00:00:01.53 Fireheart Media Hey, hey, y'all. My name is Jala and I'm joined by Dave and we're following Arnie's movie career film by film. How are you doing today, Dave? Doing pretty good. Again, as with I think any of the Arnold movies, it just makes me want to go to the gym. So even if I'm a little bit tired, it's just pumps me up. 00:00:25.62 Fireheart Media Well, this movie in particular is all about the gym, so that makes a lot of sense. Definitely, i came out of watching this one with this deep, deep urge to have like eternal back day. 00:00:41.18 Fireheart Media And a bit of the chicka chicka bow bow, because the soundtrack in this is very special. Right, right. So ah today we are talking about Pumping Iron, 1977 American docudrama about the world of professional bodybuilding with a focus on the 1975 IFBB, Mr. Universe and 1975, Mr. Olympia competitions. And just to let you know, docudrama is a dramatized reenactment of actual events. So there is some acting taking place. This is important, I feel, because like when we get to the listener comments, especially ah there's some comments about, um you know, like, oh, I don't i don't know about Arnie at at this time period. I don't know if I'd like like to be around him or whatever, but like. bear in mind they're trying to make it like spicy and interesting for the camera and um we'll we'll get there when we get there and and talk a little bit more about like how arnie was by all accounts during this time period but uh anyway so so docudrama docudrama dave tell us a little bit about how this was shot 00:01:58.10 Fireheart Media So it's inspired by the 1974 book of the same name by photographer, Butler and writer Charles Gaines, who we just are fresh from because Charles Gaines was the ah writer and inspiration for the adaptation. 00:02:15.30 Fireheart Media Screen flavor. Yeah, um and screenplay writer of the adaptation for Stay Hungry. And there's a lot of cross DNA aside from the writing. it's It's filmed of a time. And watching, like following this on the heels of Stay Hungry, I think is perfect to really get into that mindset of what the 1970s bodybuilding scene was. 00:02:43.58 Fireheart Media Now, uh, this film itself nominally centers on the competition between Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of his primary competitors for the title of Mr. Olympia, Lou Ferrigno. 00:02:54.08 Fireheart Media The film also features segments on bodybuilders, Franco Colombo and Mike Katz. In addition to appearances by Ken Waller, Ed Corny, Serge Nubre, and other famous bodybuilders of the era. 00:03:07.54 Fireheart Media Right, right. so this was shot during the 100 days leading up to the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia competitive competitions. Okay, hold on. Let me just redo that whole thing. 00:03:21.94 Fireheart Media Right. So this was shot during the 100 days leading up to the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia competitions. And during the competitions themselves, the filmmakers ran out of funds to finish production and it stalled for two years. So this was shot 1975. then... 00:03:38.16 Fireheart Media but then it ended up just stalling out for a little while ultimately though Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders featured in the film helped raise funds to complete production and it was released in 1977 I mean like can you imagine it from their perspectives where they're like oh my god do you mean that all that work that we did and having all these people interfere with our lives and like be all up in our business all of that was for no reason and it's not going to get actually sent out into the universe I don't think so you know ah the film became a box office success making schwarzenegger a household name the film also served to popularize the culture of bodybuilding which was somewhat niche at the time and helped inspire the fitness craze of the 1980s following the film's release there was a marked increase in the number of commercial gyms in the u.s so this did a lot for the fitness industry overall all kind of just like elevating the art of physique to a broader audience, even if that audience isn't aspiring to become bodybuilders. 00:04:45.91 Fireheart Media Yeah. And the, the camaraderie you see, um in this, in this docudrama of how the gym culture is, it isn't something i think that really made the transition through the intervening decades between you know when this was released and then watching this say this many years later after 1977. you can see the the energy in the zeitgeist and like what that would have brought into the fitness scene for the 80s and the the energy the enthusiasm the just the sheer uh even if there's competition like these guys 00:05:32.28 Fireheart Media loved the sport. They loved working out. And then, that you know, I think that they loved each other in a sense that everyone wanted to be the best. And that really thrives when you have the healthy competition and other people are pushing as themselves as hard as they can. just incentivizes each person to do better gotta always be a little bit better than you were before and be better than the next guy and it's it's a lot of fun to see that and it's a shame i think that current gym culture switched over to something where everyone's it's more individual and because it's not the sport a lot of folks in the gym it's just like isolated and you have headphones on and that's just not the case as we've come to see in this movie 00:06:23.42 Fireheart Media So I will say, as somebody who has been a personal trainer for a number of years and also taught group classes and a bunch of other things like that, ah we already talked about last episode that even though I wear headphones in the gym, I will take them off and go talk to whoever in the gym and have little conversations and stuff. Now, that's not quite the same as what's going on here where it's, um you know, people cheering each other on and spending their time alternating sets with people and spotting each other and things like that. Like it's hard usually to grab somebody to be a spotter for you in the gym anymore. However, that being said, if you do something like CrossFit or Camp Gladiator or any other boot camp type 00:07:08.48 Fireheart Media uh thing or if you're training for a spartan race or a go ruck event or or a marathon or this that and the other there's like clubs and things like that that all do their training together there are group fitness activities where you can get that kind of camaraderie and that kind of a culture but you know in terms of like like We go to Gold's Gym and there are bodybuilders there. The bodybuilders will talk to each other. um They may or may not talk to anyone else, though. And that's really, I think, more what Dave's talking about. Like, you know, he doesn't go in and automatically get greeted by all the people that he sees every day that he goes at the same time on the same days. You know, he does, even though it's the same people, they don't talk to each other um for him because he's not going out there to go and try to talk to them. But also that's not like the default culture around. Now, ah as I've said before, I'm very talkative. I'm outgoing. So I will go up to people and just start talking to them here and there. And I know stuff about different random people in the gym. as a result and always say hi. But those workouts that I do are still largely individual workouts. They're doing their thing over there. I'm doing my thing over here. We might stop and talk. 00:08:23.35 Fireheart Media Still not the same as what the culture is in this movie. And, you know, I think that's the thing that Davis is really alluding to there. is is that kind of thing but um now that it's been a minute since we saw stay hungry what we did last time was talking about hercules new york and how it settled with us let's do a little bit of that before we go into the movie writ large so um i'll kick off to you dave since i've been talking for a minute how has stay hungry settled in after the fact So as a movie, I think I still appreciate what Stay Hungry was doing over um what Hercules in New York did. I don't think that's the stronger movie. 00:09:04.50 Fireheart Media ah But, yeah man, I don't know. In both cases, I've kind of forgotten, like, other than the large ah overarching plot, I don't remember a lot of the moments in Stay Hungry. I remember, like, little key pieces. And we watched this recently. uh so i don't know if that's a ah super strong um endorsement of it is that i would i would watch it again and i could appreciate it watching it once in a while um it's very it's a very chill movie and then it has like aspirational moments more toward the end when it starts kind of trying to just promote bodybuilding ah 00:09:49.24 Fireheart Media that being the case, it's not, it's not on my like top 10 list by far, but I don't think it's a weak entry. And I think everyone should at least watch it once. That's ah probably what I said last time. And I'll stand by that. 00:10:05.43 Fireheart Media As for me, the way it's settled on me is I still have persistent curiosity about the book, but I haven't had time to go and read through it. Although, um, as I mentioned last time, there is, ah a copy available on the internet archive for you to check out if you want to see it for free. 00:10:24.54 Fireheart Media And that was linked in the show notes for the last episode as well. I haven't had a chance to go and read any of that yet, but it is still on my to-do list. It's still lurking in the back of my mind because I was interested in the kind of character portraits that we had with that movie. 00:10:40.96 Fireheart Media That said, the things that I remember about Stay Hungry after the fact, the very loud suits of the smarmy businessmen, especially the one guy who does the flex posing at the end of the movie. um I also remember the gym battle and the sexy time in the gym, which was extremely perplexing. And ah also the bodybuilders just posing on top of a bus and and having a good old time running around in wherever they were at bama alabama uh somewhere in alabama and uh doing their posing on the streets and stuff and that was quite fun and i have to say too after having watched stay hungry i was expecting a different kind of stage in pumping iron than what we got because it looks like in pumping iron that they're just filming this inside of a gym somewhere like a a school gym is what it looks like to me um 00:11:33.94 Fireheart Media And, ah you know, like the stage and stay hungry is real fancy and it rotates and it's super highly polished and it's, it's really like a big deal and stay hungry. And then like when you go to pumping iron, you're like, wait, where's the cool stage with the rotation and the whatever, um I'm missing some of this. 00:11:51.48 Fireheart Media And I think that that's the big takeaway really is that Stay Hungry, it's a movie. So everything is dialed up to 11 or 12 and they have this like, the yeah, the cool rotating stage, all this, all this fun stuff. And then, 00:12:07.06 Fireheart Media having gone to like the Arnold Classic multiple years in a row, and knowing that it's, it's just a, so it's just a little stage, like in a auditorium, basically, um there, there never was that level of polish with it. I mean, 00:12:27.61 Fireheart Media these movies were built to like, like that was the goal, like the stay hungry. Like this is this, this thing we're showing you is what we want, the dream we want to achieve of elevating bodybuilding to, you know, to this world stage, highly polished, all the money and all the fans. 00:12:50.30 Fireheart Media And then what you get is ah um the international bodybuilding competitions and this is in South Africa or it's in like a church in Oklahoma and it's just a little stage and there's like 20 people. Yeah, the actual things are a little bit bigger, but there's, it's just people in sitting in like little folding chairs, you know, cheering or watching some guys flex and then there's some judges. It's like, it's, it's way, know. 00:13:20.57 Fireheart Media Less of to It's less of a to do. it's less There's no spectacle to it. It's just there. And it's kind of disappointing. Like the the the bodybuilding itself, the representation of it and the physicality, that's all present. But it's not the rotating stage and spotlights and all this like making it like watching an opera. 00:13:48.99 Fireheart Media It's not like we're on the running man to to reference another Arnold Schwarzenegger thing. Yeah, it's not ah it's not this massive production. And yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of logistics and everything that go into the um the actual competitions these days, but it never reached the heights of, I think, what the dream was. And um while that's a shame, it doesn't diminish the effort um and the time that these folks put into you know doing what doing what they do and and and building themselves up to be 00:14:25.56 Fireheart Media Greek statues and, you know, ah perfect proportions and all, all these goals that they have that they're constantly reinventing themselves to surpass. And, 00:14:41.98 Fireheart Media the the competitive nature of it and all of the again camaraderie and the one-upsmanship like that's that's still real and that you need that to like keep this a thriving sport so this movie does a really good job uh we'll see in portraying the realities of it, um but also like tossing in some spice because that makes it a little more interesting for just the lay person wondering what it's like, you know, behind the scenes. 00:15:18.74 Fireheart Media Right, right. So, so yeah, um circling back though to Stay Hungry, um i still think that that's a movie that is worth watching more than once even, um but definitely like the finer points, the finer details kind of get lost in the sauce eventually. And again, said it on the prior episode, but like, I definitely feel like it ah is one of those things where reading the novel version of it would probably give a little bit more shed more light on it and uh you know express a little bit more about each of those characters who only have just so much time on screen but um yeah let's go ahead and get into 00:15:58.62 Fireheart Media the pumping iron movie itself, the very, very first scene that we get with the swanky music, the the weird, sexy music that we we'll talk about a little bit more in the the listener comments, but we start off with Arnold and Franco Colombo in ballet class, learning how to move more artistically. And even though this is a short scene, the fact that it's at the very beginning of the film is significant because it sets you up for understanding the art of posing as an art form 00:16:33.82 Fireheart Media And as something dance-like and kind of lyric in its presentation, this is, you know, an epic staged thing where you're trying to showcase all of the work that you put in. And like, this is something posing is talked about often on throughout the entire thing because it's so important to the sport. Because even if you have the physique, if you don't know how to pose properly, that will break you. 00:16:59.48 Fireheart Media And um so so what were your thoughts about this initial scene in the little ballet section? Yeah, like you said, this is something that is is in it's integral. It is probably... 00:17:16.34 Fireheart Media and um I don't know. I would say that this is like 75% of your, of your show when you're, when you're on stage, if your poses aren't solid and if it's not down, if you can't showcase the muscle that you built and the, the the structures and every, and all the symmetry, you, 00:17:37.43 Fireheart Media you can like, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot ah for for judging because you're not able to best illustrate all the time and effort that you've put you put. You could be the most muscular, most physical and um and statuesque you know specimen on stage but if you fold it in on yourself or if you didn't turn just right or put your one elbow in a specific position to better best flex you know a specific muscle um it's over like you you've you you lost um on like 00:18:17.37 Fireheart Media that part of the technique and they do address that in the film saying that oh you know there's these guys and they're they're posing is just garbage and you could be the biggest dude and you have crap posing or you could be you know not not quite as um chiseled but if your posing is super on point and someone else makes a mistake that that could just bump you up you know and and you could be the winner just because you're able to show everything off that little bit better Right. So the opening with the swanky music around this ballet part has footage of bodybuilders from black and white days of film going through posing routines. And then we switch to then modern bodybuilders posing on stage. So you get to do this sort of compare contrast with like you know, the beginnings of bodybuilding and then what modern as of that era was bodybuilding and and see kind of the progression of the physiques and the way that the posing has has kind of changed and everything. And I want to say that it was Arnold who was one of the first people to go to a ballet school for learning how to do... 00:19:32.34 Fireheart Media This kind of posing like this smoother and mostly it's it's in the transitions between the poses and to move gracefully with your your big chiseled body through like an entire routine. 00:19:46.94 Fireheart Media And that's the part of it that turns into dance. I mean, like in the modern era, it's also set to music and there's different parts of it that end up like going into full routines to show off your your strength and power anymore on on, you know, like the big stage anyway. So, um I don't know for a fact if Arnold was the first one that went to ballet class, but I i do remember from Arnold's um autobiography that he mentioned that and mentioned trying to get more bodybuilders into going to ballet class for that reason. So that's probably why that's in there. But we shift scenes from there into Gold's Gym in California, which is where all of the elite bodybuilders go to train. And we walk around with Arnold as he asks more or less every single large man in the gym, how he's doing. How are you doing? How are you doing? yeah As he goes around with the same cadence, talking to every single person, saying the exact same thing ah to each person as he goes through. And Gold's Gym, when you look at it, is is not like a souped up fancy place the way it is now, because this is back when commercial gyms weren't a huge business at that time. Like Gold's was basically the biggest one that there was at the time. And like, you know, they have machines and things. They were developing those machines at this time. you know, in terms of, of, you know, like the fitness industry, if you will, there wasn't really an industry back then. 00:21:19.09 Fireheart Media Yeah. And everything's, it's not garage gym, like you would think, but it's, it's, the equipment is well worn and well used. It doesn't look old. It looks functional and people are slamming heavy things on it. So it's not like a swanky spa thing that has all kinds of amenities. It's not, it's not the, the gym that they had in stay hungry where it has a hot tub with like a statues and and fancy lights no this is the guys go in there in their little tiny short shorts and they're almost falling apart t-shirts um and lift heavy uh and it's it's on um venice beach so there's 00:22:06.90 Fireheart Media a lot of light. There's the sand outside. You got just like... It's a place where like work gets done. And they're kind of chatting it up and having fun, but they're still there lifting heavy. um But it's not fancy. like their Their logo looks like it's fallen apart back then already. you know It's kind of a little little shabby looking, but at the same time, ah it looks like... 00:22:36.98 Fireheart Media that's kind of like a clubhouse, you know, to me, it looks like the, the gyms that still exist in places. They're the ones that are in the metal buildings in the middle of like the, the office parks or whatever that are just like, you know, a roll top door with you're lucky if there's any kind of AC in there and there's just a bunch of weights that lots of plates lots of bars and that's most it's mostly just it's not machines it's it's a bunch of just heavy plates and stuff and then that's where like the the strong men are training and things like that like those places still exist that look like this but they're they're basically those ones that are like you know in the metal buildings in the middle of like you know some little office park with contractors offices and stuff anymore 00:23:23.83 Fireheart Media Yeah, it's like the difference between if you see a ah commercial boxing gym and then that, yeah, one of the roll top like gym and they got like tires you screwed into the wall for punching and just kind of, it's a place that looks like it's there for serious training and it doesn't have to be fancy, it just needs to be functional. 00:23:46.58 Fireheart Media And yeah, i mean, everyone looks like they're having a good time and and it's just, in it's it's very sweaty. They look like they're having a good time until we cut to Arnie getting down to business. And then we get to see like, because for some reason, okay, they, the camera starts out from a distance. So you can see all the plates and you can see all the muscles and all this other stuff and all the sweat everywhere. Right. And all the the t-shirts and tiny little shorts. We used to be a society. ah and And then ah we get all these close-ups, these uncomfortable close-ups of Arnie's face from literally every angle, showing his pain face as he's going through, pushing through, trying to do, you know, like lift. he's He's benching at this point in the movie. Uh, and this is, there's even a shot through his man boobs where like you get to see through that the muscles on his chest, his pain face. And it's like the weirdest, the weirdest angles and the most unflattering angles ever to show the pain faces. And I feel like this is to a point that 00:24:52.57 Fireheart Media really to express that it's hard work to get to where these guys are at regardless of whether arnie was on steroids or whatever you know like even if you're juiced up it takes hard work to build your muscles that way and to sculpt yourself that way every day it's the main like other thesis aside from promoting the bodybuilding it's It's the the path to a champion is through pain. 00:25:22.71 Fireheart Media And there's thresholds, and Arnold speaks about this. He's like, there's there's a threshold you you hit where your body's screaming. And if you get through that, that... 00:25:33.50 Fireheart Media um that grants you the opportunity to perhaps become a champion. But if you can't even get through that threshold, then he's like, just forget about it. 00:25:43.67 Fireheart Media You know, you you don't even need to be in the game. Like you have to be hitting that kind of level if you want to be on stage, like with me. So what he's telling you is you have to get out of your comfort zone and you have to stay hungry. 00:25:59.67 Fireheart Media And no pain, no gain. Right, right. ah By the way, Arnie in this film is 28 years old, so he's a babby face, but with like all the muscles. He's he's like in his prime. so ah Arnie then explains how Mr. Universe is the pathway to Mr. Olympia, which is the top competition, and whoever wins Mr. Olympia is the top bodybuilder. He says in this film that he has not been beaten in seven years, and he is preparing for defending his title for an eighth time as of this film. 00:26:32.50 Fireheart Media Yes. And so he goes on to explain aesthetics and the whole concept of bodybuilding your physique. He then talks about the pump. 00:26:44.86 Fireheart Media And oh the pump. i want yeah I'll let you do this one. This is some fun. ah So he starts out by talking about the physiological aspect of where the blood is being pumped into your muscles. And then the skin feels like it's about to explode off because it's your arms are so tight. You know, like your biceps are towed so tight with all the blood that's rushed in there and everything. And then in this interview like style, like he's sitting there in a little chair, ah you know, with with like completely different clothes on when he's not in the gym and there's like a plant behind him and there's a white wall and he's just talking in this very calm voice with the kind of PBS special, you know, nature channel voice voice. 00:27:37.62 Fireheart Media that he thinks about it like coming and then he talks about having sex with a woman he's like oh so you know ah having that pump it's like coming so i'm coming in the gym and it's like having sex with a woman so i'm coming in the gym and i'm coming at home and i'm just coming all the time day and night and then like he's saying it with this very calm and enthusiastic voice and uh put an asterisk next to that um we will We will circle back to that at the very end of the movie and talk about the docudrama of it all ah in in a quote that I have from his autobiography later. But um anyway, so so that is the thing. I posted that on My Blue Sky. So if you want to see that, ah go to jelichun.bsky.social and take a look through my feed. You will see it there. it It's a special something. 00:28:29.66 Fireheart Media we can't do that clip justice i mean it's just there so then we see arnold posing on muscle beach and that a bunch of magazines with photos of him on it a shorter guy decided that he wanted to look like arnold like he read the magazines and he's like i just want to look like this as we all do and he ends up going to gold's and he's getting posing instructions from arnold at the gym and it's like that's the dream, isn't it? I think for everyone to work out with Arnold. And this this this little guy, I mean, he's, you could look at him and go, he's little only because he's next to like all these massive dudes, but he's not a small guy. He's young. He's, I don't know, 19, 20 years old, got a little yeah short, got a little tiny mustache, little dust stash on there. And this is the so I've seen this movie 00:29:21.69 Fireheart Media maybe four times three or four times at least i watch it every i don't know five ten years and um this bit of advice that arnold gives this guy here just it's always stuck with me and he tells he tells the guy he's like he's he's the guy's doing his um like front biceps and a long like a extended arm pose and the guy's like yeah i saw you in bodybuilding magazine and you know here's the pose you did and was like oh oh yeah, that pose, and he you know instructs him in and again. 00:29:54.55 Fireheart Media But Arnold tells this guy, He's like, I see all these little guys and they pose and then they tuck in and hide themselves away. Like they're not secure about it. And he's like, no, you, you reach out and then show off your muscles. You show off that hard work. You open up and show everyone like what you've been doing. And just that little key advice. um You know, I haven't done any kind of competitions, but if I am doing posing or just flexing and even just a general workout, like trying to not, 00:30:28.63 Fireheart Media pull everything into the center and if you're say you're showing off your bicep you know you don't curl your arm in toward yourself you so you you flex your back all the way open all the way up and then just that confidence um it helps with the mind muscle connection and being able to really show off like you know what you've been working on Not only that, but something else that he says too is in opening up like that, you are also showing the entirety of the muscle. Whereas if you are pulling yourself in too much, then you're not showing off the full Monty, like not the entire thing. You're you're hiding it away. 00:31:10.78 Fireheart Media Yeah, you're hiding it And that's also something something that um comes up in some aspects of like ah body dysmorphia, but specifically related to like bodybuilding. And um here's a a big example is like, 00:31:26.80 Fireheart Media I'll look down at my arm and I'll go, okay, this needs a lot of work. It's um got, it looks like a that little tube arms, but I can only see from my angle, my bicep. 00:31:37.05 Fireheart Media I can't, you don't naturally see your tricep, which is the larger part of your arm. And until you can like, see that in like a mirror or a photo where your, you know, your arm is out, outstretched and the entirety of it is flexing. 00:31:52.86 Fireheart Media Then you get it a better idea of like the true sizes of everything, unless you're, you know, you're using like a measuring tape and you know, what, what gets measured can get changed. Um, But just that keeping your mind that change in perspective. And so if you're showing off your muscles, people need to see all of it. And we get a little bit later on in the movie advice from another trainer to another bodybuilder specifically on that, on showing off everyone. And then the people aren't always looking at the same angle. 00:32:25.14 Fireheart Media There's a crowd out there and you need to show to everybody you know what what you built Right. So from here, we move on to Mike Katz, who teaches his two little kids how to pose. And he starts with his daughter and he's showing his daughter how to pose in the front yard. And then like his son comes over and then he's doing, you know, he's flexing and stuff and, you know, all this other mess. And it's very cute. It's a cute little thing. And then he talks a little bit about how he was picked on as a kid and that spurred him on to bodybuilding. So like he was called four eyes because he had glasses. He was made fun of because he's Jewish. He he had people make fun of him cause he was skinny or whatever, a bunch of different reasons. And so he just got into all kinds of sports and then he was into football and then he was with the jets and then he ended up getting injured and he ended up from there going into bodybuilding. And, um, since then he's been doing that and, uh, 00:33:27.96 Fireheart Media We then cut to him posing on stage and he talks about how even if he doesn't win, he is a crowd favorite in terms of just, I guess, the energy he brings when he's showing off. 00:33:41.46 Fireheart Media Yeah. When he's on stage, he gets like the full applause. Everyone enjoys, I think the energy that he brings to the stage and they may also be applausing because he's out there and he looks like he's 55, apparently going on 31. He's the the hardest lived roughest looking 30 year old, 31 year old I've ever seen. but the yeah again, they, um the energy that he brings is evident when he's interacting with his kids is evident when he's talking to other bodybuilders. And while the, the docudrama may be playing up some of the the rivalries, um, ah overall, like he's probably one of the more pleasant personalities that we see, um, in regard to like his portrayal in, in the gym and on the stage. 00:34:36.34 Fireheart Media Right. And we go into a section here where we immediately see that kind of gregarious nature that Mike has because we cut to Ken Waller, who is another bodybuilder who is playing football and talking shit about Mike Katz. And then he plots to basically mess with him by taking his shirt and hiding it somewhere. And then we cut to and bodybuilding competition where they're competing against each other. And then Waller takes the shirt and, and hides it from, you know, from Mike as he had decided he was going to do. and 00:35:16.02 Fireheart Media Then they all go on stage to pose and Waller ends up winning the title. And Mike, you know, he, he was third place actually, I think. and um he was disappointed about that, but then he was just talking about his kids and his wife and, oh, I've got to call them. and then he thinks about it and he's like, you know, i have to go. he he won. Imagine how it must feel for him to have won. It was probably for him, 00:35:46.22 Fireheart Media the way that it felt when I got my first trophy. And he's like empathizing with how how Ken might be feeling as the winner. And he's like, I've got to go shake his hand and and tell him congratulations. And then, you know, the last we see of him in his little section is him ah kind of going towards the stage to greet Ken when he gets off the stage and he's like, and I'll get my shirt back, like at the very end, but like that's not his his primary goal. His primary goal is to be there to support Ken's win. So even though Ken is being shitty, yeah ah Mike is still this good natured person who knows the game and knows how competitions are and how people can can be whatever way. And he's still very much himself and and being kind hearted person here. 00:36:35.83 Fireheart Media Yeah. So after that, we cut to Arnie posing for a lady who's taking pictures and we get close-ups of every angle, including his little peepee. Yeah, yeah. It's very close-up. Yes, on on his little shorts. 00:36:53.30 Fireheart Media um Arnie then talks about how his parents didn't know anything about bodybuilding and when he took it up as a kid. ah we skipped to posing where he's bending an exerciser and has a bunch of ladies hanging off of him. He's doing like a photo shoot and one of the ladies is basically wrapped over his head and two more are doing like the Frank Frazetta hanging onto his legs. um And then we see Oh yeah. 00:37:26.83 Fireheart Media He's posing, he's posing on a mountaintop, like in, in, uh, uh, relief, like against the backdrop. Um, and he's talking about, um, he, he admires and dreams of like dictators in the sense that they, they, they, they're eternal and they command all the respect of the people. And if, 00:37:52.15 Fireheart Media if he could only be as influential and notable as Jesus and lasts for thousands of years in the minds of ah of the the world. Right, right. He's not, to to be clear, he's not like, oh yeah, I love dictators. He's like, dictators have a very strong charisma and they have a strong presence. And that presence is is what is fascinating, not what they're doing with it. 00:38:19.32 Fireheart Media um But anyway, from there, we cut to Lou Ferrigno. He's age 24, living with his parents in New York. He is 6'5 and 275 pounds, which he's taller than Arnold. And his dad oversees his training and he first decided to become a professional bodybuilder because of seeing Arnie. 00:38:39.21 Fireheart Media And um when he was a baby, he had an ear infection and that ended up making him hard of hearing. And they, the, the parents didn't realize this until like sometime later. So he had a hearing aid for a good number of years as well. And he was skinny until he took up muscle magazines. He got into muscle magazines and then his father found him reading them like all the time fanatically. And because his father had some gym equipment and had trained, he ended up starting to train Lou as a result. 00:39:13.05 Fireheart Media So from there, we cut to a bunch of bodybuilders. And one of them says that he's going to train Lou. And, you know, like this is this is back on Muscle Beach. And they're all kind of hanging out and and goofing around. And Arnie is just like taking a nap. And this other guy is like, hey, I'm going to go train with Lou. What do you want me to tell Lou? And Arnie tells him, oh, tell him and his father. Hi. look forward to seeing him in us South Africa. You know, he's like, oh, he he's young. He needs a lot of support and stuff, you know. 00:39:44.55 Fireheart Media it's not that he needs a lot of support it's like he needs he needs me to help him like he's like i'll take him under my wing because i'm like i'm like the father and you know like but i let's like but it's still like his intention because the um the bodybuilder guy is like i i came here and i you know i taught you some things arnie and then you taught me stuff i'm gonna take all the things that like i've learned and so stolen from you and i'm gonna go give them to lou all this training so then he can have a chance to beat you you know is that what you want me to do and then the then i'll kicks in the whole like no just be nice don't mess with the kid you know he help him out we gotta to help him 00:40:27.45 Fireheart Media Well, this this tone changes later on when we get to the call closer to the competition, but we'll get there when we get there. We skip to Lou. He's training, and he is he's training, and he's screaming Arnold's name because he wants to beat him, so that's like his gym focus. you know So he's like you know putting on more weight. No, it's not enough. Got to put more weight. Got to push through, and you know he's burning, and he's screaming, and he's sweating, and Arnold Arnold you know and it's ah when you take this in combination with Arnie's whole thing about the pump being a sexy thing and then you've got the music and everything in this movie like it it makes for like but later when we get to the listener comments it really kind of underlines one of the the listener comments that we've got for sure 00:41:20.21 Fireheart Media Yeah, and so we... It cuts back forth. Yeah, it's going back and forth between the two, but we get back to Arnold trending at gold and going back to Lou, back to Arnie. Then we see Arnie and Eddie, who's... ah basically the muscle bound Carlos Santana looking guy. and they're just naked in the shower and we get some bush and some peen and they're turning and talking to each other. It's like a big open gym shower, not like cubicles that we have these days mainly. And then from, we just, it's a smash cut from naked guys to an interview with Arnie where he's talking about growing muscles. 00:42:05.56 Fireheart Media Right. And it's at that point where he's talking about like, you have to push and then you have to push past where you think you can't do another one. Like you still need to try for one more rep. That's, that's the very, um, you know, like that's, that's the gym wisdom that I think has stuck with most people, ah from Arnie is go for one more rep. Even if you don't think you have it in you go anyway and try for that last one. 00:42:32.47 Fireheart Media yeah i mean that's where you're that's where you're growing that's where you're building the most is when you're out of your comfort zone and into failure where where you do need ah spotter at like these heavier weights and someone to challenge you and we see that with um lou and lou's dad where Lou's pushing really hard and he's almost, you know, he's going to rack the weight and his dad's like, okay, one more. And then Lou's like, okay, make it, you know, don't help me make it harder. 00:43:04.18 Fireheart Media Like instead. So, you know, when he, when Lou's dad's lifting the weight, he may be, he's pushing on it a little, you know, just adding a little bit there, some extra resistance to, to just kick his son up that one more notch, that little bit of extra muscle he could use to just build himself and, you know, be the champion. Yeah. 00:43:24.18 Fireheart Media Right. Because part of what Arnie's saying when he's talking about like, how do you build muscles? He's explaining that you have to be outside your comfort zone and you have to ah break those muscles down and then let them repair themselves. You know, like that's that's the logic of how the muscle building works, you know. um And so, you know, he's talking about that and. 00:43:46.33 Fireheart Media You know, like that's very different from the way that a lot of people approach the gym. A lot of people approach the gym with this mindset of I just need to keep in some kind of a shape, whatever. And that's why they're stuck lifting the exact same weight for the rest of their lives is because they're not pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone into like that next level and and testing themselves. 00:44:07.83 Fireheart Media their capacity because that's that testing is how you can increase your capacity over time is by continually pushing a little bit forward even if it's not by that much and um you know like bear in mind not everybody wants to be a bodybuilder and grow their muscles and do this that and the others for a lot of people like just staying at their same weight for the rest of their life that's that's exactly what they want and that's where they need to be and that's comfortable for them But, you know, like there are also a lot of people who still ah try to apply that same way of being in the gym and go, well, I don't understand why I'm not growing more muscle or why I can't increase the weight past this point. I've hit a plateau and I don't know how to get past it. Well, there are ways and means. 00:44:56.06 Fireheart Media Yeah, and this is another thing, like I mentioned, the the posing where you're, you know, open yourself up, show yourself off. ah Another thing that this movie and Arnold in general espouses is basically that in bodybuilding, 00:45:12.92 Fireheart Media you know, you only, you're only growing your body through challenging it through, um, micro tears in the muscle and letting it, you know, repair itself, pushing yourself past these limits. But these are things that you can use, as a um, a motto in, in like your other daily life where you, you, so if you stay in the gym and you're just doing the same 25 pound curls all the time, and you're really good at that and you can just keep adding reps and it's, it's, easy to do. 00:45:44.34 Fireheart Media um You're just in your comfort zone. and Well, it's the same way if you're in, if for your business or your love life or your hobbies or anything else you do, you can stay in your comfort zone, but you're never going to like, 00:45:58.87 Fireheart Media grow from that. Whereas stepping outside of that, challenging yourself and broadening your horizons, opening up and seeing what there is in the world to experience and then showing the world, you know, all of you, what what you have to offer. Those things are maxims that you can take into the rest of your life and and be a more rounded person, that kind of Renaissance man ideal. 00:46:28.31 Fireheart Media So we can tell who is very much drank the Kool-Aid of Arnie's mottos and for whom this movie is like gospel. ah I mean, we're doing a podcast on every single Arnold movie. 00:46:44.34 Fireheart Media Oh, I know, I know. We should probably get back to the movie, though. we cut to Franco boxing and jumping rope, and he's planning to take Arnold down. We hear this on the VO. Then we see him in Italy with his family, and he picks up and moves a car and everything. And then he's on stage, and he blows up a hot water bottle, which takes 600 pounds of pressure, and then it ends up blowing up because he blew it up until it popped. 00:47:13.18 Fireheart Media And then it's on to Muscle Beach where he's training with Arnie. And so, you know, like Arnie's giving him shit. They're giving each other shit back and forth and all of that mess. So, you know, like we get to see Franco and Franco is shorter, can significantly shorter than Arnold. And that is why like they don't they don't compete in the same category because he's under 200 pounds and Arnie is is over 200 pounds. And, you know, like Arnie is significantly taller. But there is a pose off at the end between the winners of the smaller category and the larger category. So they do get to pose off against each other at the end of the competition. 00:47:57.94 Fireheart Media And, you know, like then an overall winner is announced after that point. So that's why Franco is saying, oh, I want to beat Arnold. He's talking about that part because, you know, they they have one final showdown at the very end. So if he wins his category, he can, you know, and Arnold wins his category, then they can have a pose off against each other. 00:48:20.43 Fireheart Media yeah. Then we cut back to Lou again, who's being taught by his father about how to pose. And that was the scene that you had mentioned earlier, Dave, about, you know, how to, how to show, okay, show them all this work that you put in Lou, show them all this stuff. You're like a Greek statue, you know, or whatever. You gave him the pretsy. He's got the pretsy going on. i mean, he is, he is from new York. um was Again, what I liked about this advice that Lou, 00:48:50.56 Fireheart Media Virigno Sr. is giving to to Lou is that um when you're coming onto stage, like look, start start to raise your arms up and then look at them. Look at them like you're, to showcase that you're impressed with this thing that you're going to show people. Like admire briefly your own arms, raise them up so everyone's kind of following your gaze and then slightly turn to each side, So the the full auditorium is given the same oh chance to like, you know, gaze upon your godly physique. And again, that's something to where it's like, take... 00:49:31.77 Fireheart Media take some pride in in what you've built, because if you don't, if you can't own that and show that off, if you're not, if you don't have that confidence, then that's gonna, that's going to present itself to the judges. And then you're going to, you know, not score as well because you're, you're, as Arnold said, you're folding in on yourself and it's like, be impressed with what you've done. You've done all this, this year specifically of hard work, 00:49:59.67 Fireheart Media ah for this competition, like show that off. It's not just that, but as somebody who's been a dancer, various forms of dance, um I will say too, that it's extremely the kinds of cueing that you do as a dancer to lead the audience's eye. If you are looking down at your arms, then that focuses the audience's attention on where your gaze is going. And then as you raise your arms up and you're looking at them, that makes the audience look there. And, you know there's a lot of that cueing in dance. So, you know, again, this is a performance art of posing. 00:50:39.93 Fireheart Media You know, there is ballet type movement, grace to it. There is, you know, like a seamlessness that you have to practice. You have to not just get the poses themselves, but the transitions become super important as well. And the the top posers that are out there in the bodybuilding world these days, have a lot of dance training, to be honest. 00:51:02.14 Fireheart Media I mean, they do like dance routine. they're theyre The music's going and they're doing like a dance along with it. And then just the the beats of that turn into like the pumps of muscle. And it's it's very impressive to watch. I will say that in in this docudrama, when Lou's getting this advice, 00:51:20.41 Fireheart Media he he puts it into practice in his his his posing practice. But then when you see him on stage, he doesn't do the thing that his dad told him. 00:51:31.22 Fireheart Media And I think that that could have played a part in like how the contest falls out. 00:51:38.95 Fireheart Media Frankly, I do believe so, because ah as much as you might think, oh, well, looking at your own arms and then doing this, i don't think it's going to be that big of a deal because you've got the muscle. And if you've got the pose, no, it really does. Because leading leading the audience's eye that way can can really change the perception of a performance, whether that be from dance or, in this case, bodybuilding posing. So, but anyway, we cut back to Arnie and then now he's talking about all the dirty stuff he's going to do at the competition just to fuck with all of his competition. Now, um this is dramatized, quote unquote, but at the same time in his autobiography, Arnie talks about having done a lot of this shit to other people off and on. Because as much as he is of the belief that you bring your best, i bring my best, whoever is the best wins. At the same time, he's not above testing whether or not they have the metal, not just the physique, but like the mental capacity to be a winner by fucking with them or challenging them or, you know, testing them in other ways around the competition itself, which might 00:52:55.54 Fireheart Media influence how the competition pans out so some of this is real some of this is not um but he says he's basically going to psych lou out he's going to talk to him and and kind of like basically rub in the fact that he is a multi-time winner and lou is basically baby and things like that and he also says about frank franco because you know franco said that he wanted to beat arnie in the pose off he said he's going to give franco the wrong advice leading up to the contest because he is like franco's father like franco comes to him for advice and comes to him like a father figure so he will just give franco the wrong advice about posing before they go on stage to do their thing or whatever. 00:53:40.98 Fireheart Media So um I don't honestly think that that kind of thing, like if if it happened at all, it wasn't, you know, a big thing between him and Franco because they were besties for their entire lives and they were already besties at this point too. 00:53:56.54 Fireheart Media But definitely I could see him trying to mess with Lou to make sure that Lou wouldn't be serious competition Yeah, there if he did that to Franco, it would have been something that, like, Franco it's not franco knows Arnie. He's not going to, like, not expect that. So that's just more, like, good-natured buddy-buddy shenanigans. These guys, like, did everything together. there's they there That's not going to be, like, bad blood between them. 00:54:29.14 Fireheart Media Right. Um... So at that point, we go, we head off to South Africa, which is where the competition is being held. And they're going into the ah the hotel and there's a, um i I don't know if she was a receptionist or like an interviewer. It was hard to tell, but she asked Arnie, she's like, might as well just be turning beet red, but she asked him what type, was she's like, oh, everyone wanted to know what type of a woman that you know you're into. And Arnie sits there and he's just like unabashedly tall, short, blonde, red hair. 00:55:10.33 Fireheart Media i love all women, like bring them all to me. He is like big breasts, small breasts, big ass, small ass. It doesn't matter. I love them all. He just wants every woman. And, you know, like, ah as we know from his life and his various ah documented and admitted to ah sexual escapades throughout his life. Yes, this this is, in fact, Arnie to Arnie Corp. It is Arnie Corp. 00:55:39.35 Fireheart Media It is. And some some of those decisions other folks might have questioned. um But ah a Arnold does not discriminate. ah Right, right. So ah we then cut from that to seeing... 00:55:59.59 Fireheart Media Lou f Frigno posing outside and then being licked by a chiah cheetah that's just out there. There's a cheetah for some reason and the cheetah is licking the oil because so somebody says, oh, he likes the oil on on your body. And so like this cheetah is just like licking his legs when he's posing. So, you know, like that that's got to be an experience for sure. 00:56:23.35 Fireheart Media like, yes, this giant cat is uncomfortably close to my head. crocs that's only being covered by a little speedo and it's licking me fantastic ah um and then uh arnie talks that talks about this uh up and coming kid that uh who wants help with posing and the kids just like bragging and going you know i'm i'm I'm the fittest. I've got like the best muscles in the and the top posing routine. But, you know, I'd like to to learn something new because he's in um in Munich for a German competition. And Arnie's telling him, 00:57:04.15 Fireheart Media Like I saw, like he took off his shirt and everything. And I was like, oh, this guy's got nothing. He's got nothing. He's posing as crap. His body's, it's crap. So I told him, hey, you know, I've been training in America and I'm, this is the new stuff. This is the new things from America. And if you bring this to the Munich stage, like the judges can't miss you. 00:57:26.33 Fireheart Media but So he tells him the new thing now is to scream while you're posing. Like at the time, if you, if you pose big and you're raising your arms up, you kind of make your scream like a high pitch scream. And then when you flex down like a most muscular or you're flexing your, your quads, it's a lower scream because it's a lower part of the body. And when you come out on stage, just kind of be screaming, bring that energy and the the judges will just eat it up. 00:57:52.38 Fireheart Media And he's just it's ridiculous and he's and the final anecdote he's like yeah that guy went out there and and he screamed and he did like two two three poses and the judges just like yanked him off the stage because heat that was ridiculous it's like i can't believe he actually went and did it we we practiced for like an hour in the shower room Yeah, so and the thing is, is that, I mean, Arnie's attitude at this point in time is like, if you're gullible enough to buy the bullshit I'm trying to feed you, then you deserve whatever it is you get as a learning experience as a result of that. 00:58:31.52 Fireheart Media Well, it's big like you can't bullshit the bullshitter vibes where he's doing all this this mental games and stuff, but he he doesn't say it, but you he could be like, you can... 00:58:43.29 Fireheart Media you can come at me with that it's a fair it's a fair everyone's here to do their best you you know bring it what do you have and he's like i it won't bother me at all and i'll tell you the attitude i have about that well and something that he says in his autobiography as well is that when he was first bodybuilding he knew that his calves were a weakness and in order to grow those calves he had to do like thousand pound calf raises and things like that because it takes a lot of weight to build up calves that are naturally small like it is is very difficult to build those up as dave is aware because dave dave had a weak point of calves until now he doesn't because he worked on them for so long but uh In order to inspire himself in the gym on this journey of trying to build his calves, he like cut all of the bottoms of his pants off so everything was shorts so that everybody in the gym could see his calves. And then he told everybody, give me shit for this. 00:59:45.43 Fireheart Media go ahead and give me shit for this. And so he had everybody in the gym messing with him every single day about his calves. And he cut off all the the bottoms of his pants as inspirations of all he would do would be able to see his calves. And he would just be obsessing about that and focusing on that until he fixed that um physique ah balancing issue. 01:00:12.76 Fireheart Media And it's not even just a balancing issue. When he comes out on stage, he has the best calves out there. Like they're boulders hidden in the top of his, you know, right behind his knee. It's like, what the hell? How did you get that? Well, you lift thousands of pounds for years on end and and do, you know, donkey calf races with two girls straddling your back, distracting you. 01:00:34.81 Fireheart Media but Which is a thing that happens in the film as well. ah So yeah, then we cut to Arnie and Lou. They're having breakfast with Lou's parents and Arnie is again talking shit because he is in shit talk mode. And he's he's talking down to Lou about, oh, you you trained for a whole year or whatever. he at one point he's like, oh yeah, too bad they couldn't move the competition back a month. because you need at least another month to to get ready for the stage and and this, that, and the other. And he's like, well, if you did that, though if they did that, though, then that means I would have another month. So whatever, you know, and and kind of like rubbing in, oh, I've got seven wins. I've been here so many times and this, that, like really laying it on thick and talking some real shit over breakfast as they're sitting there. 01:01:24.76 Fireheart Media Yeah, it's like, he's very catty, and it's it's pretty funny to watch. And ah that's the other big thing is, you know, we'll get into in the comments, but a lot of people that watch this, they just take it like, this is the gospel, and this is how everyone is. And it's like, guys, this is a movie. it this is It's scripted to a degree on ah on a lot of these interactions. So it's... 01:01:50.94 Fireheart Media okay you know yes they this it's it's the it's the little bit of added pizzazz and caricature to everyone um that's kind of pushing things a little more than they are in real life but uh on the same token like it's stuff that you know all these guys like they probably did to some degree and you know we we talked about arnold having admitted that Right. So from there, we cut to a bunch of people that are posing and there's some narration about how the competition is judged and how it's run. I don't know if you want to go into detail about that. 01:02:27.90 Fireheart Media No, I mean, it's they they talk about it and they go through like, OK, here's the. um the five, pose like the five mandatory poses you have to do. And then there's, um then you get one free ah your own, like whatever your best pose is outside of that. But first you do a ah a group pose pose off where it's like all the contestants are posing on the stage together. And then it's in individual judging where each person comes out and then does their mandatory poses. 01:03:04.06 Fireheart Media and then they have everything is scored by like a panel of, I don't know, it's like three judges or something. But it doesn't tell you specifically like what the score ratings are, unfortunately. I kind of wish that had gone a little bit more into that, to be honest, but it wouldn't have like done any more for the movie at that point. It was just, it would be for my like own personal gain. 01:03:30.20 Fireheart Media There's books for that. You can read them. But there weren't really back then. You weren't alive back then. It's fine. Anyway, we move on to see Franco posing. And then it's funny because you see Arnie and some other folks watching Franco pose. And then they're like, look at the wings on that guy. We're just going call him the bat from now on. and And Dave and I were both like, Franco is inspiring us to do nothing but back day for the next year. 01:04:00.73 Fireheart Media yeah it's like yeah he could he could fly with those things and or glide at least and yeah i think that that's the that's the whole thing is you look at this and i go man i need to do more calf work because look at arnie's calves and oh man definitely got to do backward because all these dudes even mike mike cats had a big thick back like and you're going that's the guy that didn't win what the hell Well, and for both of us, so so something else to say about just our own personal preferences is that both of us are like, we like this classic physique, this sort of ah kind of quote unquote golden era of bodybuilding kind of look where it's not 100% juiced up. 01:04:43.83 Fireheart Media And, you know like there are people who are juiced up. Arnie was on steroids. Other people are on steroids and things like that. um You know, things like that but but they're not as huge as they get in like the the the top level of bodybuilding at this point in time because that's like a bit over much like that's that's out of the realm of the whole greek statue look and then into like a whole different dimension of let's make them all dragon ball z people with muscles on top of muscles that don't exist 01:05:17.05 Fireheart Media Yeah, and that's... They grew extra muscles. Now, this is the... um like a golden ratio to like symmetry. 01:05:28.60 Fireheart Media ah ah yeah, some of it's bigger than you would naturally build, but there's, they're trying to use that extra help to fully define specific muscles and make everything like aesthetically pleasing to look at like the, like the top of the human form versus, 01:05:51.87 Fireheart Media I'm going to flex my bicep and you're going to see a Popeye the Sailor Man like little ship pop out of my bicep with like three more biceps stacked on top. It's like that. No, I don't need to see that. But, you know, good on you. You obviously put a lot of work into that. 01:06:06.74 Fireheart Media Right. and And, you know, like the thing about it, too, is that um this this kind of of bodybuilding important. still like the bodybuilders are still also doing other types of activities that are not just lifting weights. Cause I feel like, um, a lot of bodybuilders these days are more or less confined to like their goals or their, wherever they've got their, their heavy workout equipment. And that's like where they do almost all of their work anymore with the exception of like running for cardio. 01:06:39.77 Fireheart Media um and Back at this point, like we see Franco, like I said, boxing, doing jump rope and and doing other things like that. Like they're they're doing some other types of of functional activities that also help with all of the little micro muscles that support the structures, the larger muscles, the larger structures. And it's not, you know, just overworking these one, you know, these certain specific muscles. It's not just the show muscles, you know, it's like the whole shebang. 01:07:12.31 Fireheart Media Yeah. Well, I mean, that's helped me. That's helping to maintain longevity, flexibility, all the things that you you see and they're, you know, they're doing the graceful ballet movements and, know, 01:07:25.46 Fireheart Media when you see like the like 300 something pound heavyweight guys like some of them are still pretty flexible i've seen some guys do the splits and stuff which was pretty impressive but um the their goals here are like in the in the intro of this film where they're showing like um sandow and some like really clever like old school classic physiques um of these really fit chiseled guys that are just doing standing backflips. You're like, okay, you know, that's showing that, that grace, that form, that functionality, um ah like the ultimate expression of like the human form, um you know, taken to its limits. 01:08:07.74 Fireheart Media Right. It's going back to that whole Greek ideal, you know, that, that inspired all of this, the statues and things like that. And it's not that necessarily every person in Greece in ancient days, looked like that but you know like they had uh you know the gymnasium wasn't just a place for physical stuff you also had a lot of learning there you had all these philosophical arguments at the gym and you know you like you did all this other socialization and other other types of enriching activities to live like a well-rounded life and part of that was yes the uplifting and the activity of training your body but if you train just your body or just your mind you were imbalanced you had to train everything and that kind of concept is is more at work here than you know like I feel like 01:09:00.31 Fireheart Media it's it's that's not in the sport anymore so much. I mean, like, there are people who do that, but overall, as a sport, it doesn't feel like that's so much the case anymore. Anyway, um so we see Franco posing. We see Ed Corny, who is one of his big... 01:09:18.55 Fireheart Media um competitors here. And then also we see Serge Nubre who entered unexpectedly. And then there's like this whole sexy music montage. Lou is posing and then Arnie is posing. He says he has no weak points and his posing is perfect and things like that. I mean, like he, he's saying this with confidence cause he's won seven times and and we're going in for this, this, you know, final round. 01:09:46.81 Fireheart Media Yeah, I mean, so that's, it's not wrong, because if it wasn't perfect, he wouldn't have won that many times in a row. Or it's just more perfect than everyone else's. And that's, that's the thing is like, he's constantly pushing himself in all aspects. And he's just doing it that much more than other people. And that's, ah that's the thing where like lose, you I think it's Lou's dad tells Lou, he's like, you know, you, you can do like an, an extra hour here, or extra training here, but you don't know that like Arnold isn't doing that much more. Like what if he's doing more, what if he's doing two hours more and then that's, what's going to, you know, give him the edge. So if you're not like, 01:10:32.02 Fireheart Media passing out in the gym and throwing up and there's things that Arnold, you know, lets people know he's like, Yeah, I'm not afraid of that. Like I've passed out in the middle lifts, I've thrown up in the gym, because I'm not holding anything back. I go in there and everything. i'm I'm leaving it all behind. And I'm pushing myself to my limits. And then whatever those limits are, I'm going to crush them. 01:10:53.53 Fireheart Media And then I'm going to show you that I am the the best I am the champion, I am the winner. Right. So we kind of cut from all of the different posing where you see all the contestants and, you know, like it's generating this kind of anticipation, like, okay, you're waiting to see who wins. You're waiting to see who wins. And then we cut to like another one of those little Arnie interview style things with the plant and the white wall and the different outfit. And then he's talking about how he can't have any emotions when he goes to the contest in order to be a champion because emotional disturbance can mess you up. He's like, if you are in a relationship and you are you have a fight with a the lady you're with or whatever, you know that can mess you up when you're on stage and you can you ruin the entire contest as a result of this you know emotional instance and things like that and he also says in this thing and again here's another thing to put an asterisk next to ah he says that he didn't go to his father's funeral because of an upcoming competition because he thought that going and and doing that would mess him up emotionally so he had to separate himself from that and then push through his competition so Put a little asterisk next to that because we'll get back to that after we finish the rest of this movie. 01:12:07.83 Fireheart Media But Dave, tell us what happens with the shorties. So the shorties, the under 200 pound competitors, there are... um it's Franco, Ed Corny, and then the guy from Amsterdam, I don't know, Brussels, something like that, you he's somewhere. And they call like number three, and it's Ed Corny. And then they call it a second place. And it's the the um i think no, brussels was not the Brussels was number three. 01:12:41.97 Fireheart Media and then it was just the two and then it was just the two guys. And yes, because they go, I'm from America, by way of Italy. and then it's Franco it was was the number one. But it's just, it's this tricky, um you're going, okay, wait. And then fred you can see Franco's face start to fall because they say from America. And he's like, oh, but I'm from Italy. And then they they say it's him. and So he he wins. And yeah. He's super excited. And there's been a few, like a couple times where they were interviewing him. He's just a pleasant sounding little guy um but he's, he's massive. It's, it's ridiculous that he, I think he's like five foot five and he's just a little tank. 01:13:26.01 Fireheart Media Well, so he wins his category. So i the under 200, do they, do they, do they call them lightweight? Cause Arnie's in heavyweight in here. yeah do they call them lightweight? 01:13:39.16 Fireheart Media They, I think it's middleweight. Oh, okay. I'm not sure. I think heavyweight's now the 300-something, unless it's ultra-heavyweight. It's been a minute. 01:13:51.77 Fireheart Media It doesn't matter what it is now. I'm talking about in terms of this movie, what do they call Franco? They just said the under 200 pounds. Wow. Yeah. Okay, well, the under 200 pounds. that That doesn't roll off the tongue. But they call Arnie and the rest of them heavyweights. So whatever. Anyway, moving right along. Then there's three heavyweight contestants. You've got Lou, Serge, and Arnie. 01:14:15.45 Fireheart Media And Arnie ends up winning heavyweight and overall. So Lou gets third place. They call him in there and you can see his face fall and everything. And Serge is is number two. 01:14:28.66 Fireheart Media And, you know, then then we got Arnie for the overall and he ends up retiring from bodybuilding after this competition. But then he comes back later, as we've talked about before, in the 80s to come back onto the scene and show everybody he's still got it and to take another title in the 80s. I don't remember what year that was, though, offhand. 01:14:49.97 Fireheart Media 82, something like that. It was very early um because there was, yeah, there was like seven years in between his last competition when he retired and he's doing acting and everyone's just giving him shit like, oh, you, you know, you're soft just doing your acting stuff. And then he's like, nope, I can do that and still beat all you guys. 01:15:10.46 Fireheart Media Will the real Slim so Shady please step up? ah ah So anyway, yeah. So so yeah, he he retires from bodybuilding after his eighth win in a row, but he's not actually done. He does come back at a later date and then win the competition one more time. 01:15:31.00 Fireheart Media in the 80s just to show everybody don't don't tell me some bullshit don't talk some shit to me i will come back and you know come for my revenge he is not he is not playing around anyway so at the end we just have some camaraderie between all the people who were competing and arnie has everybody singing happy birthday to lou because it's lou's birthday And then he and Lou and his, ah Lou's mother and father are all in the back of a bus or ah something. And, um you know, they're just kind of chit chatting. And now that the competition is over and he won, Arnie is very friendly. And he's like, yeah. I'm going to come over to your house and your mom is going to make spaghetti and this type of cheesecake, all this cake. And then he's going to, so she's, you know, your dad's going to set me up with your sister and all this other mess, just goofing around. 01:16:27.06 Fireheart Media And yeah, they, they, they have a good time and they're in a good natured kind of way and back to the growing it up now that the competition is over. Yeah, and then and then the credits roll. I mean, that's that's the that's the end of the movie. We've gone along on this ride, and we've seen the true champion of all bodybuilding forever. 01:16:48.79 Fireheart Media Amen. Well, everybody still to this day, everybody just worships Arnold in the bodybuilding world. No matter who you are people look up to him because he is he is the reason why bodybuilding became anything big and has stuck around like it has. ah This movie in particular has been part of the reason, like we mentioned at the top, that bodybuilding is ever known as a sport at all. And also it's the part of what helped create the fitness boom of the 80s, which sort of kind of still exists today, but it exists in a very different way now than it did in the eighty s for sure. Like it's not really so much an emphasis on health so much as it is go to Planet Fitness and lift your stuff and then go eat some pizza You know, kind of like that's the kind of vibe a lot of fitness is these days. It's not, it's, it's more like let's combat our morbid obesity from sitting at computers all the time because they didn't have that situation in the eighties. And that's something that we've got in year of our Lord, 2026. 01:17:58.87 Fireheart Media Yeah, and it's um it's something that Arnold has spent you know the rest of his lifetime. and and currently, I mean, he still does a wellness podcast and a lot of bringing more of the science side to it, like so you know specific articles, I think to back up you know more recent research. Because again, bodybuilding is... 01:18:20.85 Fireheart Media it's something that has always kind of been with humanity as far as like people improving their physiques, whether that's for aesthetics or for a war or for, you know, what have you. But um it's something where the the supplements, the vitamins, all the little things that go into it that aren't just the physical um exercise, 01:18:45.54 Fireheart Media haven't really been studied at any length, but have begun to start to be studied. Kind of from the 70s onwards, there's been stops and starts of people getting, guess, just the funding to even look into it has been a battle. But bringing that thing and and then treating it holistically as you know a way of life is something that he's invested in and in in increasing the um uh the world of bringing the world of fitness to like the youth and trying to like basically keep everyone as healthy as possible um but that's like a exceedingly uphill battle um versus like a convenience food and just the way people live sedentary lifestyles 01:19:32.34 Fireheart Media Right. But even right now, like you mentioned, he has his podcast, Arnold's Pump Club, and he also has the Pump Club app, which is a fitness app that he runs with various individuals. And, you know, like they even have over in California, like meetups with the Pump Club where you can go and see Arnold himself and things like that. And he reads some of the stories and interacts with people on the Pump Club app because he's trying to get people to work out somehow with some kind of guidance behind them even if it's via an app or something like that so um you know he's still doing that and of course he is the whole reason why the Arnold Classic exists in the first place and you know that's a story for a different podcast a different day but uh Just going back to that asterisk mention that said before. So in his autobiography, Total Recall, My Unbelievably True Life Story, he says, every movie has to have an element of conflict. And George decided that Pumping Iron would focus on the rivalry between Lou Ferrigno and me in the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition and the suspense of whether or not Lou would knock me off as champion. 01:20:45.46 Fireheart Media And then he talks a little bit about Muhammad Ali and other types of sports and how Muhammad Ali was, you know, like the top dog in boxing, but he was also outrageous in his personality and the kind of energy that he brought. And that's kind of the same thing that Arnie was doing here. um So he says the rules for attracting attention were exactly the same because he's trying to get attention. He's trying to get eyes on the sport. So how do you do that? You have to catch people's attention. And how do you do that? Well, in this case, it would be outrageous behaviors. And so coming up with outrageous things to say was easy because I was always thinking them to keep myself entertained. Besides, George was egging me on During one interview, I made bodybuilding sound sexy by comparing the pump when you inflate your muscles with oxygenated blood to an orgasm. 01:21:38.08 Fireheart Media I claimed I'd skipped my father's funeral because it would have interfered with my training. I philosophized that only a few men are born to lead while the rest of humanity is born to follow and went from there into discussing history's great conquerors and dictators. George had good sense to cut such stuff from the movie. I still didn't know the difference between outlandish and offensive. 01:21:59.51 Fireheart Media And I think that kind of is still true to this day. He still doesn't know where that line is, but that's okay. that That's Arnold for you. But anyway, so he's he's saying in his autobiography, yeah, he's he's he's playing it up. He's trying to play it up here so that people will go... 01:22:16.85 Fireheart Media You know, like so so you say if he said this, it's like I'm coming all the time. I'm coming in the gym and I'm coming at home and I'm coming all the time. And he says this. What do you think young men who are really horny are going to go do? Oh, it's like coming. Is it? 01:22:33.62 Fireheart Media Yeah. Oh, you mean I can do this in public? Wait. But that ah that specific analogy may may not be the best thing, but there is definitely um mood elevators and things involved in stress relief that you get from a good workout. 01:22:54.68 Fireheart Media uh and there are things that if you maintain that on a you know ah with any kind of sense of regularity that can be a thing that helps you revitalize yourself um just from the drudgery of your day job, you know, it it gives you something to like, look forward to. um and then, you know, being healthy and fit in of itself is something that kind of makes you feel better. And then you're able to go about your day with a lot less headache. 01:23:33.21 Fireheart Media I will say though that there is at least one study out there. I don't know how good the study is. I would have to go look it back up again. But at one point I read a study about how doing some certain exercises on a captain's chair for specifically women or, you know, people who were assigned female at birth or what have you, um women who do a certain type of exercise in a captain's chair will have an... 01:24:03.00 Fireheart Media um like a physiological response which is equivalent to orgasm so that is a thing that actually is a thing that has to do with working out but that is not something arnie would have known but you know hey get to the gym anyway moving right along let's go on to the listener feedback so Marty says, I first heard about this documentary thanks to my dad's collection of bodybuilding magazines that he kept in the basement next to his home gym. Didn't actually watch it until it was shown in class as part of getting my personal training certificate. 01:24:40.09 Fireheart Media as it's As such, it was kind of weird to see. First off, that theme song. What the fuck? Product of its time, but wow, is it corny. Because it's like, pumping hard. It's like this funky whatever. like Dave, do you remember any of the lyrics? 01:24:57.05 Fireheart Media pumping iron that that they that's the chorus i don't remember they're they're the song is sing talking about like a what's going on in the gym it's it's fantastic Well, anyway, so it's a corny song that's dedicated to the art of fitness. Anyway, it also feels like it's filmed kind of pornographically. Yes, yes, Marty, it is. Again, probably just a product of its time. I think it's the music that does it. 01:25:26.46 Fireheart Media But somehow it feels kind of lurid. Well... There is that whole discussion that Arnie had that we've talked about multiple times at this point about how it's like having sex. So, you know, ah part and parcel of of what Arnie was bringing to the table at that time as well. So, Dave, tell us about what Ruki says. 01:25:48.54 Fireheart Media Rookie says, watching this one, I learned just how weird Arnold is, was as a person and how much of an asshole he could be. And that's just what they caught on camera. It's a good thing he's seemingly grown as a person because I don't think I'd want to hang out with young Arnie. See said asterisk. 01:26:08.41 Fireheart Media Right. Well, I mean, like, To be fair, even if he was playing it up in the movie at the same time, he also admitted to doing some of the same shit. 01:26:18.94 Fireheart Media So some of this is literally just Arnie's personality. So, you know, Arnie himself, I guess it really depends. Are you somebody that he's going to be, you know, having a competition with in any way, shape or form? If you aren't, I think you're fine. 01:26:36.95 Fireheart Media ah yeah, he's doing a pretty good job of, of, of lifting everyone up and just having fun with, right. He he went to a prison and he's just doing a little flex routine, uh, to promote fitness in prison. um and he's, you know, teaching that little young guy to, to, you know, just to strut his stuff. Uh, 01:27:02.68 Fireheart Media Again, i think it's really just what what are you in relation to him? Are you are you competition or are you just a friend? Because the way he's going to treat you would be a little bit different. 01:27:15.22 Fireheart Media Right. So finally, we've got random some. And she says, this is where the good stuff begins. Pumping iron helped me understand a lot about what I wanted to get out of my own exercise. So I commend it for that. The first scene is maybe the most important, barely over a minute long, but it was seeing... 01:27:36.44 Fireheart Media the juxtaposition between the ballerina and Arnold and Franco and how poise and grace were central to controlling the strength built through lifting and other training. Her quote that the audience is watching you all the time is something I already knew from dance, but seeing it apply to bodybuilding and the focus and effort from Arnold and Franco to internalize her lesson helped make something click about my body. 01:28:01.66 Fireheart Media And thinking about that eye line is useful for selfies too, 100% got to agree there. Other lighting round comments or lightning round comments. Arnold knows everyone's name at the gym. 01:28:14.97 Fireheart Media Future politician. Arnold making ugly face while pushing himself on lifts made me comfortable to do the same thing. That helps. And finally, the whole thing being framed as a head-to-head Arnold Ferrigno match only for it to... Okay, let me retake that. 01:28:37.59 Fireheart Media Other lightning round comments. Arnold knowing everyone's name at the gym. Future politician. Arnold making ugly face while pushing himself on lifts made me comfortable to do the same thing. That helps. 01:28:49.94 Fireheart Media And finally, the whole thing being framed as a head-to-head Arnold Ferrigno matchup only for Serge to unexpectedly come in second is comedy gold. Overall, an important movie to me. 01:29:02.90 Fireheart Media Yeah, um this it's interesting because it's a since it's a docudrama, it's sort of real, sort of sitting on the the line of of being inflated a little bit. But um overall, it is something that ended up making a lot of money when it first was produced, weirdly. Like the thinking about, oh, a docudrama... 01:29:26.17 Fireheart Media being something that would make a lot of money these days is is kind of not a, not a thing. I don't think, but like back then, i guess, cause there was a lot less by, you know, by way of releases at any given time. 01:29:39.10 Fireheart Media um it was a little bit easier for something like this to get a lot of air time and to get more attention, but like, yeah, like this, this kind of springboarded off a lot of different fitness stuff, which really, know, 01:29:54.36 Fireheart Media ah just imagine how things would be in our current era of mostly ah like lots and lots of desk jobs if we didn't also have an established fitness industry like that this movie weirdly and Arnold himself kind of helped springboard a lot of you know the kind of fitness culture that exists today that if it was not as emphasized and hadn't been as, you know, big of a machine as it was in the eighties, like we we wouldn't even have something like that today, I don't think. 01:30:29.75 Fireheart Media No. And, and again, I think that that's just, it's something that we've all benefited from ah and still, could use more of. 01:30:42.97 Fireheart Media And not only that, but for for it not to be like commodified, um that that's the thing is once you start going the fitness industry or the supplement industry, there's a lot of like bull crap out there and it's not helping anyone, but it's it's the name of the game these days. So I think that it'd be great to see more ah spaces for encouraging fitness, more sports things, more more ah places for the youth to kind of gather as well that aren't, um that are that are accessible to to more people. And that's, I think that's getting harder and harder to come by just in our our current society. 01:31:36.98 Fireheart Media Right. So that's where we wrap for today's episode. The next time that we come back, we will start into the movies that everybody knows. 01:31:47.48 Fireheart Media ah Kicking off with Conan the Barbarian. And that episode will feature our patron, Andy, who patronized us at such a level to be included as one of the people hosting this episode. So it'll be our first guest episode. It'll be a fun time because Conan is a special property for both of us. 01:32:09.43 Fireheart Media Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. um And it was also really good to see this again. i know I've said I've seen it before, but I feel like every time I watch this, I can find something else to appreciate and kind of about the sport and then just renews interest. I mean, we we both said that this like spring, you know, spurs motivation to like, okay, i got to, there's some more things I want to hit at the gym and more fitness stuff I want to do. yeah, 01:32:37.36 Fireheart Media that's that's the the allure you know part part of the special je ne sais quoi i guess that arnie brings to the table is that he's just an inspirational force and i think that that is only going to continue to build as we get through each of these movies 01:32:57.88 Fireheart Media Absolutely. And if I didn't already, we already did mention at the top that this was based on the book by Charles Gaines, which covers the biographies of all the different people who were competing in bodybuilding at that time. So i did order a copy of that book. So if I have any notes in specific about that, i will talk about it the next time we convene. So until next time, take care of yourself. Remember to smile and also... 01:33:28.76 Fireheart Media yeah ah ABC always be coming. And don't forget, put the cookie down now.