ACE Presents Pumping Iron Screening and Q&A to follow with the Film’s Editor, Geof Bartz, ACE, Moderated by Jeffrey Wolf, ACE (NY Event)
Our fifth season of American Cinema Editors (ACE) Presents at Metrograph kicks off with a 16mm screening of George Butler and Robert Fiore's classic documentary Pumping Iron, with a Q&A to follow with the film's editor, Geof Bartz, ACE, moderated by Jeffrey Wolf, ACE.
Pumping Iron is a 1977 documentary based on the popular book by Charles Gaines and Butler. It introduced the world to Arnold Schwartzenegger, who is seen competing with Lou Ferrigno for the title of Mr. Olympia. An enormous box office success for a documentary (grossing an estimated $50 million on a $400,000 budget), it helped popularize body-building culture and fitness in general - after the film's release there was a marked increase in the number of gyms across the United States. Ferrigno hopes to dethrone Schwartzennegger, who has won the Mr. Olympia title for the past five years. The film was well-received by critics of the time. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "The film allows us to get to know two bodybuilders very well, and, as a result, Pumping Iron is much more a story of human beings than it is a freak show. I actually ended up caring who won the contest."[ He ranked it #9 in his year-end list of the best films of 1977. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post, observed that "Schwarzenegger is the first personality since Bruce Lee who might become a unique and credible physical star, idolized in particular by kids but enjoyed and admired by a vast cross-section of the public." SAVE THE DATE; TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE SOON!