Stay Hungry

For starters, this is not Schwarzenegger's first movie. It is one of his firsts but not the first time he appeared in a movie. Remembered for many things, Staying Hungry is an interesting movie that attempts to be too many things besides a quick comedy. The movie jumps into a drama too often to confuse its audience whether this is just a comedy or a dramatic movie. Although this movie stars Jeff Bridges, he is not the highlight of the movie. The supporting cast, which includes Sally Field, Arnold Schwarzenegger, R.G. Armstrong, Robert Englund, Helena Kallianiota, Ed Begley Jr. and Joe Spinelli not only add to the quality of the movie, but are in fact, the main draw to the story. While Bridges does a good job as the star of the film, he doesn't hold the movie together, the rest of the cast does. By the third act, the movie turns into something completely different than the comedy it opened up to be. A very different, yet interesting movie.

Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is trying to help buy up a whole chunk of the city for a consortium to rebuilt. Gym owner Thor is holding out. Blake gets to know the disparate cast of characters who call the gym their second home. Only he starts to become their friend and falls for Mary (Sally Field) who's working there.

This is a weird little movie. Sally Field is trying to shed her good girl persona and goes out in the buff. Robert Englund is pre-Kreuger. Arnold Schwarzenegger is making a big move acting as a bodybuilder competing in Mr Universe, and playing the fiddle with rednecks. He's a brainy philosophers who gets the title line. And they got Jeff Bridges holding it all together. To top off the weirdness, some 30 bodybuilders have an impromptu pose off in the streets.

I like all these characters, but there isn't much of a story. It's obvious that Blake has befriend these guys quite early on. There doesn't seem to be much of a struggle. The land developer should be doing much more to drive these guys out. There needs to be more tension. The plot needs to flow better, and there is a little too much meandering going on.

This movie doesn't really make a lot of sense...

But Jeff Bridges and Sally Field still give it their all and act pretty well with a silly story.

It's also fun to see a bunch of people (Robert Englund, Arnold, Ed Begley etc) who went on to decent and/or great things.

Plus Sally Field looks pretty hot in the film...

All in all, it is weird but it manages to stay together until the end.

Most of its value is as a super-early Schwarzenegger film and a bit of a glimpse into 70s bodybuilding culture.

And yeah, Sally Field doesn't wear much...

I stumbled across this movie on the UK's little-watched TV network Channel 5. Initially intrigued by the idea of seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger's screen debut, I was quickly engrossed in this excellent and almost unknown film and the way in which the disparate characters inter-relate over the course of the story. The film manages to appear beguilingly simple and yet it deals with such issues as class, aspiration, loyalty, identity and love.

The way in which all the characters slowly but surely reveal their flaws and weaknesses is quite brilliant. Stand-out scenes include Arnie's bodybuilder character playing the fiddle (yes, the fiddle!) with a bunch of hillbillies out in the woods, Jeff Bridges' drunken jig, and the sight of about a hundred pumped-up bodybuilders running almost naked through rush hour traffic, which for me is one of the classic and most unexpected comic moments in cinema.

I may think more of this film because I 'discovered' it almost by chance, but I will always see it as an underrated classic and I urge everyone to seek it out.

As I watched this film last night it occurred to me that it has a certain fun, Altmanesque element of found local color. The shady southern businessmen Jeff Bridges' character is involved with all talk in a hilarious retro jive, "I'm fine as wine!" and sport really sharp looking plaid blazers. Rafelson decides to throw in random things just for sheer fun; a car race, with 70's Monte Carlos shooting through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama and getting air like it's San Francisco, a whole crew of 70's bodybuilders running through the city streets and posing on top of buses. Arnold Schwarzeneggar puts in his only true serious acting turn, although I'm not sure how much it should be considered acting as he's playing his real self; philosophical and shrewd. Sally Field is hot in this movie, there's even a scene where she jumps out of bed in the nude, displaying a great ass. Jeff Bridges puts on his usual display of fine, unselfconscious screen acting. One of the nicest and most refreshing things about this movie is that it unfolds organically; we don't feel an overarching awareness of chugging plot structure like we do at today's movies.