Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985) User Reviews

Interesting....But Way Too Biased

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 29 April 2005]

Wow, talk about "documentary" filmmakers having an agenda. These guys (George Butler and Charles Gaines) must have graduated from the Michael Moore School Of Objectivity.

This film is the follow-up to the highly-acclaimed "Pumping Iron," made by the same guys about a decade earlier, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, That one was well-done, even though they went out of their way to stretch the truth there, too. (Arnold is shown to be overly heartless and ruthless and his main competitors are pictured as easily-manipulated stupid idiots. Both were exaggerated).

Here, in the women's edition of Pumping Iron, Gaines and Butler have two more main objectives: 1) show how Bev Francis got screwed out of the championship trophy; 2) show the Christian contestant to be downright evil and a big phony.

Judging by some of the stupid reviews so far, Gaines and Butler succeeded: people now all hate McLish.

Dear readers. Here is a scoop from someone who spent his career in the newspaper business: editors can pick and choose what they want you to see and hear. It's called editing. You can bet thousands of footage was filmed for this "documentary." On McLish, only the material that made her look bad was inserted in the film. That was obvious. We never see her shown in a positive light. And, of course, anytime they could get her to mention she was a Christian, and then follow that up with something the audience would find distasteful about her, all the better!

Regarding Francis, frankly, I agree -- she did get robbed. Who in their right mind would argue she wasn't hands down the best contestant? Nobody, even the gracious winner Carla Dunlap. However, the filmmakers could have let the viewers see the obvious, without hammering their point home time and time again, going out of their way to show how ignorant the judges were. It's like.....okay, we know what's happening here .... move on. How about showing more of the winner of the contest?

Overall, the movie was interesting, especially to people who work out regularly in a gym....... but it could have been so much better without the bias.

Complexity

[baku_eater_of_Dreams · 6/10 · 28 November 2005]

helpless_dancer illustrates how incapable most of us are at actually looking into complex issues and understanding people other than ourselves. The women in Pumping Iron 2 are confusing at times, and a couple of them do seem more than a bit nutty, but reducing the issues at hand to the kind of ignorant, simple-minded derision that helpless_dancer deals in, is unfair to the women in the film and female bodybuilders in general. I don't understand them either, but calling them freaks is grade-school bigotry. The film itself is also, unfortunately, not up to the task, and spends much of its time trying to squeeze out some T&A from them. It does give the women an opportunity to speak for themselves from time to time, and their articulacy is often illuminating.

Slice of the '80's

[vvanpo · 6/10 · 22 February 2005]

I taped this movie not too long after it was released on a Beta videotape. So I have available a peek back to the mid-1980's via my sister's Beta player.

I can't remember what motivated me to tape "Pumping Iron II" in the first place. I'm pretty sure it wasn't for posterity's sake. Most likely it was that female bodybuilding presented a new culture I was totally unaware. And I had an intuition that the presence of Bev Francis was going to revolutionize that culture from the "feminine ideal" to pure muscle tone.

Or maybe it was the scenes. The hilarious one with the judges trying to tabulate the score. The tender one with the implied marriage proposal. Or Carla Dunlap's comforting conversation to Bev. While some scenes have participants act like they are aware of the camera, overall the film has enough real human drama to be worth you while.

Plus there's the bonus of the cheesy 80's music. Only songs from Art of Noise and Grace Jones stand the test of time.

"What the Hell do They Want, Miss America?"

[Zen Bones · 16 December 2003]

This was the wail of one of the competitor's trainers, and he was defining the prime theme of this movie. For people who have a real problem looking at `masculine' women, the theme of this film will sure be `what a freak show'. When I first saw this movie eighteen years ago it took nearly an hour for me to pick my jaw off the ground due to how stunned I was to see women who looked like this. But I let myself get into the head of these women since as a movie lover, that's what I love doing most: trying to walk inside the souls of the people onscreen. I did say souls. It IS difficult to relate to the bodies depicted in this film, but that's not what the film is asking us to do.

There's no doubt that the way these women look is not conventional. Unfortunately, there will always be people who believe that `unconventional' is bad because that makes us uncomfortable. It's very obvious though that when people start calling those who are different `freaks', it's because they're feeling a deep need to cover their discomfort with a feeling of superiority. That's why I love movies about people who are different. Whether it's `The Elephant Man' or `Paris is Burning' or `Live Nude Girls Unite', the ultimate focus is on US. These films challenge us examine how we feel about ‘odd' people and to ask ourselves why the hell we're so uncomfortable anyway. There's always a choice: one can revel in disgust, or one can get over it and try to embrace a concept that is new.

Well, since this film's release, the city I live in now has almost as many gyms as restaurants, and there are hundreds of women who look like most of the bodybuilders in this film. I've gotten over the ‘weirdness' of how they look and except them as women who like the empowerment they feel from turning their bodies into sculptures. From what I understand, the masculine looking bodybuilder Bev, is now pretty much the standard for female bodybuilding competition. And who's to say she shouldn't be? If the qualifications for male bodybuilding are for each competitor to achieve the utmost of his muscular form and potential, why do women have to lower their standard? The men aren't judged by their sexiness (unless the male judges who judge them are all gay, which I doubt). I personally find them quite unattractive, but they are not supposed to be the male's version of Miss America. They are there to present the human physique in its most extreme `glory'. One can quibble about what the criteria for glory is, but once it was established, it's shameful that a double standard existed for women. At least at the time this film was made, women were still supposed retain the standard that they always have first and foremost been judged for: their sex appeal.

But enough of philosophizing. This movie is a fun documentary, showing both the camaraderie and bitching that goes on between some contestants, and giving us an understanding of how each of them define themselves. It's also a lot of fun when the film shows the confusion of the judges, whether they're trying to agree on the hypocrisy they plan on using, or trying to tally up the score (very funny scene, that!). It's a perfect analogy of the old school white male mentality that at least in this field, has thankfully faded away over the past eighteen years. With things more fair and equal now, I'd be very interested in seeing a `Pumping Iron Part 3'.

Pump. Pump. Pump It Up!

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 25 March 2020]

This 1985 production, highlighting the women's bodybuilding competition at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, followed closely on the heels of the men's muscle championship which had taken place just a few years earlier.

"Pumping Iron II" is a 100-minute production (directed by George Butler) that focuses its main attention in on 5 female muscle girls (from various USA locations) as they sweat, flex, pose, and preen (and reflect) in serious preparation for the all-important "World Cup Championship" that's coming up just around the corner.

For the most part - I'd say that "Pumping Iron II" was definitely worth a view. But, with that said - It certainly did contain some very trying moments. Indeed.

There are some real freaks out there

[helpless_dancer · 4/10 · 1 October 1999]

Watch this one just to see a bizarre collection of the deluded, the braindead, and the plain old put-ons. The 2 most noticeable of all the weirdos in this documentary were the muscle bound she-man {Bev Francis, I think}, and unbelievably phony Rachel McLish. Miss Francis, who at least saw the competition for what it was, was a ghastly example of what a distorted mind coupled with dangerous steroids can become. As freaky as this woman was I must say that Miss McLish topped her for an outright eccentric, perhaps grotesque, mindset. I heard nothing, I insist...nothing, come out of this woman's mouth that was even remotely real. This has to be the most devious, deceitful person I've seen anywhere. I wonder if her whole life isn't one big hallucination. I have seldom seen a group of people more to be pitied than I did in this expose of womens' bodybuilding. Not a well done film, but worth seeing how odd we humans can act when our minds take us down the wrong path. Strange.

A Look AT Female Bodybuilding At It's Very Beginning

[billdobb · 10/10 · 19 January 2004]

Bodybuilding for women is "something new under the sun," something as Charles Gaines, the writer of Pumping Iron pointed out, has no precedent in all of history. Pumping Iron II is a documentary made about the very earliest years of women's bodybuilding as a sanctioned sport. As a documentary, it has its failings. But as a look at who the women were participating in bodybuilding in the mid 1980s, how they looked and what they had to say, it is unique. Of course, women doing bodybuilding at all is still controversial and some people have trouble accepting it. One of the other reviews of this film makes that plain, written by somebody who hates the idea of muscular women to such a degree he is hardly any judge of the quality of the film. Obviously, somebody who is that angered and disgusted by women with muscles should not bother to watch a documentary about them. But for those who like "buff" women or who are at least curious about them, Pumping Iron II is an important film and shouldn't be missed. And as women's bodybuilding becomes more and more accepted and popular, the film will become even more significant.

insightful and engaging

[disdressed12 · 8/10 · 14 August 2016]

more insightful and revealing than the first Pumping Iron movie,(in my opinion)this movie is engaging and interesting.it has its share of drama and suspense and I felt the woman were more open and honest than the men in Pumping Iron were.there also seemed to be less ego involved this time around.and very little in the way of mind games or psyching out of opponents.I also found the women to be more likable and sympathetic,compared to their male counterparts.it doesn't go into quite as much depth regarding training and behind the scenes drama as Pumping Iron does but the women were more real and genuine.overall,the film was much more fun.for me,Pumping Iron 2 is a strong 8/10

Stay Fit

[jallen7705-1 · 9/10 · 3 January 2019]

We had a family gathering on New Years Day 2019. One of my daughters brought me a VHS copy of this documentary that she had bought for 50 cents at an estate sale. She told me that I had taken her (born in 1970) and my younger daughter who was three years younger to see this documentary when it came out. I had been dating a woman who worked for one of the competer's backers and had received passes to the theater.

Both daughters loved the documentary and have worked hard to keep in shape.

I have always been an advocate for fitness which I am convinced will improve the quality of your life.

I haven't seen much of Rachel McLish lately , but I bet she is still in great shape. Woman's fitness is a bit more in the mainstream in 2019 and these women portrayed in this documentary should be congratulated for inspiring a generation of female fitness advocates.

Performance in Pumping Iron II

[Lainey08 · 4 March 2003]

Since I'm currently studying this film I'm a bit insulted at some of the shallow reviews. This semi-documentary film shows female bodybuilders in 1985, and it critiques the performance they must all put on in order to make it in their business (hence the loaded make-up: first of all it was the eighties, second of all they had to struggle to remain feminine looking or, as seen with Bev Francis, they were penalized). Watching this film should enrage you since it's clear who SHOULD win the title. Clearly the judges need a little updating, but again, it was1985.

I strongly recommend this film to anyone who has not seen it. It critiques female bodybuilding and questions the stereotypical view of women as seen through the actions of the judges.

Spinal Tap in a Gym

[jregnault · 15 March 2000]

I managed to catch this movie on cinemax or something one day at a weird time. It is awful (in a very addictive, bad 80's movie type of way) for the following reasons:

1) See Rachel McLish (sp?), the most self centered, arrogant egotist in the world caught on film talking about the Bible and Jesus constantly while she uses sex to win judges' votes. This woman is just too bizarre for words.

2) See some poor steroid addled woman talk about how she is redefining feminity with her huge (and I mean gigantic) manly shape and facial acne (no doubt caused by excessive use of steroids)!

3) See bad 80's workout gear! :o

3) See the touching supportive relationship between one of these women (name forgotten) whose husband works as a male dancer to support her budding bodybuilding career!

There is so much wrong with this movie you just can't tear yourself away (sort of like watching a car accident in progress). Particularly amusing is the combination workout/shower scene with Rachel and her "posse" - it verges on soft porn.

But in the end you realize just how sad all of these women are, and you try to stop laughing - though it doesn't work. It really is Spinal Tap in a Gym. I thought the movie was a comedy when I first started watching it.