Arnold

Book excerpt: "Arnold: Schwarzenegger and the Movies" is the first comprehensive, in-depth book to examine one of modern cinema's most celebrated and divisive screen presences. Tracing Schwarzenegger's entire film career and life from teenage bodybuilder to Governor of California, Saunders blends close textual readings of the major films, including "Pumping Iron", "Conan the Barbarian", The "Terminator" series, "Twins" and "True Lies", with salient historical context and biographical detail, demonstrating continually the importance of broader social and political factors in defining Arnold's unique significance. Representing far more than just a muscular spectacle, Saunders argues, Schwarzenegger found powerful ideological and spiritual relevance to his age by embarking on a quest to restore collective faith in his adopted nation - and, moreover, by exploiting his own, mythic importance to a post-war America struggling to come to terms with its own contemporary narrative.