Arnold

A celebratory three-part documentary about a nice guy who liked to work hard and knew how to sell himself. Netflix only skims the surface and even though it offers some controversy it has Arnold to sum everything up in a sentence. Everything is a show and a bit of a sham, but it would be nice to see a more complex documentary, something longer, spicier, that would dig deeper. Don't the Netflix people  have any cut scenes? (15.06.2023)

Flying around Schwarzenegger's biography in terms of upholding the principles of the American dream. Actually, how else would it be. Today, the once safely survived motif of constant pursuit of personal ambitions has become a magically foolish story in his case, about how Arnold discovered the technical aspects of success wherever he went and pursued them to achieve them. This Forrest Gump-like tale of how someone told the boy at the beginning to "Run!" and he just ran beautifully illustrates the eccentricity of (post)Reagan America, in which the entertainment industry began to surpass all previous industrial sectors and offered its biggest representatives practically endless possibilities to realize themselves or, conversely, to fail and fall. The catch is that the documentary actually doesn't reflect this at all; on the contrary, it presents the exemplary American story of a man who, from a whirlpool, with a cigar in hand, looks into the distance and reminisces about how all he had to do was firmly follow his path to achieve everything he wanted. Currently, this is actually a refreshingly anachronistic approach, which only motivation video addicts may seriously take. For everything else, it could at least serve as filling in some blank spots in Schwarzenegger's life, or help bring some order to the chronology of his life. By the way, if you strip away all the glitz from the first part, recalling his bodybuilding years, you'll find that the entire era has quite definitive narrative arcs: "I wanted to be the best, so I worked out a lot. Then came the competition. But I came second there! So I worked out even more for a whole year. And then I became first!" Wow, great story, Mark. (20.07.2023)

An exceptionally comprehensive biography of one of the most influential artists of our time, who stood out for his ambition and grand plans, which he managed to turn into reality. An impressive account of a legend that is factual, direct and well handled. Those three hours with Arnold went by in a flash. (18.06.2023)

Arnold was my childhood role model, I didn't really like Sly that much before, and Arnold was my number one, I even wanted to name my dog after him. That's why this documentary was a clear thing I had to see, even though shortly before that I was disappointed by his series Fubar, which ran in tandem with this documentary. I somehow expected that with Schwarzenegger's involvement, the documentary would go smoothly and not touch on sensitive topics, which actually confirmed for me until the third part, but I was pleased that in the end, the creators delved deeper, even though the famous actor didn't want to talk much about it. The second part was the most interesting for me, I've seen almost everything about him and at least I learned something about his childhood and beginnings in bodybuilding and also about his political career in context, because I didn't really understand before why he would even get into it. A must-see for fans, it looks great on Netflix. (25.06.2023)