Raw Iron: The Making of 'Pumping Iron' (2002)
A documentary on the making of "Pumping Iron" to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Aired on Cinemax.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Reviews
The Worst Film Ever
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
"Raw Iron: The Making of 'Pumping Iron'" is an American documentary that was released back in 2002, so it has its 15th anniversary this year. Writers and directors are Dave and Scott McVeigh, who are known for other behind the scenes / making of films as well. This one here is of course as the title already suggests about the defining bodybuilding / Schwarzenegger documentary "Pumping Iron" from the 1970s. There are several versions out there of this one. The one I watched and that is included as an add-on on the 1970s film's DVD runs for 43 minutes roughly, but another version also exists and that one runs for 75 minutes almost. But I certainly recommend to watch the shorter or better neither as this felt like a really uninspired watch. It tells almost no interesting facts or snippets about the 1970s movie and recycles footage from the old film on many occasions without teaching anything new, so I don't really see the point why one would not just watch the original movie and stay away from this one here. And of course the usual "look how great we were" sky praising nonsense is in it as well. As a whole, I would say that 4 stars out of 10 is very much on the generous side here and I think that not only does it not succeed in making me curious about "Pumping Iron", but also it's really only worth seeing for the very biggest fans of bodybuilding, Arnie and the 1970s film. Everybody who doesn't fit the description, stay far away!