Arnold

Watched this 3 part documentary on Netflix. Each episode is roughly 1 hour long and covers a different period in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life. Part 1 covers his youth and body building career. Part 2 is about his career as an actor and part 3 covers his venture into politics as governor of California. The series is nicely done, basically a long interview with Arnold and other people (e.g. James Cameron) together with a lot of historical footage. Quite incredible what he achieved in all 3 domains. Granted, he never was a great actor but his ambition was to become a movie star and this he achieved. Some of the most famous movie quotes were spoken by his terminator character. It is interesting that originally he wanted to play the hero part in Terminator but was convinced by director James Cameron to go for the terminator. That role changed his status from a limited actor not to be taken too seriously into a household name. Probably more important is that his political legacy is also considerable and not limited to California. A number of his green policies were later picked up by for example Obama. The documentary paints a good picture of the man and briefly includes some of the scandals that surrounded him during his first governor election and then later his split with his wife due to his affair and child with a member of his household staff. He is also credited for the popularity of the hummer and SUVs and still likes to drive around in big vehicles which is not in line with his green image as a governor. Not the definitive biography but still a more complete picture of the actor.