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Pumping Iron - The 25th Anniversary Special Edition Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 35 Reviews)

Long-time coming!
I've still got my old Rhino Video VHS copy of this little gem from about 10 years ago and waited anxiously for this DVD. Required viewing for true Arnold fans (or any bodybuilding or fitness buff), Pumping Iron delivers the goods. The accent is much heavier back then, but Arnold's focus on the future and underlying determination to be the best are very evident.

Subtley egotistical and always charming in a kooky sort of way, Arnold is the centerpiece for bodybuilding's groundbreaking expose'. The old-school bodybuilders are all here: Franco Columbo, Lou Ferrigno, Ed Corney, et. al. This was a time when 6'2" and 240 lbs of lean muscle was a crowd-stopper, unlike today's 5'10 and 300+ lbs freak shows. All athletes sacrifice greatly to achieve their status, but this was the heyday of the sport in my opinion. You'll watch these legends prepare for Mr. Universe and Olympia, go through their triumphs and failures, gain personal insights to their life philosphies, all the while enduring bad mid-70's music, horrendous fashion and attrocious hairstyles! In spite of it all, a very inspiring flick for any would-be bodybuilder.

The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding
I became moderately interested in bodybuilding after reading and using the advice in Arnold's Bodybuilding for women and have been a huge fan of Arnold's since seeing him in Terminator. He is the greatest.

Pumping Iron covers the Art and Sport of Bodybuilding. The two main characters are Arnold and Lou Ferrigno. Other top bodybuilders like Franco Columbu, Ed Corney, Ken Waller and Mike Katz are also showcased.

The movie shows the intensity that champion bodybuilders put themselves through. And lay people thought that because these guys smile and look so relaxed on stage while posing that this is easy right? Wrong!

One part in the movie shows Ed Corney squatting with around 400 lbs. and going so hard that on the last rep, Corney collapses!

The movie then covers the two biggest bodybuilding titles; the IFBB Mr. Universe, an amteur event and the Mr. Olympia, a professional contest which according to Arnold brings together all of the Mr. Universe's to compete for the top prize in muscledom.

Lou Ferrigno gets billed as Arnold's top competitor but in reality is years away from the Austrian Oak and ends up in third place behind Arnold and a chiseled and polished Serge Nubret from France.

Pumping Iron is a good documentary on the art and sport of bodybuilding. Even if you are not into lifting weights, er, pumping iron, you will appreciate the discipline and intensity demonstrated by these athletes.

The movie was on cinemax recently along with an uncut version called "Raw Iron." I highly recommend that if you catch it, watch it. Very inspiring.

Motivation
A lot of other people who reviewed this movie wrote about the "psychological" aspect of it and how Arnold was able to psych out Lou Ferrigno to win the 1975 Mr. Olympia title. The fact is that most of what happens in the movie is acting, except for the training scenes and the actual contest outcome. This is what I want to focus my review on. Arnold retired from the sport of bodybuilding before I was born, so like many people my age the only way we could see Arnold training was through black and white photos in his Bodybuilding Encyclopedia book. However, this DVD brings those pictures to life and now you can see Arnold training "in motion" for the first time (although it is less than 10 minutes of the movie). Two scenes in particular that really give you an idea of how hard he used to train is when he does T Bar Rows and Squats. Its unbelievable, the guy was a machine. I have watched this movie so many times before I went to the gym and it is a great way to get motivated. And as good as the movie is the extras are even better. The interview with Arnold is very interesting and so are the behind the scenes footage. The movie itself is very well done, Arnold has some hilarious quotes but the best thing about it are the training scenes.

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