Arnold on Netflix review: Schwarzenegger’s charm has never faded

The action film star who went on to become California governor is surprisingly frank about his history of groping women and other revelations

We learn from the Netflix documentary Arnold that Schwarzenegger's father Gustav thought bodybuilding was too narcissistic. Photo via Netflix

Ann Marie Hourihane

The term ‘celebrity documentary’ has taken on new meaning in recent years. A celebrity documentary isn’t just about a celebrity; it is made by the celebrity, who is usually one of its producers. Netflix’s recent Conor McGregor three-parter is just one example. There have been grave reservations expressed about the celebrity documentary, as in: “How much public attention does one person need?” And: “How can this be seriously presented as objective?” Yet the celebrity documentary just grows and grows. It attracts fans of the celebrity, obviously, but it can also be interesting for people who know almost nothing about its subject.

Now we have Arnold (Netflix), about the Terminator, or the Governator, himself. He’s got a good story and he knows how to sell it (Arnold is very big on the need to sell everything).

There are three episodes, entitled Athlete, Actor, American. It is difficult to overstate Arnold’s love of America, which became his answer to all his life’s problems.

And he had a deeply problematic childhood. “Austria was a country of broken men,” he says. His father, Gustav Schwarzenegger, was one of the defeated Nazi soldiers to survive World War II. Arnold and his brother would be woken when he came home drunk: “Our hearts were pounding… there was this strange violence.” Little wonder, then, that this little boy grew up to make himself super-strong.

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His father, who had lived through the Battle of Stalingrad, did not approve of Arnold’s new obsession: posing with other men, working out in front of a mirror. Gustav thought it too narcissistic. And who is to say he was wrong?

Certainly, the footage of Arnold in his heyday, when he won so many Mr Universe titles, will strike your average viewer as deeply strange. (If I am not mistaken, Jimmy Savile was present at one of the competitions). Bodybuilding at that heightened level is really for other men, whether they are gay or straight. It wasn’t long before Arnold tired of it — after he’d won everything — and set about making himself firstly a millionaire and then a movie star.

Then he got involved with the Special Olympics and met Maria Shriver and was swept into the world of the Kennedys. They married at a huge wedding (Oprah Winfrey did a reading) and went to live in California. As Arnold shrewdly notes, he wanted to escape where he was from, and so did Maria.

The most interesting part is the political career. Maria did not want him to run as governor of California, given the disasters that politics had brought to her family. At his swearing in, Maria – white as a sheet – held the Bible.

His record as governor does not seem to have been worse than anyone else’s — although there is no serious analysis of it here. Arnold is frank about his history of groping women, and also about the revelation that he had had a son, Joseph, with a family retainer. We see Joseph with his father in the gym. Joseph is not interviewed, and nor are any other members of Arnold’s immediate family. He and Maria separated in 2011 and divorced ten years later.

Arnold is a surprisingly enjoyable watch. His charm has never faded. “I look at myself in the mirror now,” he says, “and think ‘what the f***?’” He seems quite alone. We see Arnold bicycling on suspiciously empty streets and we wonder about what is true.