Synopses & Reviews
This book provides is a comprehensive, in-depth examination one of modern cinemas biggest and most ideologically defined screen presences. Tracing Arnold Schwarzeneggers entire film career and life from teenage bodybuilder in post-war Austria to Governor of California, Saunders blends observations of his major films, including Pumping Iron, Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator series, Twins and True Lies, with historical context and biographical detail, demonstrating continually the importance of broader social and political factors in defining Arnolds unique significance.
This work argues that Schwarzenegger represents far more than just a muscular spectacle; he embodies the powerful ideological and spiritual relevance of the age by embarking on a quest to restore collective faith in his adopted nation
Synopsis
Arnold: Schwarzenegger and the Movies is the first comprehensive, in-depth book to examine one of modern cinema's most celebrated and divisive screen presences. Tracing Schwarzenegger's entire film career and life from teenage bodybuilder to Governor of California, Saunders blends close textual readings of the major films, including Pumping Iron, Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator series, Twins and True Lies, with salient historical context and biographical detail, demonstrating continually the importance of broader social and political factors in defining Arnold's unique significance. Representing far more than just a muscular spectacle, Saunders argues, Schwarzenegger found powerful ideological and spiritual relevance to his age by embarking on a quest to restore collective faith in his adopted nation - and, moreover, by exploiting his own, mythic importance to a post-war America struggling to come to terms with its own contemporary narrative.
About the Author
Dave Saunders is a film writer and lecturer. His books include Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements * Introduction: Theres Something About Arnold: Schwarzeneggers American Dreams * Machina ex Deus: Rise of the Übermensch * Colossus: Arnolds Hollywood Putsch * Man of Irony; Or, How Arnie Learned to Grow and Love * Fall and Rise: The Will to Power * Bibliography * Filmography * Index