A Major Disappointment

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I watched this film a number of times when it first came out, and not again for forty years until catching it last night. What a blast down memory lane. I was a follower of bodybuilding back in the Seventies so the names were all familiar to me when the documentary was released. It was fun seeing muscle men like Mike Katz, Ken Waller, Franco Columbu, Serge Nubret and Lou Ferrigno in the story, but the center stage guy was Austrian strong man Arnold Schwarzenegger. I still remembered his put downs to Ferrigno and his father, meant to both demoralize and psych out his main opponent for the upcoming (1975) Mr. Olympia contest. It's comical to watch, but as part of Ah-nold's strategy, it worked to have it's effect on the second place finisher.One thing I noticed today that didn't get my attention back in the day, was how the crowds at the bodybuilding shows mixed out pretty closely to fifty-fifty, men and women. You wouldn't think so, figuring most followers of the sport would be similar minded muscle heads (like myself), mostly men. I haven't followed the sport for almost as many years now as this film exists, but to my mind, there was one bodybuilder who might have been slightly better than Arnie in one of the early Olympia contests. That being Sergio Oliva, but he wasn't in this film.I happened to catch Lou Ferrigno at a Chicago Comic-Con quite a few years ago, well after his heyday as a bodybuilder and star of the late Seventies/early Eighties TV series, "The Incredible Hulk". 'Louie' was signing autographs and trading stories with fans, still in great shape, and to my mind, with a build that looked a lot like the character he portrayed. It's good to see both Arnold and Lou still going strong today.

From Gold's Gym in Venice Beach, California to the showdown in Pretoria, amateur and professional bodybuilders prepare for the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe contests in this part-scripted, part-documentary film.Say what you will about Arnold's acting or even his political career. There is plenty to criticize on both fronts. But his knowledge and passion for bodybuilding is unmatched. Here more than anywhere else we see just how brilliant and focused he can be.The film is even better in retrospect because there was no knowing that Arnold (in 1977) was going to become the megastar he is. The same goes for Lou Ferrigno. Of all the competitors, it had to be the Incredible Hulk, and that makes it much more fun to watch.

I did not have particularly high expectations of this film when I first came to watch it, but I left the screen with a new found knowledge of bodybuilding, an area which I had never seen on film before, and was inspired more than ever to get training! I really liked this film a lot. I found it very interesting to have entered this new world of bodybuilding and I now have a much better understanding of what the sport is all about. I found Arnold Shwarzenegger to be very funny throughout this film and enjoyed watching his journey. I would highly recommend this film to just about anyone and I hope it can inspire you too.

I really love this movie! I don't believe you can watch it and not sign up for a gym. It just gives you so much desire to start fitness-training. Maybe not on their level, but still you get the desire to pump some serious iron. Moreover, the dialog is incredible. The movie is from 1977, a funny period in time, and it is as if every line of dialog contains a great joke or something. I guess, a lot of superfluous material has been cut out, and the filmmakers have only kept the relevant stuff. I don't have any extra material on my copy of the DVD, so I don't know. Anyway, this is a great movie not only to see Arnold but also to see other legends of bodybuilding like for example Mike Katz and many others.