lim­its. Beneath the impos­ing bulk is a qui­et and con­sci­en­tious man who doesn’t quite seem to ful­ly believe in his own ability.

At times in the film their rival­ry appears to stretch beyond the realms of friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion, occa­sion­al­ly stray­ing into uncom­fort­able ter­ri­to­ry. Schwarzeneg­ger con­stant­ly mocks Fer­rig­no in a wit­ty but bul­ly-like fash­ion. Fer­rig­no and his father laugh it off as ban­ter but it is clear who has the psy­cho­log­i­cal upper hand. One par­tic­u­lar­ly unnerv­ing scene occurs dur­ing a warm-up before the start of the com­pe­ti­tion. In front of the oth­er body­builders, Schwarzeneg­ger jok­ing­ly com­plains about the amount of noise that Fer­rig­no is mak­ing while he lifts weights. An awk­ward silence descends upon the room, as if Schwarzeneg­ger had just said some­thing unfor­giv­able. Nobody, not even Fer­rig­no, chal­lenges Schwarzeneg­ger – a reveal­ing insight into his hold over others.

Pump­ing Iron spends plen­ty of time with oth­er body­builders too, like the coura­geous Ital­ian Fran­co Colom­bo and the aspir­ing all-Amer­i­can Mike Katz, but this was always going to be Schwarzenegger’s show. The cam­era – like every­one in the film – can­not help but be drawn towards him, not just for his body but his unashamed, larg­er-than-life per­son­al­i­ty. In one of the many can­did con­ver­sa­tions, he talks about how he used to idolise famous fig­ures that would be remem­bered for thou­sands of years. Schwarzeneg­ger clear­ly recog­nised the lev­el of fame that Pump­ing Iron could grant him and he laid out his dream for the world to see.

This is less a doc­u­men­tary about the prac­tice of body­build­ing than the intrigu­ing char­ac­ters that pop­u­late this world. There is a lev­el of human­ism to all of those involved. Hum­ble upbring­ings and a will­ing­ness to prove naysay­ers wrong are just a few exam­ples these colos­sal indi­vid­u­als give for pur­su­ing this pro­fes­sion. They may look like Greek gods but their sto­ries are entire­ly relatable.

Pump­ing Iron was an unlike­ly box office hit when it was released in Jan­u­ary 1977 and its suc­cess arguably kick-start­ed the keep-fit craze that dom­i­nat­ed the ​’80s. Forty years on, it remains a unique­ly com­pelling, inti­mate look at a strange sport, where oiled up giants flex their pre­pos­ter­ous mus­cles, wear­ing noth­ing but skimpy trunks – and yet Schwarzenegger’s sub­se­quent leap to glob­al super­star­dom is the film’s real legacy.