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You don't actually need the 3-episode Netflix documentary mini-series to understand the psyche of Arnold Schwarzenegger. This less-than-5min interview clip taken from the time he was filming Conan the Barbarian (1982) will suffice:
Remember here, this is before Conan had been released and made his name as a major league Hollywood star that could crush box-office records across the world. Arnold's primary reputation then was as a star bodybuilder, who had worked in a few small movies, and none as the leading man. But he is unironically comparing himself to Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. With regards to his pathway towards stardom, he rates himself an "8 out of 10, with only 2 more points to cover".
Anyone that saw this footage at the time would have laughed his butt off at the man's audacity. Arnold's hulking frame, unmistakably Teutonic face and thick Austrian accent were considered liabilities in the Hollywood of that period. The only opportunities for bodybuilders to get leading roles had been in low-budget Italian "sword and sandal" movies (his idol Reg Park had done a string of Hercules movies in Rome in the early 60's before returning to the bodybuilding business).
But Arnold, from an early time in life, had a staggering level of belief in himself - what in some other man would have been vainglorious boasting, he set out to make truth. This is echoed in the documentary when he says [paraphrasing], "If I can visualize something clearly, then I know 100% that I can get there." In its 3 defined chapters - Athlete, Actor and American - Arnold sets out to demonstrate its subject's determination to "get there" in each of his chosen endeavors. It goes without saying that the treatment is glossy with more than a little dash of hagiography. It would have been essential of course, to obtain the kind of access they get to Arnold, the superstar for whom "Too big is not big enough".
So we get the familiar story of how young Schwarzenegger took up bodybuilding as a means of making his mark and getting away from the hard life in Austria with the aim of making it big in the USA. Once he had conquered the bodybuilding world (he held the Mr. Olympia trophy undefeated from 1970-75), he shifted gears to movies. Along with main box-office rival Sylvester Stallone, Arnold went on to personify the hyper-masculine gun and muscle toting 80's action hero, an icon that transcended language and culture. Over the next 2 decades, his films dominated global mainstream cinema and he became one of the highest paid actors in the world. In 2003, Arnold jumped into active politics and served as Governor of California for 2 terms.
Many of the details in Arnold are supposedly from his autobiography Total Recall. For people like me that haven't read it, there are some new details of Schwarzenegger's life: His upbringing in post-WW2 Austria where, in his words, a lot of men suffered from depression and PTSD, and this reflected on their families. Gustav Schwarzenegger had been a member of the military police in the Nazi-occupied country before being discharged in 1944 on account of medical illness. Subsequently he married and raised 2 children, Meinhard and Arnold. Arnold talks about a disciplinarian upbringing interspersed with drunk beatings from his father. Meinhard died in his 20's in a DUI accident in 1971, a year before their father passed away from a stroke. At the time Arnold was busy with his bodybuilding career in the US; he did not go for either of their funerals, attributing it to being so focused on his goals that he suppressed all emotion in the process. He also talks about how the difficult childhood toughened him up (quoting Nietzsche's famous "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger") while his brother, who he says had a more "fragile" persona, cracked under the strain. Again, there is almost no emotion when he says this, no sense of a bond between them, and no sorrow or guilt over the brother's fate.
While I am aware of his film career trajectory, it was a revelation to know that he was a millionaire well before embarking on his movie career, having invested his earnings from bodybuilding into real estate and other business. Thus, he had the luxury of working on carefully chosen projects, never for rent money. The same shrewdness and self-possession that had served him as an athlete now guided his path towards the top of Hollywood. Having been lucky enough to work with creative powerhouses like John Milius (Conan) and James Cameron (The Terminator) in his early days, Schwarzenegger quickly translated his box-office currency into clout over the projects he worked on. He wanted to expand his range and appeal, and deliberately courted directors like Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall) and Ivan Reitman (Twins, Junior) who designed projects around him.
His political career is the least interesting aspect of Arnold's life for me, since it had no direct impact on my life. But it was also around this time that the cracks in his personal life appeared. He was accused by several women of having groped and/or misbehaved with them in the past (his sleazy on-camera behavior as a celebrity ambassador in this early Brazil tourism video makes it easy to believe those accusations). He expresses regret over the incidents in an empirical, grudging manner, more in the vein of a man who acknowledges their inconvenience to his reputation than a genuine reappraisal of his attitude.
More damagingly, his wife Maria Shriver divorced him over an affair he'd carried on with their housekeeper, fathering an illegitimate child in the process. In these issues, we are only privy to Schwarzenegger's perspective. We do not learn what Shriver or their children feel about his behavior. Most telling is that we see Arnold living alone in a sprawling house, with farm animals for company. While telling his story, he fondly pores over his own pictures over the course of his career(s). But the depiction of his interactions with family is restricted to still images taken years ago.
But Arnold is no depressed loner asking for your sympathy. Even at 70+, the alpha male in him loves oversized vehicle toys and machismo camaraderie. He believes in "work and fun", and exhorts people to channel their time to "being useful" instead of brooding over "What am I feeling today?" Advocates of empathy for mental health syndromes might balk at this mocking dismissal of depression, but for better or worse, this is just a reflection of the man's supreme self-focus and conquering attitude. It is the formula he has made to work for him.
