Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favourite action movies of all time: “Without any doubt, one of the best”
There is a certain formula for making money from the movies. Hollywood action blockbusters are almost synonymous with larger-than-life icons such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, stars who represent the appeal of the industry’s carefully manufactured fantasies. And those fantasies, more often than not, bring in dollars.
Hollywood’s approach to action has played a major role in shaping cinematic spectacles all over the world, influencing action flicks in different parts of the world, ranging from over-the-top Bollywood productions to gripping South Korean thrillers.
But while the latter productions rely on the visceral nature of the action to appeal ot a global audience, Hollywood relies on the weight of their stars to deliver where the storyline might falter. Schwarzenegger is one such star who has not only catapulted his own fame through action movies but also helped to continually establish that the true home of the movies is still an American town on the West Coast.
Due to the global impact of culturally significant works like The Terminator, Schwarzenegger has been a central figure in the evolution of action films for a while. During a conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, the celebrated star opened up about the films that have inspired him to work on his craft and push his own limits. While listing these cinematic masterpieces, Schwarzenegger also focused on his favourite action movies of all time.
He began with Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: “And then The Godfather, I think, when you talk about action movies, the combined story with action,” Schwarzenegger said. “And again, you know, really well-fleshed-out characters and all that. I mean Godfather is without any doubt one of the best of that kind. And it happens to be that Al Ruddy, who produced it, is a good friend of mine also. And he has, of course, the best stories of during the making of Godfather. Really wonderful stories.”
Schwarzenegger also cited Michael Crichton’s incredibly influential sci-fi western Westworld as one of the works that inspired his approach to action films. He noted: “Now that’s not — kind of — the most known movie, but it just had the most profound impact on me — what got me to be really interested in playing The Terminator. Because Yul Brynner plays a machine that malfunctions, and it’s a very well-made movie, a very well-written movie.”
Finally, Schwarzenegger ended his list by including Clint Eastwood’s brilliant 1992 revisionist western Unforgiven. The winner of multiple Academy Awards, Eastwood’s unique project was both a love letter to the genre that defined his career as well as an earnest effort to build something new from its tired frameworks.
While talking about Eastwood, Schwarzenegger said: “I always idolised him since before I came over to America. I loved his western movies and followed his career very closely, then became friends with him and really admired him”.
He added: “Tremendously skilled as a producer, as a director, the music he does for his movies, the acting, the directing — I mean everything. So he’s really a very solid guy. He developed into a kind of real genius.”
Now, if you were hoping for Schwarzenegger’s list to be chock full of truly awful, cheeseball action movie then we are sorry to disappoint. It would seem that, to the Austrian muscle man, the true beauty of the action movie is in the technique, the script, and the visuals we’re given, not so much on the killer line our hero delivers after unloading a semi-automatic weapon.
Check out the list below.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favourite action movies:
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)
- Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
