cannabisnews.com: Schwarzenegger Backs 'Pumping Iron' 





Schwarzenegger Backs 'Pumping Iron' 
Posted by CN Staff on November 14, 2002 at 16:49:28 PT
By Lynn Elber, AP Television Writer 
Source: Associated Press
Arnold Schwarzenegger encouraged the director of ``Pumping Iron,'' the documentary that launched him in Hollywood 25 years ago, to re-release it unedited--including a marijuana-smoking scene. ``I would refuse to wipe out that record or change it or alter it because of image's sake,'' Schwarzenegger said this week. ``That would not be true to the filmmaker.''
George Butler's critically acclaimed 1977 documentary follows Schwarzenegger as he prepares to defend his Mr. Olympia title against fellow bodybuilders including Lou Ferrigno. A digitally enhanced version of ``Pumping Iron,'' repackaged with previously unseen footage and interviews with actors and athletes influenced by Schwarzenegger, debuts Friday on the Cinemax channel. Schwarzenegger retired from bodybuilding after winning the competition and began to build a movie career, including the early ``Conan the Barbarian'' and the breakthrough ``The Terminator.'' He shot a third ``Terminator'' this year. He's also dabbled in politics, most recently helping to win passage of an after-school-programs ballot measure in California, and is perceived as a possible GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2006. ``Pumping Iron'' follows the then-massively muscled Schwarzenegger working out or trying to psych out his opponents. He comes across as a merry prankster, telling a reporter in one scene that he advised an aspiring bodybuilder to scream, loudly, during poses. Schwarzenegger may have been putting that reporter on. His claim in the film that he missed his father's funeral because it would have affected a competition was untrue, he says. It was part of the ``docudrama'' approach needed to sell a movie about the little-appreciated sport of bodybuilding in 1977, he said in an interview this week. Each bodybuilder had a part to play in the film and he was the calculating and cocky winner, Schwarzenegger said. ``The way to get headlines, to promote the sport, was to make outrageous statements.'' His determination, however, was real and apparently boundless. As a child in Austria, he recalls in the film, he dreamed of coming to the United States ``and being the greatest.'' ``I had a vision when I was a kid and I went after that vision, after that goal, after that dream, and I would not let go until it was accomplished,'' Schwarzenegger said in the interview. He's equally dedicated now, he said, toward movies and toward projects such as the Special Olympics and his after-school measure. Schwarzenegger won't say if he has greater political aspirations, but he is unconcerned that any part of his past--such as the drag he takes off a marijuana cigarette in ``Pumping Iron'' _ will hurt him. ``I did smoke a joint and I did inhale,'' he said, taking a jab at President Clinton's famous statement. ``The bottom line is that's what it was in the '70s, that's what I did. I have never touched it since.'' ``I lived a certain life, I want everyone to know that's the life I lived. As you grow up and as you become more mature, those things change,'' he said. ``The only one that's perfect is God.'' Still fit at 55, Schwarzenegger is proud of the attention he brought to professional bodybuilding and to how Americans perceive weight-training. Watching ``Pumping Iron'' again, he said, ``I thought about how far the idea of weight resistance training has gone, because in those days no one did it, no athlete, no older person. The medical industry didn't recommend it. Today, everybody's training.'' Source: Associated Press Author: Lynn Elber, AP Television Writer Published: November 14, 2002Copyright: 2002 Associated Press CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by john wayne on November 14, 2002 at 23:51:51 PT
don't worry
No matter what overtures Ahhh-nold is now making to the cannabis users of california, you can be 100 percent sure that if he ever assumes any kind of public office, he will come down on us with the full weight and authority of whatever powers that office portends.Sorry, but it's true.
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on November 14, 2002 at 18:36:44 PT
Why the GOP?
I always wondered that myself, Sam Adams. Marijuana certainly leads to harder stuff though...like Mr. Olympia titles!Enter the Empire -Homeland Security deal struck: 
http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-home13.htmlALERT!SMALLPOX PROVISIONS HIDDEN IN HOMELAND SECURITY BILL: 
http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/posts/3468.htmlBill Would Limit Damages for People Injured by Smallpox Vaccine:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAB15VWH8D.htmlUS gov's 'ultimate database' run by a felon:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28107.htmlYou Are a Suspect:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/opinion/14SAFI.html?ex=1037854800&en=3778829e1bec3dc2&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLEWarner Wants to Review Posse Comitatus:
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,70207,00.htmlRumsfeld's Defense Science Board proposes 'prodding' terrorists to terrorism:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14076Special Terrorist Alert(get ready for another staged attack after passage of Homeland Security bill) 
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=34550Senator Shelby: "...the full story has yet to be told"
http://www.scoop.co.nz/archive/scoop/stories/6f/c9/200211141041.675d0cd6.htmlThe People's Investigation of 9/11:
http://www.911pi.com/
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on November 14, 2002 at 17:05:33 PT
Wrong Party?
After school programs for poor people? Marijuana? Hollywood? Sounds like he should be a Green or Democrat, not Republican.Arnold has also confessed to using steroids during his competition days; it's interesting that MJ is considered more taboo - even though 'roids damage your liver and heart and can be deadly. Oh yeah, steroids are illegal, too.
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