Arnold Schwarzenegger: Breaking out in the ‘80s

Arnold Scwarzenegger in his breakout role as "Conan the Barbarian" in 1982.

Source: https://3dvf.com/en/arnold-schwarzenegger-returns-as-conan-after-42-years-with-new-director-at-the-helm/

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His accent is as much a part of his character as his physique and his quick one-liners.

So when I heard yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger admitting he once contemplated taking voice lessons to eliminate his trademark Austrian actor, I was quite surprised by that.

It would have changed everything including his patented “I’ll be back”.

I am so glad he never did that, and I was reminded why as I reflected on all those early movies I saw him in back in the 1980s.

Muscle man
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s story is well known. Originally from Austria, he gained fame as an international body building champion. He was a multiple Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe winner, and was part of a movie on bodybuilding called “Pumping Iron” in 1977.

On screen
Although I saw this later, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first roles was a TV movie in 1980 called “The Jayne Mansfield Story” where he played Mickey Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield’s husband. Schwarzenegger was perfect for the part because Hargitay was a Hungarian-American actor and 1955 Mr. Universe.

Before that, he had bit roles in the 1974 television film “Happy Anniversary and Goodbye”, and the TV shows “The Streets of San Francisco” and “The San Pedro Beach Buns” both in 1977.

He was also in a number of theatrical releases in bit parts, until he got his big break in 1982.

“Conan the Barbarian”
It seemed to be the perfect breakout role for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I had heard about “Conan the Barbarian” long before I actually saw it. My friend Mat told me all about it when we rode the school bus together. I also read about it in “Starlog” magazine, where Conan was on the front cover.

It was not a movie I would, or could see in the theatre. When I finally did see it, it was at one of the video parties I went to, I think at my friend Shawn’s.

“Conan the Barbarian” tells the story of Conan, a warrior who seeks to avenge the death of his parents at the hands of the leader of a snake cult, played by James Earl Jones.

Sequel city
Two years later, in 1984, Schwarzenegger was back as Conan. This time Conan is tricked into working for a scheming queen and later protects a young princess.

I have to admit, I do not remember much of the plot because I saw “Conan the Destroyer” with my friend Mat, his mom and his younger brothers and sister, at the Green Acres Drive-In just outside Lethbridge. The movie is kind of dark in appearance, which seeing the movie outdoors at night did not help. My overriding memory is of the supporting actors such as Grace Jones and retired basketball player Wilt Chamberlain.

Marked for termination
That same year, 1984, Schwarzenegger’s career went into the stratosphere with a role in “The Terminator”. The movie takes us to Earth in the future where the world is run by robots. Humanity is fighting back, led by rebel leader John Connor. The robots send an assassin back in time to kill Sarah Connor, John’s mother, before the rebel leader is born.

Arnold Schwarzenneger plays that robot assassin.

“The Terminator” was an incredible movie but, again, I was unable to see it in the theatre, although it was the talk of the school and on the bus.

In the summer of 1985, I went to Calgary with my friends David and Craig to “Con-Version”, a science fiction and fantasy convention at the Carriage House Inn. One of the features was a room that played movies throughout the weekend. If there was nothing else going on, it was pretty cool to pop in and catch a movie. They had the list published ahead of time, so you could plan to watch something if you wanted to. I ended up spending quite a bit of time in there, seeing bits of “The Philadelphia Experiment”, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, and made a point of watching “The Terminator”.

It was as awesome as it was billed.

I can still vividly remember watching that movie for the first time, how much I loved the character of Kyle Reese played by Michael Biehn, how he ended up being John Connor’s father, and the final scene of the movie with the photo taken of Sarah Connor in the past that John Connor has in the future.

Just a few years ago, I was laid up sick, and came upon “The Terminator” on AMC. I watched it again and, except for some clunky special effects at the end, still stood up to the test of time.

The rest of the decade
Arnold Schwarzenegger kept on making movies through the 1980s. Unfortunately, I didn’t see many of those movies, or saw them much later. I became familiar with most of them through shows such as “Entertainment Tonight”, and “The Movie Show”, which was produced on Channel 7 in Calgary, hosted by Larry Day and Kirstie McLellan.

It started with “Red Sonja” in 1985, a sword and sorcery film set in the same age as the “Conan” movies. “Commando” followed that same year, with Schwarzenegger playing a retired special forces soldier trying to rescue his kidnapped daughter from a former Latin American dictator. “Raw Deal” was next in 1986, where he plays a former FBI agent sent to destroy a Mafia organization. After that, he did battle with a lethal alien in “Predator” in 1987. The same year, Schwarzenegger played a man trying to survive a deadly real-life game show in a futuristic society in “The Running Man”.

In 1988, I finally saw an Arnold Schwarzenegger film in the theatre. I was home after my first year of university, and went to a lot of movies. One of them was a cop buddy picture called “Red Heat”. Schwarzenegger played a Soviet lawman teaming up with a Chicago detective played by Jim Belushi to track down an international drug dealer who killed Schwarzenegger’s character’s partner.

It was a funny movie with a lot of great one liners. One I recall was when Belushi refers to his Soviet colleague as “Gumby".

“Who is Gumby?” Schwarzenegger snaps, and Belushi looks like he swallowed a canary.

He closed out the decade with “Twins”, another movie in 1988, where he finds out he has an unlikely twin brother played by Danny DeVito.

As the decade closed, Arnold Scwarzenegger had become an action hero with a penchant for comedy.

It set the stage for an amazing run of movies.

The years after
The hits kept coming for Arnold Schwarzenegger with “Total Recall” in 1990; “Kindergarten Cop” also in 1990; “Terminator II: Judgment Day” in 1991; “Last Action Hero” in 1993, which was not really a hit; “True Lies” in 1994 which was a blockbuster success; “Junior” in 1994; “Eraser” and “Jingle All the Way” in 1996; “Batman and Robin” in 1997; and “End of Days” in 1999.

He kept on acting then stopped because, improbably, he was elected governor of California, an office he held for eight years, from 2003 to 2011.

Unlikely fan
When I was growing up on the farm, my Dad never really paid much attention to actors or celebrities. That changed, unbeknownst to me, when he retired and my parents moved to Letyhbridge. They had access to cable television, and that opened up their world.

I came home the first summer after they moved to Lethbridge. One day early on, the subject of Arnold Schwarzenegger came up.

I was surprised, initially, that my Dad knew who he was.

Then I realized why – Schwarzenegger was Austrian and spoke German.

My Dad’s pronunciation of Schwarzenegger the way it is supposed to be said was so smooth and silky, the way it should sound.

Parting thoughts
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most interesting, eclectic figures of the last half century. Not only was he an athlete and body builder of international stature, but an acclaimed actor, and the governor of one the largest states in the United States.

I loved his movies because of the way he could blend action and cold-blooded killing, with humour and snappy one-liners.

There really was no one on the screen like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I am so glad he never seriously pursued getting rid of that accent, because it is such a part of who he is.

And he is something special.