Flex Australia – June-July 2017

PUMPING

Aninterviewwith

directorGeorgeButler,

themanresponsiblefor

makingbodybuildinga

culturalmainstaythat

hasinspiredayounger

generationoflifters.

BY SHAWN PERINE

AT

40

IRON

It’s hard to overstate the impact

of director George Butler’s 1977

documentary Pumping Iron,

not just on bodybuilding, but on

society. For one thing, it introduced

the world to pre-Conan Arnold

Schwarzenegger, whose incredible

success might not have been

possible without his breakout

performance as himself in PI.

Then there’s the mainstreaming

of gyms that can be traced to the

lease. Beginning in the late 1970s

and well into the ’80s, the health club

industry saw massive growth, with

chains popping up throughout the US,

then the world, and with them, a surge

in gym memberships.

Pumping Iron is the reason many

of us, myself included, got into working

out in the first place, so it’s with great

pleasure that I wish George, Arnold

and the rest of the film’s cast and

crew a happy 40th anniversary.

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