The problem with the Netflix docuseries Arnold is that it tells the most fasciniating and intriquing stories first and then reduces the second half to boring talking head interviews from famous faces praising Arnold Schwarzenegger and a focus on his term as the “Governator” of “Calie-Fornie-Ah” that would put any political science professor to sleep.
His rise from an abused child living in post-WWII Austria to a bodybuilding and millionaire businessman by his 30s is essentially what the American Dream was based on. With a surname that is one vowel away from being a racial slur, you have to admire the young man’s stamina all along the way from the early years. Arnold didn’t let it known until after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection coup attempt that he was a victim of domestic abuse as a child. This makes watching the scene in Kindergarten Cop where he punches an abusive father feel like a sense of revenge on screen.
Arnold says it was very common for a lot of children to be hit, beaten and whipped by their parents during the time. His father, Gustav, was a military police officer under the Nazi Germany rule. News of Gustav’s association with the Nazi Party had been around since the late 1980s or early 1990s. But Arnold kept it secret probably because a lot of people expected it as the norm like getting your first bike. And Gustav was emotionally abusive making Arnold and his older brother, Meinhard, compete against each other. As the first son, Meinhard was favored more.
This candidness and intimacy gives Arnold what it needs to rise above what one could read in a Wikipedia page or watch in one of those Behind-the-Scenes documentary featurettes that you’d find on a DVD. Inspired by Reg Park, who would play Hercules on the big screen, Arnold got into body building at a time when it wasn’t too well known in Austria. Because Arnold look at pictures of men bodybuilding, Gustav thought he was gay.
So, it was only natural that Arnold would break free the first time he could in his early 20s and head to America. Hearing Arnold talk about how the cultural shift from Europe to America both in regular customs, like celebrating Christmas, to bodybuilding where he lets it slip that he did steriods, are the meat and potatoes of the documentary that keep you invested Dividing into three parts, the first focuses on his childhood and the body-building in which he got friendly with the whole Park family and lost to Frank Zane only to realize he needed to turn him into an ally instead of a competitor.
Unfortunately, the series falls apart during the second episode where Arnold put his foot down and wanted to be an action star, not a character actor. And if Conan the Barbarian hadn’t been a success, it wouldn’t have happened. Also, if James Cameron didn’t feel he would’ve been better as the Terminator rather than Kyle Reese, who knows what would have become of Arnold? He would’ve have been doing roles like that as a henchmen in The Long Goodbye.
Sadly, the episode focusing on his movie career ends around Batman & Robin and his heart problems that arose following the production on that movie. No mention is made of movies like The Last Stand, Maggie or Aftermath which might not have been well-received movies but they showed a change in his style. This was after his two-term stint as the Governor, or the “Governator” of California.
And the final episode focuses on his political career with a very saccharin style to his life for those eight years. The problem with this is that it’s so boring because politics is so boring. After Arnold ran and was elected governor during a recall, his career (and more importantly his public image) took a hit. This was the first time he was vulnerable. He was an elected official – a political leader and he had to roll with the punches.
As a Republican, he proved to be a centrist, bringing in Democrat and liberal strategists to help him, something that proved beneficial, but angered the Republican Party. His comment “Don’t be an economic girlyman!” at the 2004 Republican National Convention criticizing people hurt by George W. Bush’s policies especially the rising cost of gas and other factor was seen as pompous and arrogant. Considering that Arnold was still married to Maria Shriver, a Kennedy, and had been a millionaire whose real estate holdings made him more during 1980s inflation didn’t sit well with some people.
Even worse, the now defunct website AmendforArnold.com was seen by both sides as bad. Since he’s not born in America, he can’t legally run for President. There was hope briefly following the 2004 election that Arnold could be the next President. While Democrats criticized this, it was Republicans who backed away when they realized Arnold wasn’t the conservative Golden Boy they thought he would be. His viewpoints differed greatly from the general party and even by today standards, he’s too left for them.
Arnold is candid about how the term as governor probably ruined his marriage and hurt his family. It’s because when you’re a political leader, you have more responsibilities you can’t ignore. Even he admits this. But I’m beginning to think Marie didn’t think California voters would really recall Gray Davis, especially after they had just elected him less than a year earlier. This stil remains one of the biggest mysteries of politics. Marie is MIA among the interviewees (as well as their children) and I think it might have given the docuseries more weight to hear their sides of the story.
And Arnold doesn’t shy away from discussing how his affair with housekeeper Patty Baena led to the birth of their son, Joseph. Arnold does show some humility in admitting he was wrong to cheat on his wife, but following their divorce, he accepted that Joseph was his son and began to build a relationship. Maria filed for divorce in 2011 but it wasn’t finalized until 2021. No reason is given why it took 10 years.
Granted, you’re not going to get a lot of hardball questions and a narrative from the documentary. Lesley Chilcott, who produced documentaries like An Inconveniet Truth and Waiting for Superman, seems to stay away from the harder questions that might have made a juicier documentary. Yes, Arnold’s father was a Nazi but he, himself, often said he admired Adolf Hitler. And Arnold’s flagrant “Boys will be boys” response to his wild times in his 20s and 30s will make your eyes roll. But this only became an issue when he ran for governor a few years after the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal when people were following politicians closer.
It’s hard to squeeze 75 years of a man’s life into three hours. And for a person like Arnold Schwarzenegger, most of his life has been in the public eye. I’m no psychiatrist but I think his need for attention and to always compete and win comes from the trauma he had as a child. Having parents who make you and your siblings compete weighs heavily on you throughout the years. And considering that Meinhard died during a drunk driving accident while only 24 had an effect on Arnold who was still trying to discover who he was.
That’s why Arnold always wanted to win every bodybuilding competition he was in, get the lead in every movie (and his rivalry with Sylvester Stallone which both admit was more volatile during the 1980s even though they’re friends now), and his push to be governor of California. It was the highest position in elected office he could get. And that may have made him cocky and arrogant. But I feel Arnold is one of these guys who while he acknowledges his accomplishments and is proud of them, he feels that’s a lot left undone.
This all would’ve been a better angle for the documentary to make. There’s a feeling that he may have tried to put off the divorce to Maria on the off-chance she would come back to him. I think being viewed as having a “failed marriage” has hurt him. But he needs to realize that relationships don’t work out and he’s finally moving on.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 