No doubt, a cultural icon with a wide-ranging life such as Arnold warrants a docu-series in the contemporary media landscape. It was one of the reasons I was drawn to watch.
*Positives*
Format: Designating the episodes to each career phase was in my opinion the best move. 'Athlete', 'Actor' & 'American'. This gave each episode an opportunity to be fully-formed and singular films within the docu-series. The obvious thread that bounded all three was Arnold the 'entertainer'.
Archive: When a documentary has the materials based in time in which the story is being told at, this to me makes for a deeper and immersive experience. The fast-dying trope of reconstructed sequences shot in present-day to stylistically represent past moments are both jarring and non-distinct. However, this series was also guilty of the latter.
Coverage: Essentially a 3-hour documentary, the series managed to cover (albeit brush over) a rich spectrum of Arnold's life.
*Negatives*
Curator: Having Arnold take the viewer on a guided-tour through his life sounded okay from the outset. But this was dependent on whether he would allow himself to be vulnerable, show humility and courageous with deeper truths. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. What we got was a hyper-self-aggrandizing version of Arnold trying to entertain while ticking every autobiographical cliche box. It felt artificial and highly-protective of the actual truth. Even with moments of fallibility, this would be swept up quickly to move onto the next 'win'. I also came to feel disappointed that Arnold was re-embracing the cartoony caricature, which I thought he'd shook off in the past decade.
Pacing: Though the pacing was fine at first, it began to fall apart with such nonsensical inserts of Arnold driving his 'toys' about while smoking a cigar. These added nothing but allusions of someone coming off as desperate to still be seen as 'Commando' or of that ilk. What was also dumbfounding was how very little time was given to his brother Meinhard's death.
Key Moments Short-Changed: Continuing with Meinhard's death, there was something very cold and void of emotion when Arnold was narrating to the camera about his brother's tragic passing. The nonchalant delivery and absence of attachment left me wondering, "is that it?" This criminally-brief sequence was an opportunity to see Arnold open up, but instead we got a pedestrian sequence. Considering how much Arnold lamented over the depression of his films like 'Last Action Hero' (a personal favourite of mine) failing after the success of 'Terminator 2', you'd think he would lend a similar feeling of sadness to expressing some note of loss for his brother, regardless of whether their relationship was strained or not.
In conclusion, it was a disappointing docu-series that would've fared much better in the hands of a neutral curator. But it's quite obvious that this film was part of a Netflix packaged-deal.
*Positives*
Format: Designating the episodes to each career phase was in my opinion the best move. 'Athlete', 'Actor' & 'American'. This gave each episode an opportunity to be fully-formed and singular films within the docu-series. The obvious thread that bounded all three was Arnold the 'entertainer'.
Archive: When a documentary has the materials based in time in which the story is being told at, this to me makes for a deeper and immersive experience. The fast-dying trope of reconstructed sequences shot in present-day to stylistically represent past moments are both jarring and non-distinct. However, this series was also guilty of the latter.
Coverage: Essentially a 3-hour documentary, the series managed to cover (albeit brush over) a rich spectrum of Arnold's life.
*Negatives*
Curator: Having Arnold take the viewer on a guided-tour through his life sounded okay from the outset. But this was dependent on whether he would allow himself to be vulnerable, show humility and courageous with deeper truths. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. What we got was a hyper-self-aggrandizing version of Arnold trying to entertain while ticking every autobiographical cliche box. It felt artificial and highly-protective of the actual truth. Even with moments of fallibility, this would be swept up quickly to move onto the next 'win'. I also came to feel disappointed that Arnold was re-embracing the cartoony caricature, which I thought he'd shook off in the past decade.
Pacing: Though the pacing was fine at first, it began to fall apart with such nonsensical inserts of Arnold driving his 'toys' about while smoking a cigar. These added nothing but allusions of someone coming off as desperate to still be seen as 'Commando' or of that ilk. What was also dumbfounding was how very little time was given to his brother Meinhard's death.
Key Moments Short-Changed: Continuing with Meinhard's death, there was something very cold and void of emotion when Arnold was narrating to the camera about his brother's tragic passing. The nonchalant delivery and absence of attachment left me wondering, "is that it?" This criminally-brief sequence was an opportunity to see Arnold open up, but instead we got a pedestrian sequence. Considering how much Arnold lamented over the depression of his films like 'Last Action Hero' (a personal favourite of mine) failing after the success of 'Terminator 2', you'd think he would lend a similar feeling of sadness to expressing some note of loss for his brother, regardless of whether their relationship was strained or not.
In conclusion, it was a disappointing docu-series that would've fared much better in the hands of a neutral curator. But it's quite obvious that this film was part of a Netflix packaged-deal.