Pumping Iron Film Analysis

This essay analyzes the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron," focusing on its portrayal of the bodybuilding world, particularly the rivalry between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno. It discusses the film's impact on the popularization of bodybuilding, its transformation from a niche activity to a mainstream sport, and the subsequent growth of the associated industry. The essay highlights the film's social engineering, challenging preconceived notions about bodybuilders and showcasing their dedication and struggles. It also notes the film's influence on subsequent action films and its lasting legacy in popular culture. The essay concludes by reflecting on the film's ambiguity regarding the purpose of bodybuilding – strength versus appearance – and its overall contribution to societal perceptions of the sport.

Movie: Pumping Iron
Pumping Iron is a docudrama about the world of bodybuilding, released in 1977. This movie was
focused around the 1975 IFBB Mr. Universe and Mr, Olympia competitions, and depicted the
competition between Arnold Schwarzenegger and his major competitor for the title of Mr.
Olympia, Lou Ferrigno. This movie is inspired by a book of the same name by Charles Gaines
and George Butler.
The success of this movie inspired three sequels on the same concept. One was Pumping Iron II:
The Women in 1985, second was Raw Iron in 2002, and Vlad Yudin’s 2013 documentary
Generation Iron.
Amateur and professional body builders from the Gold's Gym in Venice Beach California to the
showdown in Pretoria prepares for the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe contests. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who is the five-time champion, defends his Mr. Olympia title against Serge
Nubret and the shy young deaf Lou Ferrigno, whose father is his coach.
This movie is the story of survival and triumph. This movie created a following for bodybuilding
as a sport. It helped create a multi-billion dollar market for bodybuilding equipment, trainers, and
thousands of gyms to new body building enthusiasts.
The greatest influence of this film was on bodybuilding, transforming it from a sideshow to a
competitive sport. This movie represented the decade in America when record numbers of young
generation were inspired to lift weights and pursue bodybuilding. This led to the development of
an entire industry that started to cater the trainer’s demand, equipment, training facilities, and

instruction video and books. Also, Golds Gym from only one facility, it grew to over 3,000 in 25
years.
The movie depicts the competition among the participants, and the issues they face while
preparing for the competition. They prepare for the most glorious body-building competition on
the calendar, Mr. Olympia. Movies scenes where body builders steal each other's personal items
to try to mess with rivals before they are meant to go out on stage and pose depicts the creation
of trouble by one party to another when a change in thinking comes up.
This movie tried to break the prejudice about the body building. Pumping Iron knocks
preconceptions sideways in its opening moments – showing the scene where Arnold take ballet
lessons to improve his pose. And then it demonstrates that bodybuilders are like other normal
creatures in almost everything, be it vanities, foibles, and rivalries. This movie has mixed the two
form, that is, documentary and realistic fiction, that kept eyes and ears of the audience on the
entertainment. The strongest card of the movie is Arnold, who keeps the audience interested in
the movie with his cold gestures.
This movie, in general, depicts how a group of bodybuilders face different troubles and move
ahead to achieve their goal. This movie impacted the social thinking of the society. The society,
in general, was skeptic about bodybuilding; however, the release of this movie changed the
perception of the society. The social engineering made by this movie is its most important
contribution to the society.
The society started to see bodybuilding as a sport, and more and more people got motivated by
the movie and joined freshly opened gyms.

There are scenes that show the struggle of the builders, like practicing posing for endless hours
in the mirror, smearing oil on their bodies and tanning in the sun.
The overall impact of the movie on the society was ample; it hide one thing from the audience.
That was, whether the intention of body building is looking stronger or being stronger. If anyone
takes a look at the bodies of Olympic weightlifters, he will find that there is little resemblance to
the tanned swollen limbs and torsos popping with veins of the bodybuilders.
Pumping Iron can be called as watershed in filmmaking as it not only shined a spotlight on the
culture of bodybuilding; it also made this thing acceptable for the mainstream society. This
impacted the usual movies, and suddenly all action movies started to see heroes and heavy
characters with inflated muscles.
In the end, it can be concluded that this movie had a large impact on society. That can be seen
even today. The spurring gyms and bodybuilding enthusiasts and the showcase of body builders
in the contemporary film and movie are all examples of the decade this movie started way back
in 1977.
As per the troubles and issues are concerned, the movie depicted that how the characters in the
fight with themselves to get to the top.