ACE Presents: Pumping Iron

Director: George Butler, Robert Fiore

1977 / 86min / 16mm

The movie that set Arnold Schwarzenegger off on his way to becoming a household name (admittedly one that Americans had difficulty pronouncing) and that introduced gym rat subculture to the wider world, Butler and Fiore’s paean to pecs follows golden boy Arnie on a collision course with Brooklyn-bred big man Lou Ferrigno, going bicep-to-bicep with the future Incredible Hulk at the 1975 Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia competitions. Nimbly constructed by editors Geof Bartz, ACE and the late Larry Silk, ACE, and finally released in theaters after two years and many a financial worry on the part of its producers, Pumping Iron is a documentary that plays like a finely tuned sports drama, with Ferrigno as affable, down-to-earth underdog and Schwarzenegger as the beaming, boisterous heavy that you can’t help but like.

Distributor: Lionsgate

Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Q&A with editor Geof Bartz, ACE, moderated by Jeffrey Wolf, ACE, on Saturday, September 19th