EXCLUSIVE Pumping Iron Documentary

I April 2002 Arnold Schwarzenegger begins filming t3 rise of the machines the latest installment of Terminator 1 of the most successful film franchises of all time at 55 Arnold is one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood but his influence on the movies goes beyond the numbers can certainly change the face of the action fuel each generation comes along and adds Alou more to it Smith Wesson and me days people are expecting their heroes to be bigger than life but Arnold's also brought bigger than life to real life we're gonna go and pump it up let's just a push-up watch the governor doing push-ups very good doing very well is a place to secure as being the father of the new wave of pathology his face has appeared on thousands of magazines published in hundreds of languages worldwide by sheer force of personality he brought muscles into the mainstream it kind of made it almost glamorous in a sense and what's interesting is the culture then changed in Arnold was the icon he was he was the guy who went first his fame unfortunate it's easy to forget that it all started with an independent documentary film released in 1977 called pumping iron the film introduced the world to a character every bit as amazing as the Terminator or Conan would turn out to be that character was Arnold Schwarzenegger himself what we were doing is making a story out of bodybuilding and we had the priceless opportunity of being able to craft a subculture and to really define what it was before pumping iron bodybuilding had a big image problem wasn't taken seriously bodybuilding was on the back of comic books rather hasn't been such a flexing of biceps since Popeye down his last can of spinach had kind of a stigma attached to it that it was guys are insecure or people that were trying to overcome and fear already complexes and dark dungeons in other words freaks and fools but in pumping iron director George Cutler was able to smash these old stereotypes and replace them with something new to bodybuilding personalities of course it didn't hurt that his star was Arnold Schwarzenegger and I remember being being a little kid and watching and going well that guy has a funny accent it sure is big to see competition see these guys and how these guys play these mind games with each other was fascinating I watch you I watch you two now the bottle above my head I'm not nervous at all you certainly got a vibe of Arnold's charm his charisma can you I have six times in stolen deal before that I think that if you had a muscular body was that that's all you were about is the muscle the muscle the muscle but after humping iron you could have character you could have charisma you could be funny if boxing had Ally bodybuilding was going to have Arnold he was controversial the pump it's a size five Tamiya's having sex with a woman and coming he was charming and like ali he was a natural-born salesman selling not only bodybuilding but his own persona do you work out every day every other day um I would say six days a week six days I meet weights in there runs three times a week and then do other exercises that we shouldn't talk about here in front of the people slide I'll do everything but pumping iron did more than legitimize bodybuilding it was at the leading edge of the fitness revolution by the late 70s and early 80s Americans inspired at least in part by the muscularity they saw in pumping iron we're joining the bodybuilders at the gym it became a social circuit for the first time it became a great place to meet people at the gym the last place in the world you would ever expect to meet your future mrs. is that the gym never happened but it did the guys are going huh yeah I'll hang around here this is bad I'll get in shape just so I can hang out here but as America was heading into the weight room Arnold was heading out propelled by a wacky idea he thought he could parlay his bodybuilding into Hollywood stardom the like acting very much so maybe I can have a loo career there who knows it was a long shot the bulging physique that had served him so well in competition had nothing to do with the traditional Hollywood handsome this is something else that I wanted because I said look he's not gonna be you know wearing briefs and and and flexing on The Tonight Show he said I'm not asking him to do that but the fact is that he is known for the fact that he's got the body that he's got in the old days the audience knew the hero was big and strong because the script said so that's the man I'm after I remember when I first started acting in the early 50s that not not many actors who worked out at all they didn't miss it the way the way they walk the way the chump and a horse and all those kind of things too so it has totally been work during the fifties and sixties you could get away with murder he said ok Superman had muscle son on his arnold was trying to figure out how to fit into the hollywood mold director John Milius was trying to figure out how he could bring the comic-book Conan to life by casting a bodybuilder for Arnold the timing couldn't have been better if we didn't have we'd have to build suddenly Arnold found himself the star of a big-budget Hollywood movie but now the muscles weren't enough they were acting lessons riding lessons swordplay lessons and diction lessons 3333 and 1/3 the fine wine it grows in a vine jury would have doubts about whether he could do things but he always would have the doubt of somebody climbing a mountain that's halfway up how are we going to get there now we're going to get there by climbing up yeah yeah yeah Conan the Barbarian was a smash hit and put Hollywood on notice though you didn't have to be built like a bodybuilding champion it was definitely time to get in shape Arnel comes along and the bar gets moved from there to there we the moviemakers just try to find clothes our costume to put on this extraordinary Elemental creature this giant I'll be back I mean it really kind of set a standard that said if you're gonna try to come off as something on the screen you know you got to you got to have the goods and it's not all about your stunt double shirts came off and there was there was no hide in there was no like holding the stomach in in the 80s the studio's produced a string of action movies all starring muscular heroes audiences weary of the sensitive seventies hate them up we were like the new action years of that era all of us had one thing in common we showed the physical development we love cheering back because we can appreciate we in our hearts know what it takes to get that man wanted to go to see a movie that had tremendous action but it could sit back and say wow yes he takes care of the job and kind of moves through you in the way I think they were movies that celebrated men I know it certainly inspired me because here's a guy who's who's kicking ass and taking names but the predator especially you know stepped at the plate so just bring it and it was great you know especially at the end you know come on give me I'm right here you me do it come on kill me I'm here that's fantastic now being strong and muscular was not only okay it was celebrated a new generation raised on action movies hit the weights in order to avoid being cold girlie-man where's the pom you are I think people were being swept away by the film's subliminally and then all of a sudden it just hit hey look at this yeah how about this oh you guys make this sick this is what you have to do like this suddenly it seemed everybody was in shape from a few darkened gyms in the early 70s an entire multi-billion dollar industry erupted normal everyday people were signing up in droves to tighten tone shape and scope at fitness palaces filled with gleaming chrome muscle making machines bodybuilding and physicality became kind of like a hip thing it's okay to be proud of your body maybe people who didn't necessarily want to be as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger who didn't have any aspirations of becoming mr. Olympia but just had aspirations after seeing him about getting in the gym and saying you know what I just want to get in shape and it's not only men pumping up in movies muscular female stars are now in on the action in the fashion world magazine ad self pecs and abs as much as they do underwear rock icons have gone rock-hard hiring trainers to turn them lean and mean in sports athletes who have been told for decades to avoid getting muscle-bound have learned better because big me strong and strong is good so boxers are now trained by bodybuilders as are athletes in tennis basketball even golf professional Olympic teams higher strength coaches to build brawn but it's not only athletes remember when the elderly thought lifting anything heavy would cause a heart attack no more study after study shows that strength training can improve cardiovascular fitness strengthen bones increase flexibility and balance even fight diabetes or arthritis and depression millions of people are involved in exercise programs involves strength training robic exercise high-protein diets are there other craze Arnold was doing that back in the 70s in the 60s bodybuilding once a subculture of maniacs is now so much a part of our culture it's hard to even remember when we thought lifting weights was weird he made it very you know socially acceptable and you know pumping iron certainly was the pivotal moment in the history of that I had no idea that it would catch on the way it did so that was bad total surprise I wish I could say I knew all along but that's not really what really happened I still look back today when I talk about it like right now and reflect I serve as if how did it happen I mean how how could that recover reality coming up next the film that launched the movie career of Arnold Schwarzenegger and helped jumpstart the fitness revolution pumping iron and stay tuned after the movie for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of pumping iron including never-before-seen outtakes from the film and current interviews with the cast and crew about the time when I first saw it I was like mortified Sam oh my god he is absolutely cute at being able to figure out an individual's absolute weakness and then put a sword through it then maybe I went a little overboard and now the documentary that started it all remixed and remastered pumping iron you you long before the phrase pumping iron became part of our everyday Fitness vocabulary it was the title of a low-budget documentary that would defy the odds to become a cult classic on the 25th anniversary of that film Cinemax presents the story behind the making of pumping iron the film that introduced the world to a charismatic 28 year-old bodybuilding champion known as Arnold with never-before-seen outtakes from the film the only thing that's left is on with as well as candid comments from the cast and crew twenty-five years after the film was released about the time when I first saw it I was like mortified saying oh my god I went overboard many times we were really struggling to get the movie made and people were laughing at us Cinemax presents a tale of sweat muscle ego in the Golden Age of bodybuilding raw iron the making of pumping iron February Columbus Ohio Arnold Schwarzenegger is in town for the Arnold Classic the annual bodybuilding competition he's produced since 1976 along with mr. Olympia it's the premiere contest in the sport bodybuilding has come a long way since pumping iron was released in 1977 contestants are bigger than ever and so is the stage show the Arnold Classic is an extravaganza to rival any big-ticket rock concert body buildings become big ticket to these dates more than 175,000 bodybuilders who eat in 169 countries today Schwarzenegger is here to hand out more than 400,000 dollars in prizes but he's also here to see some old friends who have gathered backstage many of the original bodybuilders from the pumping iron era bill grant ed cornea Mike Katz Franco Colomba and Luther eagle hey are you good to see others ripping there was camaraderie we helped each other we trained each other we were part of a family where's your son is Michael right there Michael come over here Oh how's it going okay good the CEO 25 years ago we saw in pumping army so the little microphone three years old and then he made you pose remember he made you his jaws move it's hard feel this muscle how hard that is just everyone is so huge what's going on it so got it what do you want you believe that pumping iron to change my whole life are you gonna give him all the wrong advices it's a dead heart for me to give him the wrong advices no no only they ride that bike it was so much fun and enthusiasm great oh he's incredible let me tell you she said not she the mother talking about my mother he's talking about pumping up he's talking about pumping up he's talking with psyching me out he couldn't shut me up then you can tell you now is the second of these whenever I think back and pumping iron bass in the 1975 when we did this movie I definitely miss it back before pumping iron he was known as the Austrian oak but he was unknown outside the marginal and misunderstood sport called competitive bodybuilding it was a tiny little world and 300 people would come to the contest that night they would go crazy over Arnold Schwarzenegger so he was king of 300 people it's just that Arnold hadn't burst out of that world yet photographer George Butler and writer Charles Gaines were fascinated with the bodybuilding subculture and collaborated on a book they called pumping iron which featured the young Austrian bodybuilder Butler wanted to turn it into a film but Arnold wanted to retire since moving to America in 1968 he'd won the sports top prize mr. Olympia an unprecedented five times and he'd had enough George Butler came to me and says I have a great idea we should do a movie but it only will work if you ain't it and if you retire now you can't be in it to this business work Butler knew the weird and wacky world of bodybuilding had all the makings of a fascinating movie but how to get investors aboard it would be a tough sell it was after all the 70s the height of the counterculture revolution the last thing on anyone's mind was muscle men it gave me a very formidable obstacle to overcome which is to say how do I make Arnold Schwarzenegger is fashionable in the era in which the most celebrated model in the world was Twiggy in the back of my mind I knew that throughout history there had always been at least one worldwide bodybuilder Sandow in the at the turn of the century was one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world Charles Atlas in the 20s and 30s Steve Reeves in the 50s made a fortune in the movies after convincing Arnold to compete for one more mr. Olympia title first time director Butler jumped headfirst into filmmaking okay you got the eight fake it's late just tortured the concept was simple shoot the intense training leading up to the mr. Olympia then shoot the competition itself just let the story unfold in front of the camera he started by shooting a test film for investors in this never-before-seen footage the first frames ever shot for pumping iron arnold pumps up backstage for a posing exhibition when eggs get abused it's just too much pressure you know I mean I'm competing now for ten years and after ten years I feel like it's enough you know have to let other people have a chance and just leave us a winner yeah suppose know he beat you it doesn't thing for years now since 1970 I was like unbeatable and there was no hope for anyone to come close it just didn't exist because I knew once I have the title there's no way anyone is gonna take it but if an Arnold win was inevitable where was the drama where was the conflict every movie hero has to show his stuff by pushing up against an obstacle Butler had to find it I wanted to find a great antagonist for Arnold and there was Louis Ferrigno in Brooklyn New York 6-8 to 70 dark and foreboding muscle magazine publisher Joe Weider had already had his eye on Ferrigno for wieder the old story Arnold wins again was growing stale but a mr. Olympia showdown between Lew and Arnold this was perfect and exactly the kind of rivalry that sells magazines he won the Mr Universe contest in 1974 in Italy WIDA came back I remember like it was like a fresh breath yeah ah if a new champion and horizon well I have to stimulate them then when I go into the gym and I saw him pick apart from the pound he says what do you think Jose I don't know bad he can do better tada he got mad so he would create this whole thing and there you know and I think it was really good because the fans loved all that and that's exactly what I played up then in the movie pumping iron in this outtake from pumping iron weeder and Schwarzenegger discussed the very real possibility that the champ might actually lose to the larger and hungrier Ferrigno you are the one who solo in New York just a few days ago so how does he look he looks very very massive well here with my idol calling me getting the bodybuilding of course we have Idol like Arnold you want to beat your eyelid to be the best way today these dogs in Africa - big enough Greek Butler had his antagonist since 1969 nobody has beaten me so why should he come around now all of a sudden break my record I don't know he's training real hard he was here as if he's built almost like you what happens if you are defeated to enhance the drama the filmmakers had to pump up the conflict this is for the big baby Louie this is where documentary filmmaking is so effective because you can do something with real people that a novelist just couldn't imagine you create dialogue and hostility towards another one another in order to make the movie more interesting if it is just a sport that you can see for 10 minutes and then you have seen it all but if you see the personalities and you can follow them a showdown was set the golden King versus the Dark Prince why was a bit of an outsider at that time in that world because I was the only one back training in Brooklyn Brooklyn versus Venice California a bizarre beach town a refuge for artists and hippies weirdos and wackos in its own strange way bodybuilding fit right in if the sport had an epicenter it was a legendary Gold's Gym which is where the filmmakers began shooting oh my god how's it Portia's yeah no side chestnuts from chests Franco sides yeah this thing's changed a little bit let me go to the side looks like good what do you have to do is Vanessa side chest then hit the side chest and let it come out and if you don't have it don't hit it don't hit it don't hit it we had camaraderie that was incredible we trained together we go to the goals gym at 10 o'clock in the morning it's where everybody would meet and I mean the energy that came out of that little gym was only about 5,000 square feet we could probably light up the city of Los Angeles it's the mecca Bobby boy when I got out of here there was only this little bitty gym sitting out here close to the beach I mean it wasn't much bigger than YMCA where I'm from it was like a house and was only basic wait that's the only place we knew that was home to us the public at that point didn't accept what we were doing they didn't understand what we were doing that was one of the joys of doing pumping iron that people could really see that we just weren't big huge people with muscles we've all kind of tied together like this we worked out together we ate together we were partying together rent was cheap by day they trained at Gold's are on nearby Muscle Beach and at night they let off steam often at Arnold's bachelor pad in Santa Monica the main man is here guys never stopped rolling the universe every size just in the mr. world wait a minute let me meet the double shot double price of for this lady here it is quick II hated that one Pfizer shout it's reshot okay the error from like 1970s in 1980 was probably the most fun I've ever had in my life so we had this unformed subject and everyone was very eager to make something out of it these fellows that did the film Butler and Gaines they had become part of our family we trusted them day after day shooting scene after scene Butler and co-director Robert Fiore we're looking for their movie material that would make the cut they found that even watching this huge crowd order their huge lunch turned into an event we went to the restaurant we all the ordinary people were sitting which we called the ordinary folks we were sitting on the table and people were just looking over kind of like we're the skies oh my god big steak scrambled eggs six eggs over easy and eternal yeah oh look put his inning is eating three hamburgers in one shot oh god well who are they is this gladiators I mean you couldn't figure it out who we whiner and we love that kind of a scene and nothing to do to shock people the film makers often set up situations to see what would happen so a lot of different chances were tried they turn shortened eager and Mike cats loose in an amusement park hey Dana they made a statue of Mike that is a good one mag they film Arnold with his acupuncturist what does this mean we're stimulating a muscle okay good night watched him get a haircut yes Cardinal the fight instead of fighting compete what kind of clothing do you wear in competition a little tiny posing trunks you had to talk it all no except you should the winner so I talk a lot yes they were shooting even over shooting always looking for material to reveal our motives his character what seemed at the time to be insanely ambitious dreams I want the World Championships so many times now that I would like to go on you know try to be the best in something else like I would like to get into acting I said there was a tremendous struggle to make this movie really work and to make it really interesting not only for the bodybuilding crowd for the plan for the channel popper population to do that and to give the film some Hollywood sizzle Butler approached bud cort the hot young star of mash Brewster McCloud and Harold and Maude I've never seen so many huge people in my life that's why I joined a gym I want to get my blood moving you know yeah all I do is drive and scream at my agent you know Saphir did given blood movement the idea was to send bud to muscle masterclass with Arnold am I supposed to breathe before I stand up during or after I know this thing I hate it I cracked my neck and when do I breathe in breathe out when when do I breathe and out right he was very funny and he happened to love bodybuilding just start thinking about it is a beautiful exercise and it makes your legs grow yeah you changed psychological but it doesn't work I mean in my leg but after screening all his footage Budd felt his scenes were too distracting from the main storyline I think this whole thing is I think suction Budd pulled out asking the filmmakers to put the rest of his salary back into the project so they could finish and I always teased him and said one day I'm gonna take all of this footage should be shot and put it back into the movie now finally people are gonna see it surely not exercise okay we did a scene of what we call the muscle rock we wind up in the Malibu canyons up to the top of the mountain there where they had the best kind of lighting for taking photographs so he brought the whole camera team up there in this outtake Arnold and his buddies work on posing routines for the upcoming contest in South Africa if flu hits this one I follow up with this we can't go into that Winston live it this one do we don't follow that one he could but do you know I noticed then what this I think you know what I mean okay almost nothing and made it into the movies but it was really a fantastic I think sequence just to show again that we were all friends good not bad big nobody look at the lakes the reason why I didn't really work was because when we edited the movie we wanted to show some kind of a competition the movie was Arnold and it was critical to get to the heart of it and the heart of it was the competition for the heavyweight crown and the conflict with Lou Ferrigno white mouse and that she's in shape fine I hope he is the film makers moved on to New York in contrast to the fun and games of gold Jim the Brooklyn setting was a dungeon we filmed Louie in a dark sort of underground gym in Brooklyn and then we'd immediately cut to Arnold Schwarzenegger who was skylights overhead Venice Beach was right outside the gym palm trees swinging to and fro and in contrast to the sunny optimism of Arnold and his friends Lou was as serious as a heart attack Here I am in New York wearing sweat clothes I got everybody around me the gym that but one third of my size people not looking like bodybuilders you could see this one she and I'm walking in and one guy doing a dumbbell kill yeah she got ten right and it's hard to stay motivated the only way I could motivate myself with this keep screaming the Hall of name and the degenerative keep humming the heavy iron Arnold Arnold I really wanted to beat on a sport in Agrabah hey that's it I'm for it no Butler found not just an antagonist but a character rich with vulnerabilities partially death and overshadowed by a domineering father Lou had everything to lose what Butler invented was madee Ferrigno's actual involvement in his son's bodybuilding career was I see my father never really was really involved in bodybuilding and they asked him to be in the film that they'll be good to have father-son in the movie Maddy Ferrigno is a stage father for the best of intentions and Maddy had a very clear idea of what Louise should be doing it would just unroll in front of my eyes but you step out there boy remember all those grueling nights and mornings in the gym and this is it this is the reward that we want it be kept putting on my head this is your last chance there's one scene you see me killed in dumbbell 100-pound dumbbell right after where's my father go boy what a workout oh yeah what a workout that's nice because he was holding my wonder dumbbell he's the one who tired reminding what you're gonna show them and then you go boom like you're saying take a look at this honker man something like that okay you're trying and he did the best he could to fact because at the time I have a speech problem and everything I've not able to conduct myself interviewed she tried to be my voice the unfolding relationship between father and son added an unexpected layer of tension and emotional richness to the film as Matty demonized Arnold he wore his son down there's only one thing in mind and that's the beat that Jenna we gotta beat Arnold he's been up there too long you waited nine years for this shot right be careful he's gonna try every trick if he sees you look a little better he's gonna try and do something he's gonna try to make you look bad out there watch every move he makes try not to engage in conversation with him and most of the time I really wanted to say let me speak for myself let me be born yeah please you know this is not how I want to conduct myself it's not how I want to be in the film look I that's right that's it no no down here Louie I was not really to make I was being down as Butler filmed and shaped his material blending fact with fiction the characters emerged his types heightened versions of themselves the self-invented charismatic winner the self-conscious desperate underdog but they're also honed his secondary characters the bully the family man the master poser Arnold's friend Franco Columbu was not so easily defined so in 1975 the crew travelled to his tiny homeland in Sardinia to see what might happen not much did except one of the more memorable moments of the film my town is 2,000 people when they all in town and of sudden they come the crew comes there to film my parents and little things I did in the town it was nothing to do in the Terek will only walk and lift a car and that's what I did I could sangwich if I could I do for for the camera lift a car my father was watching say that's my son who leaked scars another memorable moment was the infamous t-shirt incident when Ken Waller in an attempt to fluster his opponent Mike Katz hides his t-shirt you see a blue blue t-shirt around in reality the filmmakers made it more than it was thing about my part of it like they have to have a good guy and a bad guy to make something to the movie and you know I'm gonna do when I get to Africa I'm gonna take catch a shirt am i hiding I hid the t-shirt yeah we knew that Waller had taken Katz's t-shirt and we did follow that up you know back then I thought it was my nature in a way but I was all in joking I considered Mike with friend a friend of yours you really don't want to hurt their feelings at that time I didn't ever think it was going to come out and be a big deal on a movie screen she learned later I would go to contests after that and I'd get booed because of what was said that and then there was Schwarzenegger himself while already supremely confident he made it a point to pump up his persona while the cameras were rolling I played the you know the kind of Germanic machine that comes over from over there like a machine nothing will stop him I have to cut my emotions off and be kind of cold no emotions no feelings I want to be the best and I'm perfectly willing to go through anything to be the best anything to psych out his opponents trying to chip away at their confidence laughing all the while I have less nervous at all I tried anything and everything do sometimes look like you know this evil guy Franco is pretty smart but Franco is a child for me was like I know I don't care it was like doesn't matter but this is but I'm on stage I'm gonna show that I'm the best and I'm still convinced diverse least as good as Arnold I'm the stage that night of the Olympia or maybe little bit better it doesn't matter if he wins i win to be honest with you he was cocky huh be perfect it's one of the hardest things to be you know he had a right to be of course he were competitive of course when he came down to the pose-off and when he came down to who brings the best body in and the day of the competition yeah I was the most competitive a better now since I'm wiser and older I thought about many times of like you know maybe I went a little overboard but you know that's the way I did it then there was my thinking process then and you know you can't go back and then change it but sometimes I regretted in an attempt to soften the edges around Arnold Schwarzenegger Charles Gaines the author of the pumping iron book came around to draw Arnold out get him to warm up emotionally reveal vulnerability it didn't work and it never made the cut scared you ever get scared sure it gets good a lot what scares ya Don known you felt like he couldn't get through to me because here was this kind of one-dimensional guide it was just like it's made of steel of course they want you to be over dope they want to be able to do that you softly be able to cry because it puts them in the same boat as it were it's just one of us now you know what I think you're doing here I think you're now no I do I think what he really didn't realize was not that it was not vulnerable but that I lived in denial um you know my whole life it's always like whatever I felt pain or anything like this it was like I forgot about it dismiss it for some reason maybe has to do the competition you just clamp down at capacity on your side to carry it too far what it winds up doing is just cutting you off from the possibility of having a really fundamental reciprocal human relationship for some games so what you don't care about no in specially since I'm new in bodybuilding and in competition you have to kind of bury things temporarily the way I dealt with it overseas did right now I put it aside and then the deal with it later on whenever that is always on the front burner though was Arnold's ambition which was on display in another sequence cut from the film it's Arnold visiting with his idol retired bodybuilding champ reg Park Arnold was patterning his career after Park had gone on to star in Hercules movies in the 60s I think when perhaps happened to me about 15 20 years ago it's happening to you right now no it did see curve with the perilous unbelievable yeah it's like a repetition yeah that's what it is and I think that's why I looked up to you so much right in the beginning he was a kid wanted to emulate what I'd done so it was a great compliment to me and I took it in that sense yeah I remember in particular this one train because I felt like I was dreaming for eight hours them in the whole night and it was just it was like you know me being a king and spending a staying on top of a mountain and there was no room left for anybody else up there okay just for me I mean the whole thing was so much like you know the victory dream the time had come the pumping iron team had shot every scene they could to set up their characters at home now it was time to go where they were always headed halfway around the world to the mr. Olympia and Mr Universe contest in Pretoria South Africa there'd be no more manipulated outcomes no setting up scenes the film crew would now be observers not participants anymore the competition was the real thing and everyone would be playing to win with tremendous adventure in those days you want to go to Africa to make a movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger competing in the first multiracial contest in South Africa then let's go to South Africa and do it and then we were doing this by the seat of our pants a revolution in technology much like today's digital camera revolution allowed the crew to shoot with more mobile handheld 16 millimeter film cameras with unprecedented access to the bodybuilders the filmmakers set out to uncover the drama that was taking place behind the scenes I think the wonderful part about the film was is that we didn't really feel because of our comfort and trust in the people that did the film that the cameras were even rolling so that you got that real honest down-to-earth kind of emotions and feelings Roger Wilco Australian there's a moment in the film in which you can almost see me on stage taking the shoulders of John Churchill the camera woman and just turning the camera like this onto my cats at the moment he lost and then we just followed him downstairs you know as I look back on that I've seen it many times I think most of us many of us will will draw into ourselves and into our families in times of need and I think ultimately I think I just went back and wanted to know how my son was doing it's like we're going in to see cats and I could you know usually I could say look what I got Michael you know when I put it around his neck or I gave him the trophy for his room and now I'm away from for ten days and come home with nothing you know I'll tell you no matter what happens to me in the sport I always got them that's that's something great to come home to it was a way that I could try to gather myself together with such a disappointment it was it at that point it was a very very big disappointment in my life so I kind of gathered my strength from my family yeah when the mr. universe part of the competition was over Walter had won next up the main event mr. Olympia with Arnold Liu and Franco all in the running the film crews got into position I was aware that there was going to be a marvelous confrontation between Arnold and Louie in the pop-up room it was setting up the most wonderful opportunity for Arnold to do everything that he is capable of doing the psyching Porat of bodybuilding which is quite famous because of that scene in some others is something that Arnold really does love it Lou this give me the bank of the sitter's means the room we were in who's the only probably about 20 feet by 20 feet I mean this very small room and you talk about a lot of potential a lot of heat so you can't help you know kind of on the edgy side the only thing that's left is on with that's why I'm up here on see I'm not wearing boots where do you think your change this other day I would lose all the other bathroom thank you you're welcome we're going to insurance everything's under control here good you're gonna book out a long time on them you're gonna be king a long time thank you more than 25 years later Ferrigno recalls his feelings that night I came out on the prejudging I realized that I was not gonna come second there's a chance I want to come third and I'm looking the audience I could see my father's face has his own my god it's like because he had more to the point than the light was that place no barrack no I tradition what that boy of yours has done in a year it's fantastic when we try Rionda you think you're going it's very wonderful John said wonderful job I knew that arms going to retire and it would like to announce officially did I'm retiring from bodybuilding competitions that was my chance but you know history is history being a South Africa but I really want more than anything but not really being rich olympia was being on the open having a good time like all that's what I want more than anything that's more impressive than me we want to be in South Africa I'm second from 32b 10th you down there have a fun smooth with people shaking hands that's what I'm doing now because it's taken me many year to see that but that was my envision when I sure that that's when the direction I wanted to go for me to change that I had to work on myself the film was in the can but now there was more than a hundred hours of it to be cut down and crafted into a movie unfortunately Butler was broke having maxed out on his credit cards after I got back from Africa I got a call every single day of the week from American Express because I had succeeded in running up a $35,000 bill and I had become their most important client I was rather impressed with myself out of desperation in 1976 they concocted an outlandish scheme they put on a bodybuilding show with the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City to try and attract potential backers we invited candy Bergen to photograph Arnold the Whitney thought we might get 300 people and someone said you know this is pretty big crowd outside you seen this crowd this big and I went down and looked and there were 5,000 people outside trying to get in inside the museum Arnold Frank Zane and Ed corny were rotated on a turntable in front of the New York City Art crowd it was very set of high concept idea it was a risky scheme and it was a long long way from Venice Beach moderated by New York Times critic Vicky Goldberg the event brought together some of the most prominent art historians in the world to watch bodybuilding we're talking about a subject which is fast and quite present before our eyes a lot of the times that is to say the representation of the muscular body in art the next bodybuilder is coming out doesn't need an introduction to a lot of you but he does to a lot more Pacific correspondent mr. destroy arms and then you had this discussions about the new what is a bodybuilding and compared to what art was and how did you know Leonardo da Vinci and and Rodin and all those guys come up with those muscles when they painted and sculpted muscular bodies the Whitney couldn't control the event because there were too many people there so that instead of taking the money and putting it in a cash register they had to throw the money into a pile on the floor there was a six foot high pile at five dollar bills and at the end of the day the movie was financed and the rest is history the Whitney Museum event proved to investors that the general public just might be interested in bodybuilding now it was time to present pumping iron to the world On January 18th 1977 pumping iron premiered in New York's Plaza Peter Arnold and his friends were now the toast of New York City audiences loved the film and critics gave it rave reviews but for the bodybuilders it was a surreal experience seeing their private world revealed on the big screen it was comical des they see some of the things that come out in that movie I was a bad guy and back then I thought that was soon I was alright when I saw her for the first time made me very angry because I sell in a short hour portray calm down help art afraid people won't like me I was afraid people gonna look down on me you go to the factory here to kid from Brooklyn he's deaf he can't speak he looked down in the film while trying to said he was at the time I felt like a freak but it wasn't like that I realized that with in time everyone embraced me people come up and say God look you're pumping iron I left you and on nothing to say I just want to eat my cake was so incredible to see the film on the big screen and at the end of the film when we were sitting in the bus going back and I don't notice joking with Lou was almost like breathing out saying now we can relax in a way it was naive you know it was a wonderful opportunity to just hang out together train together and be really part of a family that continues to be close and friend friendly to this day we all stuck together and have fun doing it there was a certain kind of a unity there and in a certain kind of become a rotary it was unlike anything else and that's why we you look at it today just nothing else like pumping iron here we are 25 years later celebrating it so we must have done something like so how you feel today Laurie that's the better today dr. Franco Columbu is a practicing chiropractor in Los Angeles Marion got the certificate six seven eight he also produces in stars and low-budget films that he shoots in Sardinia to this day he and Arnold are best friends my cats is a judge for the International Federation of bodybuilding and on several world gyms in Connecticut where he trains up-and-coming bodybuilders his son Mike jr. and his wife recently had a baby my cats is a grandfather ken Waller lives in Los Angeles he has seen Gould's the tiny seaside gym he once managed evolve into a worldwide enterprise his focus now is on raising his son let's go talk about winter net bill as a sales manager at extreme activewear the company that prints Gold's merchandise he now has all the t-shirts he can get his hands off Joe Weider and his brother been continued promoting bodybuilding through their publishing Empire and through the IFBB once a subculture now a multi-million dollar business edy corny works in the fitness industry it had some health problems recently but promises that even from a wheelchair he can still out pose anyone from the old days George Butler went on to direct pumping iron to four women he recently directed two documentaries on the life of Antarctic Explorer Ernest Shackleton the films have earned rave reviews Lou Ferrigno went on to a career in film and television most notably starring at the incredible hope he's also a trainer to Hollywood stars one of the most famous names in the health and fitness injury no where's eat my cake remember that like Maddy Ferrigno retired to Florida says he's very proud of his son as for arnold schwarzenegger he went on to make a few bucks in the movie business you every time anyone sees pumping on they will come away you know loving the movie getting inspired by the movie but did the same time they asked themselves wow I mean was all of the stuff true I mean was it really did honored really psych-out lou ferrigno did you really not go home to his father's funeral because it was just shortly before competition and was he really that cord did he say it will forget that he's dead already I'm not gonna bother with that I'm just focusing on my competition is that true I saw him hanging there afterwards a celebration party after the mr. lewin be smoking a joint did you really smoke a joint and did he in fact inhale is that true was it true that they stole Mike Katz his t-shirt was really the psyching out that he was doing him Lou Ferrigno was that true so they're walking out with a lot of questions and so then I go around the country and promote the movie for instance even the 25 year anniversary when the film started playing on HBO and Cinemax you know a lot of journalists called me and says oh I just saw this for the first time and asked me about all those questions I think it's important to clarify that there's certain things in this movie that were true like the competition the outcome of the competition the training the severity of the training severity of the pain the sacrifices that needed to be made at the amount of hours we spend in the gym the food supplements we had to take the food that we did all the time the pounds of meat nor is kind of thing you all of that is true but there were certain things that are not true and that's why we never call it a documentary recorded always a drama because certain things were created in order to make it more interesting because it was very clear was that the only way we could raise the money for the movie for therefore our pumping iron was by making it more dramatic all the investors always said look the training is terrific what they're doing is terrific notice but how much can we look at this footage of them doing squats and chin-ups and serums know it as a sparring even though into them it's boring does to watch so therefore let's create some drama some conflict let's create a villain let's create a hero let's create the guy that has a psychological power over people let's create the guy they all that the guys that fall for it and they wipe out because of it let's have guys putting tricks in each other in the gym when they training with their 500 pounds on the back what can they do to each other those are the kind of things I like to see this is what the investors said so we started creating those kind of moments as we went along and we had a hundred hours of footage that we created during the whole shooting of pumping iron and then edit it down to around 85 or 90 minutes and so there we could take things in such a way that makes it then appear like I was psyching him out I watch you I want you to know the bhavan about my head I adopted as time went on and I saw that Lou Ferrigno could not be what was in the original intention to make him the villain the big guy did raise 280 pounds that trained secretly in a darkroom in New York and works himself after this machine to this Hulk and then comes to South Africa and beats the little Schwarzenegger wipes him off the stage that really didn't happen they thought it would happen or that it could happen but then he found out that he's actually a very vulnerable guy that he has a hearing problem that he needs his father's assistance a lot of times that he was a big guy but it did not have the kind of a presence they would make him look like an evil guy that once they're due to come and destroy me so slowly we changed the whole thing and actually made him the victim and made me the guy that pulls the tricks on him and it wipes out the competition year after year and the more I got into that the more I started playing that machine in the cinemas of how can I sell the idea that I'm a machine that has no emotions there doesn't care about any of my competitors not even my best friend that was living with me at the time Franco Columbu I could care less about him he as I said in the movies just a child another day of the competition I will become his father I say though this was in the reality was a love Franco and I helped him as much even if it meant that he would win the competition I would help him all the way he was my friend but in order to sound cold and it sound like calculated in like a machine I played out this role and I played out the role that what I would do with Lou Ferrigno we created the things that would psych him out I created a scene just before the prejudging where sat down with his father with his mother and with Lou Ferrigno we all sat down and there was through this whole big psych-out job telling him that I already called my mother and she congratulated me I told her I won six times mr. Olympia I said she congratulated me I see because I'm gonna win later on no matter what and the reality of it is is that you know for the I loved Lou and there was no reason to do a psych-out Chopin him because I felt 100% that I'm gonna win the competition because he was just not there and at this level yet of competing he was not ready yet to win the competition so therefore there was no reason to psych him out but we wanted to play that there he's really dangerous he could wipe me out his huge his gigantic and I have to now not only use the body but I have to use the psychology and I have to psych the father out after psych the mother out after ciclo freaking out his whole thing and so throughout the movie we established that that kind of a relationship so there was another thing that we did in order to really make me be different than the other guys if you want to be a champion you cannot have any kind of an outside negative force coming in and affect you so therefore I have to cut my emotions off and be kind of cold in a way then we wanted to sell the idea how cold I am really and how I have no emotions for instance now I took a story that I actually heard in France one bodybuilder one time tell me four years before a story about how he never went home to his father's funeral if before competition how his father died and he just ignored it says here to stay focused so I store that story instead of isn't I have to say that story people will be shocked people will be writing about it and this movie comes out that's how you get of course headlines and all those kind of things the people who write about the movie that's how we sell the tickets so I said as if that's what I have to say so I explained that I am have no emotions if someone steals the car right out in front of my house I would just laugh at it and buy myself a new car you know of course afterwards I said it I said myself I said hey if someone stood Mekhi cry probably because this was made sure there was the reality then as they continued on with the story and it said as a matter of fact my father died one year be just before competition my mother called me and as they said come they going to come home to the funeral and I said there is it why he stayed already so acted really totally caught in people it really worked people were shocked about this some of them were appalled by this and so of course since then I've been getting those questions is this true is this not true I mean do did your father really have no reality of it is is that it never happened my father never died before any competition he died three months after competition in 1972 and I saw him just shortly before he died and we had a fantastic relationship so the there was none of that of not having any emotions not caring of my father dying so that's the reality so I think people now it is important for people to know what is the reality there is an opposite example is for instance with smoking the joint I smoked the marijuana in the movie and the end and a lot of people asked me sis did you really smoke a marijuana in this movie or was it just fake I said now I really smoked it and I always inhaled unlike some people claim you didn't see a blue t-shirt around wha well I had the other question that people always ask me Mike Katz was looking for his t-shirt in a movie did in fact everyone pay it play a trick on him and steal his t-shirt or hide his t-shirt to confuse him and therefore lose the competition but the reality of it is is that he didn't look for the t-shirt at one point just because he's misplaced it but no one was hiding it but after we saw this footage we went out and charged additional footage to create a scene we're a bunch of bodybuilders get together throw the football have fun and then Ken Waller says you know what I'm gonna do the Mike Katz I'm gonna hide his t-shirt as a man think I'm gonna hide his bathing suit I'm gonna hide everything and I'm gonna do when I get to Africa I'm gonna take CACI shirt am i hiding this is mine up here so that football scene was actually shot way after the competition was over and we have had all the footage already just in order to create this scene of the Mike Katz getting his t-shirts torn by Ken Walla and that he messed up his mind so he loses the competition painting your muscles and aching that's what makes actually the muscle then grow if you can't go through this pain barrier forget it one of the most common questions I also get is you know did we take steroids because now of course drugs is such a big issue in sports and the answer is yes it was just in a beginning stage because bodybuilders in those days just experimented with it but it was not illegal it was like it was we talked about it very openly I mean anyone that was asked is you take steroids yeah I take sweet a Ana Paula day or someone else would say I would take these this isn't that it was not an illegal thing now after it became a big problem then our Federation okay body bills ought not to take steroids and there will be testing done surprise testing done you could be called at any given time and within two days you have to do a test so we can't get rid of to sit the whole thing out of your system or anything like that so that's what's going on right now the body bills are tested continuously it's a SARS Fang to me as having sex with a woman and coming people still ask me for instance you know is it true and they're still trying to find out is it in fact true that a pump is better than coming because that's what I said in a movie and the reality of course is no there's nothing to do with one and the other it is feels great to be a champion it feels great to Train it feels great to pump up in order things but how can he compare one with the other it's two different things you better better get both the pump and the color but I mean they do rallies I made up a lot of this stuff because I felt like that's the way you get attention if there's I believe that the more sensationalistic that you are and the more ages things did you say the more you get quoted the more get in the papers and the more the sport of bodybuilding will benefit because the more stories we will get about the sport of bodybuilding so that's what it really was all about we couldn't have made this movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger about my life or something like that about my bodybuilding or my drive to win oh and yourself it would be boring and it wouldn't have done well what made this movie success for is is because we had so many bodybuilders in the movie that were very colorful I mean Lou Ferrigno had a specific part in this movie and it worked so well people loved his character it quaniee Franco Columbu I mean ken Waller Mike Katz surgeon Debray I mean there were endless amount of guys that really brought the color and the dimensions to the film and it made the relationships very interesting relationships that were you know shown in a movie lot of it it was true and some of it it was created and made up but the reality of it is is the movie has a lot of real stuff in there I mean the real competition real training real agony real defeat all of those kind of things it has in there only I was heartening many people come up to me and see how they were inspired by pumping iron first I heard it about the book then even 10 times more when the movie came out they were inspired to train it changed their lives to tell you the most unbelievable stories of what impacted had had created in them the will to succeed in life and to do something with themselves if it isn't bodybuilding or in other sports or in business it is amazing the impact the movie had so I hope that this movie when people watch this DVD has the same impact on them as it had and many hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of people around the world which is they walk away and get inspired and jump into the weight room and lift the weights to find out if it's really true what I said he's a pump better than coming it's not trust me cinemax final cut presents an exclusive interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger starve the classic documentary pumping iron I remember that George Butler came to me in 1974 and said I want to do a documentary about the body building and I said well it's gonna be without me because I'm retired and then he said well I absolutely need you to stay in competition and to compete one more year in order for us to make this set documentary so I competed one more year Arnold Schwarzenegger well I'm very happy that I did because the movie became you know a huge hit pumping iron became a classic well I feel somewhat emotional about this 25 year anniversary of pumping iron when I saw some of the old stuff it brought back such great memories of what a great time we had in the 70s training for the World Championships the camaraderie that existed at that time but at the same time it amazed me of what I was willing to do training 5 hours a day lifting 50 pounds of weights burning 8 10 10,000 calories and doing anything that it takes to win the people going to see - he pumped iron is basically it's a historic kind of a classic movie because it really captures a time when bodybuilding was just coming out of the closet so to speak or the basement and became a huge sport you're going to see you know what it takes for people what kind of training people who are willing to go through a long way let's go I'll beat them with the pounds and pounds of weights the tons of weights they wouldn't live every day to become the most muscular man anyone and everyone will get something out of this film because it's a film that is really fascinating and it is about people rather than just about a sport it's about people miss Hartmann Schwarzenegger and a 25th anniversary special edition of pumping iron pumping iron his back and celebrating its 25th anniversary cinema caught up with Arnold Schwarzenegger and some other familiar faces at the premiere party honoring his classic documentary Cinemax is off the food showed a movie and and celebrate with us all that special day David the movie came out the year when this whole revolution started taking place I saw it in 1977 right when it came out my brother took me to him I met Arnold by two months later so I have a special little spot of my heart for this film it's astonishing that an independent film is getting this kind of reception I don't think it's ever happened before Cinemax was there to talk to the original cast I think if I talked about 25 years ago I was here posed as an INTP meal my favorite scene in the film got to be me hanging off his arm yeah that's right it's like that is an original idea especially to see how bodybuilding makes people stay young as you see the way I look 25 years later I look even younger we also spoke with some of body buildings current title holders I think Bollywood has come a long way just like everything else when was the first time you saw something on hey was 16 years old I just joined it drew my train for three months the gym owner gave me a tape here you might want to watch it the favorite part of the movie are my friends that are in it it's like extraordinary each one of the guys does such a great job after that and has the same time promoting the sport don't miss pumping iron 25th anniversary special edition

Channel: Peter Brooks

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Keywords: arnold schwarzenegger, pumping iron, pump iron, muscles, weight lifting, big muscles, weight training, fitness, Fitness (magazine), Life, Second, Weight, Loss, Real, Exercise, Arnold, Weight Loss (Symptom), Weight Loss (The Office), Workout, Muscle, Body, Bodybuilding, Physical Exercise (Symptom), Bodybuilder, Gym, Personal, Flex, Healthy, Trainer, Nutrition, Posing, Exercises, pump iron movie, Pack, Building, Yoga, Cardio, Gain, Losing, Strong, Biggest, Six, Strength, Chest, Challenge, Muscular, Peter Brooks

Id: wiXxifU5ilQ

Length: 74min 20sec (4460 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 31 2012