Editing Pumping Iron (section)

==Production==
George Butler asked approximately 3000 people to help finance his bodybuilding documentary, showing them 10 minutes of footage of Schwarzenegger that Butler shot at an amusement park. He eventually raised $400,000.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Merritt |first=Greg |date= 14 October 2023|title=PUMPING IRON: 25 Things You Need to Know about the Classic Documentary |url=https://thebarbell.com/pumping-iron/ |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=The Barbell |language=en-US}}</ref> Schwarzenegger was focused on acting and reluctant to compete in another Mr. Olympia, but he said yes after Butler agreed to pay him $50,000. Filming took place over 14 weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montreal, Paris, South Africa, and a mountain village in Sardinia (Franco Columbu's childhood home).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Merritt |first=Greg |date= 14 October 2023|title=PUMPING IRON: 25 Things You Need to Know about the Classic Documentary |url=https://thebarbell.com/pumping-iron/ |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=The Barbell |language=en-US}}</ref>

The film began as a look at bodybuilding from the perspective of a newcomer to the sport; to this end, the production had hired slim actor [[Bud Cort]], with the intention of following Cort's development from a physically slight man to a muscular, strong bodybuilder. Cort trained at [[Gold's Gym]] for a brief period, taking lessons from Schwarzenegger, but ultimately felt that he was wrong for the project; Cort and the producers amicably parted ways, and the documentary team began to focus more intently on the established bodybuilders at Gold's.<ref name="rawiron" />
[[File:Gold’s Gym Los Angeles-01.jpg|thumb|200x200px|Gold's Gym in Venice, California]]
In order to compensate for the loss of Cort's narrative arc, Butler decided to capitalize on Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno's contrasting personalities and cast the film as the story of a heroic but "sinister" underdog (Ferrigno) against a charismatic, powerful "villain" (Schwarzenegger).<ref name="rawiron"/> To this end, Butler intentionally avoided filming Ferrigno's training sequences with bright lighting and emphasized the open-air atmosphere of Gold's Gym and the sunlight at Muscle Beach for Schwarzenegger's training sequences. Schwarzenegger claims to have helped Butler in casting himself as a villain, citing his story about not returning home for his father's funeral as having been told to him by a French bodybuilder; however, following the film's release, claims surfaced that Schwarzenegger had in fact refused to attend the funeral.<ref>Leigh, Wendy (1990). Arnold: An Unauthorized Biography. {{ISBN|0-7207-1997-6}}.</ref><ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E5D81230F934A2575BC0A9659C8B63 Schwarzenegger's Next Goal On Dogged, Ambitious Path]. New York Times (2003-08-17). Retrieved on 2011-06-20.</ref> Butler additionally cast the relationship between Mike Katz and Ken Waller as a sinister rivalry, filming the "football scene" where Waller decides to steal Katz's shirt after the fact in order to fill in a narrative gap. Waller and Katz were in fact close friends, and Waller's theft of the shirt was simply a spur-of-the-moment prank not intended to upset Katz to the extent that it did. Waller was later regretful of the football sequence, claiming that audiences at bodybuilding competitions continued to boo him for years after the film's release.<ref name="rawiron"/><ref name="iron25">{{cite web|url=http://www.ironage.us/articles/butler.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428110042/http://www.ironage.us/articles/butler.html|archive-date=2009-04-28|title=IRON AGE- Articles - Butler Interview|date=April 28, 2009}}</ref>

Following the Mr. Olympia contest, the production ran out of money and ended up in [[development hell]] for nearly two years. In an effort to raise funds, Butler arranged an exhibit with the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]] in [[New York City]]: Bodybuilders would become "living sculptures," posing on rotating platforms while art critics analyzed the aesthetics of the bodybuilding physique and compared and contrasted the men to Greek sculpture. To increase interest in the event, Butler arranged for [[Candice Bergen]] to be a celebrity commentator; Schwarzenegger also agreed to appear as one of the "living sculptures", having received modest attention for his [[Golden Globe]]-winning appearance in the film ''[[Stay Hungry]]''. The event proved to be a great success, generating more money than Butler had anticipated and allowing him to complete production on the film.<ref name="rawiron"/><ref name="iron25"/>

Upon its release, ''Pumping Iron'' became a commercial and critical success. Schwarzenegger's popularity grew beyond that afforded him by ''Stay Hungry''. Ferrigno was shortly thereafter cast as ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'', a role he would continue to play in a variety of mediums into the 2010s. Although bodybuilding had been a [[subculture]] regarded by many as being on par with early 20th century [[freak show]]s prior to the film's release,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/pumping-iron/29758/pumping-iron-and-the-birth-of-the-80s-action-hero|title=Pumping Iron and the birth of the 80s action hero|website=Den of Geek|date=19 March 2014 |language=en|access-date=2019-01-30}}</ref> the film normalized the idea to the point that interest in bodybuilding began spreading into mainstream American culture. In the years following the film's release, hundreds of commercial gyms began appearing across the United States as demand rose for access to weightlifting equipment.<ref name="rawiron"/>