Pumping Iron II: futur sexe

Bodybuilding for women is "something new under the sun," something as Charles Gaines, the writer of Pumping Iron pointed out, has no precedent in all of history. Pumping Iron II is a documentary made about the very earliest years of women's bodybuilding as a sanctioned sport. As a documentary, it has its failings. But as a look at who the women were participating in bodybuilding in the mid 1980s, how they looked and what they had to say, it is unique. Of course, women doing bodybuilding at all is still controversial and some people have trouble accepting it. One of the other reviews of this film makes that plain, written by somebody who hates the idea of muscular women to such a degree he is hardly any judge of the quality of the film. Obviously, somebody who is that angered and disgusted by women with muscles should not bother to watch a documentary about them. But for those who like "buff" women or who are at least curious about them, Pumping Iron II is an important film and shouldn't be missed. And as women's bodybuilding becomes more and more accepted and popular, the film will become even more significant.

I taped this movie not too long after it was released on a Beta videotape. So I have available a peek back to the mid-1980's via my sister's Beta player.

I can't remember what motivated me to tape "Pumping Iron II" in the first place. I'm pretty sure it wasn't for posterity's sake. Most likely it was that female bodybuilding presented a new culture I was totally unaware. And I had an intuition that the presence of Bev Francis was going to revolutionize that culture from the "feminine ideal" to pure muscle tone.

Or maybe it was the scenes. The hilarious one with the judges trying to tabulate the score. The tender one with the implied marriage proposal. Or Carla Dunlap's comforting conversation to Bev. While some scenes have participants act like they are aware of the camera, overall the film has enough real human drama to be worth you while.

Plus there's the bonus of the cheesy 80's music. Only songs from Art of Noise and Grace Jones stand the test of time.

helpless_dancer illustrates how incapable most of us are at actually looking into complex issues and understanding people other than ourselves. The women in Pumping Iron 2 are confusing at times, and a couple of them do seem more than a bit nutty, but reducing the issues at hand to the kind of ignorant, simple-minded derision that helpless_dancer deals in, is unfair to the women in the film and female bodybuilders in general. I don't understand them either, but calling them freaks is grade-school bigotry. The film itself is also, unfortunately, not up to the task, and spends much of its time trying to squeeze out some T&A from them. It does give the women an opportunity to speak for themselves from time to time, and their articulacy is often illuminating.

We had a family gathering on New Years Day 2019. One of my daughters brought me a VHS copy of this documentary that she had bought for 50 cents at an estate sale. She told me that I had taken her (born in 1970) and my younger daughter who was three years younger to see this documentary when it came out. I had been dating a woman who worked for one of the competer's backers and had received passes to the theater.

Both daughters loved the documentary and have worked hard to keep in shape.

I have always been an advocate for fitness which I am convinced will improve the quality of your life.

I haven't seen much of Rachel McLish lately , but I bet she is still in great shape. Woman's fitness is a bit more in the mainstream in 2019 and these women portrayed in this documentary should be congratulated for inspiring a generation of female fitness advocates.

more insightful and revealing than the first Pumping Iron movie,(in my opinion)this movie is engaging and interesting.it has its share of drama and suspense and I felt the woman were more open and honest than the men in Pumping Iron were.there also seemed to be less ego involved this time around.and very little in the way of mind games or psyching out of opponents.I also found the women to be more likable and sympathetic,compared to their male counterparts.it doesn't go into quite as much depth regarding training and behind the scenes drama as Pumping Iron does but the women were more real and genuine.overall,the film was much more fun.for me,Pumping Iron 2 is a strong 8/10