A Disappointing Continuation

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The Documentary, Pumping Iron is gritty, old school bodybuilding documentary during the "Golden Era" of bodybuilding. It's natural lighting and older graphics do not interfere with the meaning of the film. The documentary has the major themes of hard work paying off, and a light-hearted, fun view of bodybuilding in general. Its audience is specifically for anyone interested in bodybuilding, and would not be very appealing to those who aren't interested. The camera angles are mainly medium – close ups of the bodybuilders preparing for their shows, but it also has extreme close ups of the muscles that were developed to show the detail and vascularity. If you like bodybuilding, you would probably enjoy the film. Throughout the film, you have the same theme of hard work paying off. The film captures rewards of success by showing the jubilant Arnold at the top of the sport. You see Arnold at the beach hanging out with beautiful women and drinking beer when he was done with the grinding work at the gym. As for others, they show all the medals and trophies that they have gotten through bodybuilding while other people doubted them on their journey. It is more of a motivational documentary than informative. To give you a feel of the film, it starts off with Arnold Schwarzenegger learning posing routines, and then showing others how to pose for contests. Arnold explains why bodybuilding is different from other sports and arts, and he is really the star of the show, but that's about all the information the film gives. You get to know Arnold's personality throughout the film. For example, when he poses in prison at the beginning of the film, he is very lax about the prisoners making jokes about him, and jokes back with them. Later other bodybuilders, such as Franco Colombo, and Amateur Mike Kats are featured in the film also giving a view of their personalities and the struggles they faced to reach their levels. Franco was shown to be a prominent boxer in Italy, even after he was being brought down by his mom for not having a job. By seeing Franco and Arnold training together you can tell what kind of people they are when they are in difficult positions and in intense pain.Finally, should you watch this film? There's no definite answer. If you're looking to learn about bodybuilding and how to be successful in transforming your body, then this isn't the film to watch, as there's not much information to learn from. Now, if you want to have a good time and feel good about it then this is right for you. It has many good feeling traits, such as the bodybuilders smiling and relaxing, and it shows the rewards from the work they put in. The film is something you can watch by yourself at night after a workout if you're feeling down or after a bad day. Personally, I enjoyed it, but I wish they had more information on how to get big. Pumping Iron was a good documentary for its purpose and was well made.

Entertaining, well made documentary on the sport of body building (circa mid 1970s) focusing in particular on then 28 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger, who can be charming, funny, and as when he's explaining his admiration for dictators in his Germanic accent ("People remember them") or playing psych-out mind games on his so-called best friend, but also rival, before a competition – he can be more than a bit creepy and disturbing. While always enjoyable, and fascinating for where Arnold's life led him after this film made him a star, it's not a super deep or moving documentary. Its too lightweight,repetitive and self- consciously funky for that, along with the fact that sections are admittedly semi-staged for the cameras. But if it's not quite a great film, its certainly a good time.

Before Arnold Schwarzenegger became a parody of himself, he starred in this insightful documentary about bodybuilding. "Pumping Iron" features a number of men whose muscles are beyond belief. Seriously, these men look bizarre. It seems as though it would be hard on one's heart to carry that extra weight. A scene that makes you think "uh oh" is when they attend the Mr. Olympia contest in Pretoria, South Africa. No one mentions apartheid.Anyway, it's a very fun documentary, even though a lot of the material seems really corny. Lou Ferrigno is best known as the Hulk, while I recognized Franco Columbu from some photos that Annie Leibovitz took of him and Schwarzenegger in South Africa.

"I'm not a quitter. It's like a dog. You can kick a dog so long, and it'll do two things: It's either gonna roll over and die or it's gonna bite you and attack you. And, I'm the kind of a person, who is the type of a dog, who would fight back. I wasn't gonna roll over and quit." -Mike KatzThis documentary shows men at the very top of their sport, even though their choices may make them outcasts in their time. By juxtaposing Arnold's story with Mike Katz and "Louie," this documentary shows what it means to succeed. Maybe you want to be the undisputed best at your game, but you'll have to sacrifice your emotions, like Arnold, and your human decency, like Waller.Perhaps you're a Mike Katz in life. You'll never get to be the best in the rat race, but you keep your heart with your family and never let them down. Or, you might be an Arnold, driven blindly to success, without a thought to the dying father back home or to the people you push down as you climb up. And there's Louie, his speech and hearing problem made him strong. He is sheltered and pushed too hard by his overbearing father, who always feels the need to be Louie's ears and voice. But Louie always pushes back, trying to find his own voice and his own life. None of the men here are weak, yet the sport always seems to be portrayed that way, like they are freaks or outcasts. I am not a bodybuilder, and I don't plan on becoming one, but the ideas and emotions presented in this movie are universal. The world needs men like Arnold, and it needs men like Mike. And, most of all, it needs men like Lou, who never lay down and never give up, even in the face of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles in life.This film can teach you about yourself, through the men portrayed on the screen. It is not merely a presentation of the sport of bodybuilding. "Pumping Iron" brings us into the lies and lives of the men we see all around us, men who have been pushed and men who push themselves to be the best they can be. This is the pinnacle of documentary film-making.