Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Pumping Iron (1976)

Director: George Butler, Robert Fiore

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

'Pumping iron is a great feeling... like coming, but coming continuously,' smiles Arnold Schwarzenegger, relaxed in the confidence that he's demolishing another popular prejudice against bodybuilding. Pumping Iron in fact starts knocking preconceptions sideways in its opening moments - with a sequence showing Schwarzenegger taking ballet lessons to improve his posing style - and it goes on to demonstrate convincingly that bodybuilders are as 'normal' in their vanities, foibles and rivalries as any other group of nuts. The movie is a very shrewd mixture of documentary and realistic fiction, put together with both eyes and ears on entertainment value; it has, for example, an extremely agreeable LA session-rock score. Its strongest card is the outrageously charismatic Schwarzenegger, but its view of musclemen and physique contests in general has a charm not unlike Rocky.

Author: TR 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: George Butler, Robert Fiore

Producer: George Butler, Jerome Gary

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Louis Ferrigno, Matty Ferrigno, Victoria Ferrigno, Mike Katz, Ken Waller full cast

Genre(s): Documentaries

Duration: 86 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.