I had a hard time deciding what to finish off Schwarzenegger Week with, and after much deliberation, Pumping Iron won hands down.

Pumping Iron is a movie, actually its a documentary on the sport of bodybuilding that was released in 1977 that many people have not seen, and even more have never heard of. I can't give this film a higher recommendation, and hopefully by the end of this review, you will be aching to view it.

Pumping Iron, focuses in large part on Schwarzenegger as he prepares to defend and win his sixth Mr. Olympia title (he later came out of retirement to take his 7th in 1980). The Olympia in bodybuilding is equivalent to a best actor Oscar, or an MVP nod in professional sports. It is the highest honor a steroid riddled physique can achieve. The documentary covers Schwarzenegger's life, as well as the lives of several other bodybuilders, and while not meaning to be, is probably one of the funniest films I've ever seen.

This is vintage Schwarzenegger, not just physically, this is the real deal, there is no acting. You get to see who the man really is, and at times, what a total douchebag he can be (perhaps if people in California saw this flick, they may have thought twice about putting him in office). You get Ah-NULD's take on competition, the sport of bodybuilding, and his arrogant view of just about everyone else around him.

Schwarzenegger brings you into the sport, introduces us to many of it's participants, some of whom are even more ridiculous than he is. Just a few of his fellow sportsmen include Mike Katz, who was bullied as a child because of his religion, and still carries that rage with him, Lou Ferrigno, who attempted to unsuccessfully dethrone Schwarzenegger and gets made a fool of by him in front of parents, Ken Waller, a competitor of Katz who states how much he will fuck with him during the competition, and excutes his plan flawlessly and completely disrupts Katz, and Franco Columbo, close friend of Schwarzenegger's (so he thinks) who also falls victim to the Austrian's mind games.

Schwarzenegger will teach you how working out is just like having sex (coincidentally, gym memberships sky rocketed after the release of the film), shows you his training regimen, how in his spare time he travels to correctional facilities to pose down in front of large groups of men, his disdain for reporters during interviews, having breakfast with the Ferrigno family where he humiliates his counterpart, his post competition celebrations which include smoking a joint in full view of everyone (including Ferrigno), and then tells Ferrigno how he's gonna nail his sister at the end of the film.

Pumping Iron is dated, having been made nearly 30 years ago, but this movie is practically timeless, because if you listen to governor Schwarzenegger today, you can see the same attitude on display back then. He seems as though he treats politicians the same way he used to treat his former competitors. I can bench more than you, and have bigger arms, therefore I am better than you. Did that sport train him for the future or what?

Hamlin Grade: 6

Timothy Dalton is the one true James Bond,
pat