Pumping Iron (1977) on Netflix
PG19771h 25mDocumentarySport
Bodybuilders prepare for the 1975 Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia contests. Arnold Schwarzenegger defends his title against Lou Ferrigno. Mike Katz and Ken Waller are contenders for Mr. Universe.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/1026,889 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mike Katz, a former professional football player whose career ended with a leg injury, hopes to take the 1975 Mr. Universe title in Pretoria, South Africa, where Ken Waller is also a contender. The professional contest comes down to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a five-time Mr. Olympia champion who intends to retire after one last competition, and Lou Ferrigno, the largest bodybuilder of the era, who trains with his father in a private basement gym and went partly deaf after a childhood ear infection. Schwarzenegger trains at Gold's Gym and Muscle Beach alongside other bodybuilders, and his training partner Franco Columbu is favored in the under-200 pound class. Serge Nubret joins Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno in the over-200 pound field.
Cast
- Mike Katzas Himself
- Ed Corneyas Himself
- Ken Walleras Himself
- Robbie Robinsonas Himself (as Robin Robinson)
- Marianne Claireas Herself
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Pumping Iron (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director George Butler asked roughly 3,000 people to help finance the bodybuilding documentary, showing them 10 minutes of Schwarzenegger footage he had shot at an amusement park, and eventually raised $400,000; Schwarzenegger agreed to compete again only after Butler agreed to pay him $50,000.
- Ken Waller and Mike Katz were in fact close friends, and Waller's theft of the shirt was a spur-of-the-moment prank that upset Katz far more than intended; Waller later regretted the football sequence, saying audiences at bodybuilding competitions booed him for years.
- Schwarzenegger says he helped Butler cast him as a villain, and that the story about not returning home for his father's funeral had been told to him by a French bodybuilder; after the film's release, claims surfaced that he had in fact refused to attend.
- In an effort to raise funds, Butler arranged an exhibit with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in which bodybuilders became “living sculptures” on rotating platforms while art critics compared them to Greek sculpture; Candice Bergen was celebrity commentator and Schwarzenegger posed too.
- The film began as a look at bodybuilding from a newcomer's perspective, with slim actor Bud Cort hired so his development into a bodybuilder could be followed; Cort took lessons from Schwarzenegger at Gold's Gym, felt he was wrong for the project, and amicably parted ways.
- To sharpen the contrast between the two men, Butler avoided bright lighting on Ferrigno's training sequences, casting him as the “sinister” underdog, and emphasised the open air of Gold's Gym and the sunlight at Muscle Beach for Schwarzenegger, the charismatic “villain”.
- The documentary Raw Iron debunked much of the drama in Pumping Iron, including the fact that Matty Ferrigno, Lou's father, had not previously been involved in his son's training and was brought into the production for dramatic purposes.
Stills
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