In the burgeoning celebrity documentary industry, things can seem suffocatingly safe. That’s not to say that directors can’t cut something garish about their stories, but seeing such work can be most interesting in how it focuses on lines that are carefully crafted. IN Leslie ChilcottX Arnolda new Netflix documentary about a bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-politician. Arnold Schwarzenegger, there are many people who are content to operate within rather than oppose them. Depth is sacrificed at the altar of access, with personal details and interviews with the man himself running the documentary in such a way that, while entertaining to watch his films, it remains incomplete overall.
Divided into three parts, one for each reimagining of Schwarzenegger’s life. Arnold comes across as more of a calculated brand management strategy than a truly insightful documentary. Considering the streamer is hosting a mixed bag of the new series, which he also stars in, it’s hard not to see the two closely connected for their own purposes. While the documentary, fortunately, never becomes a direct advertisement for the series or the streaming platform itself, there is still a strong sense that Schwarzenegger is trying to sell us something: himself. For every potentially complex contradiction he tries to explore in the man behind the films, there are many more moments where he reveals himself as a hagiography largely consumed by the star’s self-serving mythology. It’s not what Arnold does hide from us, nor is it unexpected or uninteresting as a potentially inadvertent exploration of what excites its subject. As Schwarzenegger says in one of his many non-stop interviews that almost serve as monologues for his own myths: “You have to sell everything. Whatever you do in life, you have to sell it.” It becomes sort of the thesis for a documentary, but whether to buy what Schwarzenegger sells is another matter altogether.
“Arnold” is most associated with the image of Schwarzenegger
Despite being considered one of the most recognizable action stars of all time and one who has left an indelible mark on cinema, Arnold sees Schwarzenegger acting like he still has something to prove. This makes for a fascinating artifact that is most revealing in a way it may not have fully intended to be. Now that the actor is in his seventies, there is something touching about the way he reflects on his legacy. When in conversation with him we openly talk about how his childhood shaped him, which he insists was for the best, making brief confessions about his problems, we begin to understand this person both through this and through some of them. Arnoldomissions. Surprisingly, Schwarzenegger does not discuss his own feelings or emotions regardless of his public perception. Instead, he usually looks at his worth through how others, whether the public or the critics, judged him. Repeated reminders of his film’s box office performance, where he often sets records that serve as high scores (and some flops serve as low scores), make clear that this is a man who measures his worth in dollars. More than his talents as an actor, his financial appeal is what motivates him and still seems to weigh on him.
Arnold doesn’t dwell on those disappointments, trying not to obsess over those disappointments as they always get closer to his next success, but the way Schwarzenegger talks about his envy of the likes of Sylvester Stallone, who himself makes a couple of good-natured speeches, speaks volumes. The idea of them competing against each other as each tries to outdo the other with larger weapons and spectacles in their respective films is played out as humorous and also gets to the point of driving its subject matter. Schwarzenegger always needs to achieve something, and he is not content with simply enjoying what he has done. In one particularly revealing scene, after saying that he is not a psychologist, he adds that when he had a goal, he had less time to think about whether he was depressed, sorry for himself, or became, in his words, a victim. While this rather venomous and almost confessional outburst soon fades into the past, we seem to get a hint of how the man dealt with his own pain as he simply ignored it. This is one of those fleeting occasions when the Schwarzenegger performer steps aside to give a little hint of a man who has thrown himself into outer pursuits to avoid confronting his inner turmoil.
Schwarzenegger then discusses how almost everything in his life came about because he worked his way through it, which seems potentially poignant but doesn’t fully delve into it. While it is primarily meant to capture the unique charisma that made him a globally recognizable figure who could headline a film (this part of the documentary turned out to be the most interesting), it opens the door to a deeper portrait that he does only provisionally. k. There was no way Arnold was ever going to be a comprehensive vision at the level of someone like Ken Burnsbut it’s still disappointing. When the closing section then moves on to highlighting some of Schwarzenegger’s most notable shortcomings, such as the many accusations of groping women reported by the Los Angeles Times when he ran for governor, there is a tension that really can’t be addressed. . This correctly includes the reporter’s point of view Carla Hall, which explains both the process and timing of their investigation, but the documentary also slips in a lame intro from another talking head who hesitantly slanders the way she sought comment. In a more detailed documentary, Hall will get a chance to respond so the truth about what really happened can be revealed. Instead, the burden of making Schwarzenegger’s story uplifting means sidestepping more thorny issues. Arnold doesn’t ignore them all, which would be too big an oversight, but doesn’t match them either.
“Arnold” - an incomplete study of the life of Schwarzenegger
There comes a moment when Arnold turns away from really looking at the person and their life to basically hit all the highlights. It makes sense in terms of his films as it speaks to his screen presence, which is the strongest part of the documentary with the most gripping bits of information that could honestly be watched on its own without the first or third part, but the ending leans towards the redundant self-aggrandizement. When one of the interlocutors says that “the world needs him”, referring to Schwarzenegger’s preoccupation with the existential threats of climate change and resurgent fascism, Arnoldthe story has gone too far. The actor is right to care about these things and his voice does carry weight, but the lack of humility in that statement makes it clear that the documentary is mainly interested in bolstering his image on the issues themselves. The complexity of his competing ideas, superficially praising Ronald Reagan, in one breath to express support for more progressive issues in the next, is ripe for a showdown that never happens.
Schwarzenegger is a man who clearly contains a lot, but basically we only see who he wants us to see. Some details slip through the cracks no matter what, but the documentary is way too tightly controlled and its character is still too image-conscious to really struggle with it. Although Chilcott is credited as the director, the one who really dictates where things go and what is discussed remains Schwarzenegger himself. He is almost always the one who firmly holds the steering wheel in his hands. Arnoldturning it into a work that sometimes reveals but is too carefully sculpted to be completely transcendent.
Rating: C+
Arnold Premieres on Netflix June 7th.
Source: Collider
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