The Schwarzenegger Library

[BiffMan]

A fun thread for all things Ahnold...

For reasons best left unexplored, I have taken it upon myself to watch all of Arnold Schwarzenegger's theatrical releases, in more or less chronological order. Having had my formative movie watching years in the 80s to early 90s, I've always had a soft spot for Arnold and, although he's never exactly been a role model, he makes consistently entertaining movies. Watching his movies smacks of a guilty pleasure, the sort you're not really supposed to be enjoying. Just as I have come to terms with the fact that I like Duran Duran and am now okay with that, I also must own up to genuinely enjoying the majority of Arnold's movies.

I've been trying to watch these with as fresh a perspective as possible, which is aided by the fact that I haven't seen several of these for 20+ years and have never seen a few of them. Oddly enough, I'm finding that the frequent flaws in his movies are less directly the result of Arnold's acting chops, but more often the craft of the movie itself. I'm sure that many concessions had to be made to keep them within Arnold's performance envelope, but I'm trying to cut him some slack where the script or director seem to be as much to blame. Given that, I also can think of several movies where he really phoned it in and I'll not shy away from calling that out when I see it. It'll be fun to see if I can pick out any actual progression in his acting ability over 40+ years of movies.

Thus far, with the exception of Stay Hungry and The Villain, I've made it up through True Lies (saw that 2 weeks ago at the Alamo Drafthouse in 35mm!) and the common theme throughout is that Arnold is a considerably better actor than I was giving him credit for. I don't think we're going to see him win an Oscar in his career to go with his Golden Globe, but he's actually quite good.

I've been blogging this for my own use since I started (and I'm trying to catch up and post the individual movie reviews over in the RtM forum), but thought it might be fun to open up a discussion here about Arnold and what have been your favorite highs and lows of his.

[Rudolf]

did you see:Hercules in NewYork(1969) as Greek SemigodThe Long Goodbye(1973) where he strips to intimitade a manHappy Anniversary(1974) as masseurStay Hungy (1976) as Austrian bodybuilderStreets Of San Francisco(1977) as murdererThe San Pedro Beach Bums(1977) as musclemanThe Villain(1979) as handsome strangerThe Scavanger Hunt(1979) as LarsThe Jayne Mansfield Story(1980) as Hungarian bodybuilder and husband of Jayne Mansfield

Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[BiffMan]

Have watched Hercules, actually enjoyed that a fair amount. Still had an old VHS recording of Scavenger Hunt and he's pretty fun in his bit with the gym and medicine ball. For now, I'm just sticking with the theatrical releases, but no, I haven't yet watched Stay Hungry, The Villain, or The Long Goodbye yet, but they're on the list. I keep meaning to go back and fill in those few gaps for the old ones, especially Stay Hungry where he won his one and only major award, but I keep getting distracted by the next one on the list. :)Interesting thing is that up through True Lies, the only movie I really didn't like him in so far was Raw Deal. It's the only one up to this point that I hadn't seen before and it was such a straight-up ordinary movie (aside from the last 20 minutes) that it really didn't give him a chance to shine or do any of his Ahnold stuff. He's so good in the fish-out-of-water situations, that being in a vanilla mob/cop movie was an unfortunate choice. Especially odd coming right in between Commando and Predator.

[Rudolf]

Hercules In New York is hard to stomach

his English was terriblein Stay Hungry he was really good and in Conan he showed that he was star materialThe Jayne Mansfiled Story is good because he had to act also

Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[Rudolf]

The Villain http://youtu.be/KrwgnAC9Uvwhttp://youtu.be/g-CCNIAKxHk

Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[Rudolf]

The Villain 3rd part (he speaks German sometimes, doesn't he)http://youtu.be/3H2-w6ApuGgScavenger Hunt

Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[Rudolf]

Arnold vs Lou Ferrigno(Hulk)

Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[Rudolf]

Lucille Ball vs Arnold Schwarzenegger

Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[BiffMan]

Awesome clips, thanks for sharing!

Hercules in New York is completely apalling of course, but I actually thought Arnold wasn't the worst actor in that. He was better than pretty much any of the Olympians and other than his completely cringe-worthy expressions after he fails at the weightlifting challenge, he was actually pretty fun.

Fun to compare that to something like Twins or True Lies to see just how far he progressed as an actor.

[vc2002]

Hercules in New York is one of those that was so bad that it actually was funny. The same as Commando, as the movie itself doesnt take it to seriously. If it was some serious drama, it would be lame and had not fun."I can hear my talk, I can't watch it.”

[Rudolf]

When I first saw Hercules in the 70s (in German of course), it was just one of a plentytude of films bodybuilders did to earn money. Especially in Italy there are hundreds such movies. With the exception of Johnny Weissmüller (also born in Austria) no former sportsman became a real Hollywood-star. Arnold dreamt of a career ala Reg Park (SouthAfrica) whom he worshiped. No one could imagine that at the beginning 90s he would be the biggest Hollywood-star of the era.The stars he worked with always commented on his working attitude and modest ways. Wth comming success the famous Arnie arrogance took over, but his commitment while making a movie has stayed. If he fails to have an exraordinary late carreer it won' be his lack of trying.

[chasmmi]

This seems like the perfect thread to verify from German speakers the validity of that wonderful bi of triva about how Arnie wanted to also do the German dubbing acting for Terminator but was refused because his accent in German sounded too much like a farmer ad not enough like a killing machine/.True or fun lie?

[Rudolf]

This seems like the perfect thread to verify from German speakers the validity of that wonderful bi of triva about how Arnie wanted to also do the German dubbing acting for Terminator but was refused because his accent in German sounded too much like a farmer ad not enough like a killing machine/.True or fun lie?

never heard that, but his German is worse than his English nowand his German voice actor Thomas Danneberg is quite goodgerman Hollywoodstars very seldom dub their English voices for the German versionPeter Ustinov was famous for dubbing his German voice Edited November 16, 2012 by Rudolf

[BiffMan]

When I first saw Hercules in the 70s (in German of course), it was just one of a plentytude of films bodybuilders did to earn money. Especially in Italy there are hundreds such movies. With the exception of Johnny Weissmüller (also born in Austria) no former sportsman became a real Hollywood-star. Arnold dreamt of a career ala Reg Park (SouthAfrica) whom he worshiped. No one could imagine that at the beginning 90s he would be the biggest Hollywood-star of the era.The stars he worked with always commented on his working attitude and modest ways. Wth comming success the famous Arnie arrogance took over, but his commitment while making a movie has stayed. If he fails to have an exraordinary late carreer it won' be his lack of trying.

I've definitely seen that in working through his movies. His strong work ethic is readily apparent in his early films in particular. The amount of work he put in to learn swordplay or to fire weapons and kick through doorways without blinking in The Terminator really makes a difference in those movies. The Conan DVD commentary nicely illustrates how much he was working on his acting craft early on and how well he meshed with his directors. He frequently mentions things Milius was telling him about what the character was thinking, etc, and I really think that shows up on screen. Goofy or limited range or not, Arnold *is* Conan in that movie.It doesn't seem to get a lot of critical love, but I always hold up Twins as a great example of just how good Arnold was getting in the late 80s and 90s before his ego kicked in as you mention. He's so open and earnest in that, watching it again recently, I was struck anew by just how good he was in that. He's not just an action star doing comedy (you couldn't have put Steven Segal or Van Damme in a similar role), he's a very intelligent and hard working actor putting in a good performance.My real concern is what kind of Arnold do we have going forward? Do we have the "I'm Arnold, I don't need to try" version of his late 90s movies, or can we have a return to form of his 80s & early 90s work where he worked hard to be the character? I sure hope for the latter, but very nervous about the former. Edited November 20, 2012 by BiffMan

[ThatMovieGuy]

anyone else have love for kindergarten cop?

Edited November 26, 2012 by ThatMovieGuy

[The Toymaker]

did you see:

Happy Anniversary(1974) as masseur

Streets Of San Francisco(1977) as murderer

The San Pedro Beach Bums(1977) as muscleman

The Jayne Mansfield Story(1980) as Hungarian bodybuilder and husband of Jayne Mansfield

These are TV projects. He specifically said that he wanted to watch Schwarzenegger's theatrical releases.

And it's called Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.

[BiffMan]

After a short Thanksgiving and Austin Formula One race (!!) distraction, I managed to get back in the swing and yesterday watched another of his I'd not previously seen: Junior. Fell oddly flat for me. Strange given how much I enjoyed Reitman's other 2 Arnold movies, and while there wasn't anything really wrong with it, just didn't connect with it at all. Pity, as that was the last pre-Batman & Robin Arnold movie I hadn't yet watched and I was hoping for a little hidden gem there, but guess the IMDB rating on Junior should have clued me in... Next up for today: Eraser. Saw that in the theater and mostly remember it being dull compared to other Arnold movies, but hopefully I just didn't enjoy it much at the time and it'll prove to be fun.

[BiffMan]

Finally managed to finish slogging my way through all of Arnold's movies. Was quite a bit of fun all in all. Biggest surprise: Arnold's actually a decent actor. He's not going to win any other major awards or anything, but there's some legitimately good work out there. I had apparently retroactively judged him based on Batman & Robin, but running back through, the majority of the rest of his work is perfectly fine. That's not to say every movie is a winner, but he does largely seem to make the best of what he was given to work with.Low points:Batman & Robin - Nothing redeeming about that for me. If anything, stacking up against his other movies made it seem even worse this go around.The Villain - What a completely bizarre film. Going in, I thought there was a good chance that I'd really enjoy it. Couldn't have been more wrong.Raw Deal - Zzzzzz.... wha? huh?High points:The 6th Day - What a treat! Very cool movie and glad I finally got to see itPumping Iron - Had never seen all of it and really helped me understand what all the fuss was back in the day.Predator - A whole new appreciation for just how damned good he was in this.Now I just need to add up how many hours worth of his movies I sat through over the past 3 months and what other much more worthwhile things I could have done with that time. :)If you're a glutton for punishment or in need of an insomnia cure, I blogged all my reviews while I was running through the films.

[acab]

Good job BiffMan.