Arnold Schwarzenegger. A name that takes up half of a film poster. There's hardly any room for anyone else from the cast. This name means different things to many different people. Looking at it just as a name though, I mean - what a name! What a fantastic name.
Schwarzenegger is a character that has inspired many. If you look at the surface alone then it is easy to brush him aside. To see him as a kind of meathead. Perhaps someone who stumbled onto fame through being big muscled and then rode his luck to stardom. This most certainly isn't the case.
From rural Austria, he was not content with his situation and dreamt of wanting to escape to greater things. Schwarzenegger is a man of great ambition and intense self motivation, this is an integral part of his character. Pairing this with an ability to clearly visualise what he wanted to do assisted him in getting incredibly far in life. This energy was concentrated first into bodybuilding at a young age. This is where he got his start and gained a name for himself. He took this success and brought the same attitude into his later endeavours: acting and politics.
This motivation he has is one aspect of his character that has made him incredibly popular. Those interested in fitness see him as the ultimate figure in the world of exercise. They see his muscles and they also see the incredible work rate and hunger for the sport of bodybuilding. Gym goers have an intense admiration for the man and quite rightly - he is a legend, having won Mr. Universe aged 20 and going on to win Mr. Olympia seven times. He could have won many many more but his life goals changed.
This is not what comes to mind when I think of him though. For a whole other group of people, quite the opposite to the fitness fanatics, he meant something else entirely. That group being the awkward shy kids who obsessively consumed films. This was the group I was apart of. His charisma, his muscles, his thick accent. He brought a touch of camp to action films that otherwise would have suffered without his unique presence. He brought something special. I was often watching Arnie rather than the character he was playing, but I wanted to watch Arnie. I wanted the action, I also wanted the humour, these came so easily to him. Before him this type of action figure character didn't really exist, when he was trying to break into acting he was often rebuffed with his size being one of the many issues seen with casting him. He was a real pioneer in creating this kind of role.
The trove of unique, daring sci-fi films of the '80s and early '90s really highlight his appeal. Terminator, Predator, Total Recall. You want to look at him, to watch what he does in these imaginative worlds. Worlds so different, so weird and quirky and fun. I felt like they were made for me. Of course who I should be revering are the writers and directors who created these worlds for Schwarzenegger to blast through. James Cameron, John McTiernan, Paul Verhoeven - incredibly talented creatives.
That being said, Schwarzenegger was the iconic face of these projects and so personifies them in my mind - he does give so much to his films that you can't imagine these worlds without him. He wasn't just in surface level action romps offering cheap thrills. He acted in films with substance and style that mean they are universally enjoyed still to this day. He contributed so much, one little aspect that many jump to when they think of Arnold Schwarzenegger are his one-liners. They are good fun. In Terminator he altered a line from the script, infinitely improving it, to come up with one of his more famous one liners - 'I'll be back'.
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