I'm wondering based upon Arnold Schwartznegger's 1976 win of a Golden Globe for best film debut just who else made their film debut that year. Other than Jessica Lange in the critically maligned remake of "King Kong", I can't think of anyone. It isn't that the future "governator" is bad; he just does nothing other than play himself. Long Before he said, "I'll be back" (and apparently now says, "Oh, my back!"), he came off as a humble Austrian with a basic good nature, working with Jeff Bridges and Sally Field in a public gym which is the subject of an attempted buyout from some ruthless roughnecks. But that's a shell of the story, only dealt with as the film winds down it's second half. Field, America's TV sweetheart, gets to show off her assets in a few nude scenes, which doesn't besmerch her reputation or make me look at her any less, but considering her meteoric rise to film immortality just a few years later, this isn't a great switch for her from the to the big screen.Such familiar faces as Ed Begley Jr., Scatman Crothers and Fannie Flagg appear in smaller parts, but it's mainly about Fields and Bridges, with "slice of life" views of life in a small southern community. Really, nothing happens to move the plot along. Talkie moments seem to try to manipulate the audience into thinking that something is happening, but that's rarely the case here. Crothers comes out of nowhere to tell Bridges that he's quitting (threatening to take an iron suit with him), and Fields and Bridges get into fights at Flagg's elaborate get-together. One of the gym's female instructors teaches women karate as self defense and later uses it on the thugs who break in. Eventually, this gets boring and dismal, seriously pointless, making me wonder if the film was just horribly edited. The display of a Confederate flag is also eye raising, especially since the gym employees young blacks. Frankly, after an hour, I just didn't care anymore yet suffered through the remainder of it, but even the presence of Sally and Jeff couldn't get me into it.

Jeff Bridges as born into southern gentry but trying to find what he wants to do in life after his parents leave him the family mansion. I loved the part where he dances a jig at a blue grass music hootenanny. This film introduced a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in a role where he is a body builder who also plays a country fiddle. Sally Field plays a country girl out of place among the southern aristocracy Jeff's character belongs to. Scatman Crothers has a small part as the faithful family retainer. Fannie Flagg and Joanna Cassidy are gentry acquaintances of Bridge's character. "

This movie doesn't really make a lot of sense...But Jeff Bridges and Sally Field still give it their all and act pretty well with a silly story.It's also fun to see a bunch of people (Robert Englund, Arnold, Ed Begley etc) who went on to decent and/or great things.Plus Sally Field looks pretty hot in the film...All in all, it is weird but it manages to stay together until the end.Most of its value is as a super-early Schwarzenegger film and a bit of a glimpse into 70s bodybuilding culture.And yeah, Sally Field doesn't wear much...

Interesting because of Schwarzenegger's breakthrough performance here which he received a Golden Globe for, the film has sadly little else of interest. The storyline is rather slim and jumps crazily between comedy and drama. While having comedy and drama together is not a bad thing per se, it jars the film because the comedy is so silly compared to the drama, which is serious. The characters are rather poorly introduced too, and the technical aspects of the film are forgettable. One could say that the film is watchable, however is anything actually great in it? The narration through letters is poor, the scenes in the street towards the end are dumb, and when the film is amusing, it too often feels like it is so for the wrong reasons. The acting is decent though - and that is one thing that can be said here - all the performers are adequate for their parts, except for R. G. Armstrong, who tends to go over-the-top.