Cinematical

"If you can manage the image, you can sell the product," is one of the opening quotes in Running with Arnold, the documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career that details how he progressed from weightlifter to actor to California governor. The film, which had its world premiere at SXSW, demonstrates how Schwarzenegger's career has been all about the skillful manipulation and control over the image projected by Schwarzenegger in the public eye.

The documentary alternates between a general biography of Schwarzenegger and footage from his campaigns for governor. However, it doesn't offer audiences much new information about the actor-turned-politician, with the exception of his ties to big business and how pro-business his gubernatorial administration has been. My guess is that this isn't interesting enough to make headlines; the sexual harassment accusations and his dealings with gay marriage issues in California make for better news.

I was also fascinated by the way in which Schwarzenegger dealt with the media by not dealing with them at all -- the film shows how he generally refuses to grant interviews or hold press conferences. He gets away with gaffes in his speeches by citing "language barriers" as an excuse. I'd have liked to have seen the documentary address these wider issues more: big business in politics as well as media manipulation by celebrities and politicians.

After the SXSW screening I attended, director Dan Cox asserted that he'd made a fair and unbiased film about Schwarzenegger. I would disagree with that statement. The movie includes too many cheap shots, especially towards President Bush, for the film to be considered unbiased. In fact, Running with Arnold grabs any easy joke or potshot it can get, which is the film's downfall. Late last year, we heard that Alec Baldwin wanted his voiceover narration removed from the film because he didn't approve of the Nazi Germany footage included in the film. (The narration is included, but Baldwin is currently uncredited.) Cox argued that Schwarzenegger's dad was involved in the Nazi party and therefore the footage was appropriate.

However, that's not the only place where the Nazi German footage occurs -- when discussing the California governor's political ambitions, there are implications that he wants dictatorial power, and we're shown some footage of Hitler. That's unnecessary and too much of a stretch, again meant for humor but undercutting the potential power of the film. The Democrats shown in this film all are portrayed as being generally sensible, and the Republicans, especially Californians who voted for Schwarzenegger, are shown in a less favorable light. It's a shame, because this weakens any valid points being made in the film.

Running with Arnold includes a lot of footage from Schwarzenegger's movies, as well as TV interviews and news clips. (In case you hadn't guessed, the filmmakers were unable to get an interview with Schwarzenegger themselves.) Three clearance attorneys are listed in the credits, and I was glad someone asked about copyright issues during the Q&A session. Cox and his producers said that they felt as much as half of the footage was acceptable for them to use without purchasing rights, under the Fair Use provisions of copyright law. I will be interested to see how this plays out; I admire their courage, but wonder if a distributor will be that brave and if the movie will need to be edited in any way before release. If so, perhaps that would be a great opportunity to work on removing the cheap shots and bias from the film. I believe there's a leaner and stronger documentary lurking inside Running for Arnold, and I wish we'd get the opportunity to see such a version.