Summer of Arnold Post #1: The Beginning

As you probably know, we watched every* Schwarzenegger film over the last month & a half. It started w/ the Terminators, progressed through the other late 80s Sci/Fi & then became a whole summer film project. Since the project ended last night, my 1st plan was to review all of the films in 1 long post, but the scope of a project like that is unfair to his nuanced complexity. I wouldn't be able to give each film it's propers in 1 long post, but then again an individual post for each movie wouldn't be what my dedicated readers want so I decided to break them up by category (comedy: Red Heat, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, The Last Action Hero, Junior, & Jingle All the Way; Fantasy: Hercules in New York, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja, & End of Days; Sci/Fi: The Terminator, Predator, Running Man, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The 6th Day, & Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines; Action: Commando, Raw Deal, True Lies, Eraser, Collateral Damage; Other: Stay Hungry, Batman & Robin, & Around the World in 80 Days). I know that some of these films don't fit perfectly into their categories, but give me a break, I just watched 26 of these fucking things besides, I wanted to round out the groups so as to keep the posts relatively similar in length.People have been rather curious as to why we even attempted this cinematic Everest. Well, it started out as simply a goofy thing to do this summer, but the more time I put into it the more I thought I should do something w/ it. I'm kicking around a couple articles right now, 1 about the construction of masculinity throughout his movies, 1 as some sort of light general interest piece that the New Yorker or NPR would be all about, & 1 about his comedies. Little has been written about them so I think that's the path I may follow... & it's where we'll start next time... here @ Visions of Ypsi. So stay tuned for ore Schwarzerneggerian fun & remember the Visions of Ypsi Summer Book Club Post is coming soon too.

* I know a few of his projects are missing from our viewing. For the most part, we left them out on purpose & here's why.
Pumping Iron: we left out all documentaries.
The Villain: It's a western from 1979 w/ Kirk Douglas & Ann-Margret. I couldn't find it anywhere, but it's not really a Schwarzenegger film anyway. He has a bit part so I'm not worried about it, but if & when it's on TV I'll be sure to check it out.
The Jayne Mansfield Story: It was made for TV, & we stuck w/ the features.
Lincoln: He voices a character but isn't actually in it.
Christmas in Connecticut: He has a tiny, uncredited roll & we skipped all of those, but I'm sure we'll give it a go come December.