Yes, I withdrew it from the 1977 Academy Awards because I did not think it was purely, strictly a documentary-a documentary in those days was more like an austere history book. Pumping Iron will play at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater on August 17 as part of a 40th anniversary series celebrating the cinema of 1977. He’s also answered a few of our questions about some of the legacies and myths that have sprung up around the film in the past 40 years. George Butler-who, alongside Charles Gaines, shot the 1974 book of the same name-has shared some candid, never-before-seen photos from Schwarzenegger’s Pumping Iron days collected in the gallery above. ![]() Both Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno would go on to become household names, and for those curious to see how an Austrian bodybuilder could conquer not only Hollywood but the world of politics too, look no further than the naked ambition, clever calculation, and titanic work ethic Schwarzenegger puts on display in Pumping Iron. In the burgeoning days of documentary filmmaking, nobody wanted to back Butler and his partner, Robert Fiore, to make a film about a niche sport starring a handsome Austrian whom no one outside the bodybuilding world had ever heard of.īut Butler and Fiore pressed, on and the rest is film history. The film was the ultimate underdog story, not because of the way the competition plays out on-screen (spoiler alert, Schwarzenegger starts the film as a bodybuilding star and ends the film an even bigger bodybuilding star), but because of the great lengths Butler went to to get it made. It’s been 40 years since the glistening, flexing biceps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, and the rest of the giants of the professional bodybuilding scene burst into the pop culture conversation via director George Butler’s docudrama Pumping Iron. Here he is practicing on the roof of his condo. Arnold always worked on his poses and thought about competing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |