Pumping Iron II: futur sexe

Wow, talk about "documentary" filmmakers having an agenda. These guys (George Butler and Charles Gaines) must have graduated from the Michael Moore School Of Objectivity.

This film is the follow-up to the highly-acclaimed "Pumping Iron," made by the same guys about a decade earlier, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, That one was well-done, even though they went out of their way to stretch the truth there, too. (Arnold is shown to be overly heartless and ruthless and his main competitors are pictured as easily-manipulated stupid idiots. Both were exaggerated).

Here, in the women's edition of Pumping Iron, Gaines and Butler have two more main objectives: 1) show how Bev Francis got screwed out of the championship trophy; 2) show the Christian contestant to be downright evil and a big phony.

Judging by some of the stupid reviews so far, Gaines and Butler succeeded: people now all hate McLish.

Dear readers. Here is a scoop from someone who spent his career in the newspaper business: editors can pick and choose what they want you to see and hear. It's called editing. You can bet thousands of footage was filmed for this "documentary." On McLish, only the material that made her look bad was inserted in the film. That was obvious. We never see her shown in a positive light. And, of course, anytime they could get her to mention she was a Christian, and then follow that up with something the audience would find distasteful about her, all the better!

Regarding Francis, frankly, I agree -- she did get robbed. Who in their right mind would argue she wasn't hands down the best contestant? Nobody, even the gracious winner Carla Dunlap. However, the filmmakers could have let the viewers see the obvious, without hammering their point home time and time again, going out of their way to show how ignorant the judges were. It's like.....okay, we know what's happening here .... move on. How about showing more of the winner of the contest?

Overall, the movie was interesting, especially to people who work out regularly in a gym....... but it could have been so much better without the bias.

Since I'm currently studying this film I'm a bit insulted at some of the shallow reviews. This semi-documentary film shows female bodybuilders in 1985, and it critiques the performance they must all put on in order to make it in their business (hence the loaded make-up: first of all it was the eighties, second of all they had to struggle to remain feminine looking or, as seen with Bev Francis, they were penalized). Watching this film should enrage you since it's clear who SHOULD win the title. Clearly the judges need a little updating, but again, it was1985.

I strongly recommend this film to anyone who has not seen it. It critiques female bodybuilding and questions the stereotypical view of women as seen through the actions of the judges.

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.

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

I managed to catch this movie on cinemax or something one day at a weird time. It is awful (in a very addictive, bad 80's movie type of way) for the following reasons:

1) See Rachel McLish (sp?), the most self centered, arrogant egotist in the world caught on film talking about the Bible and Jesus constantly while she uses sex to win judges' votes. This woman is just too bizarre for words.

2) See some poor steroid addled woman talk about how she is redefining feminity with her huge (and I mean gigantic) manly shape and facial acne (no doubt caused by excessive use of steroids)!

3) See bad 80's workout gear! :o

3) See the touching supportive relationship between one of these women (name forgotten) whose husband works as a male dancer to support her budding bodybuilding career!

There is so much wrong with this movie you just can't tear yourself away (sort of like watching a car accident in progress). Particularly amusing is the combination workout/shower scene with Rachel and her "posse" - it verges on soft porn.

But in the end you realize just how sad all of these women are, and you try to stop laughing - though it doesn't work. It really is Spinal Tap in a Gym. I thought the movie was a comedy when I first started watching it.