View of a different Schwarzenegger

At about the same time Arnold Schwarzenegger gave his now-notorious interview to adult magazine Oui, in which he talked about participating in an orgy with other bodybuilders and smoking grass and hashish, the then-29-year-old was featured in the acclaimed documentary “Pumping Iron.”

Like the magazine interview, it doesn’t portray the bodybuilder turned actor turned politician in a particularly flattering light: Not only does Schwarzenegger come across as a bully, but he is also seen smoking pot and heard uttering such hot-potato statements as “Milk [is] for babies -- when you get older you drink beer.”

The low-budget “Pumping Iron,” directed by George Butler and Robert Fiore, showed Schwarzenegger winning the 1975 Mr. Olympia title for the fifth consecutive year, competing against such up-and-comers as a pre-”The Incredible Hulk” Lou Ferrigno.

Don’t bother rushing out to find the film on VHS or DVD; it might be easier to find the 1977 issue of Oui. The videocassette version has been out of print for years, and the DVD version of “Pumping Iron” won’t be released until November. Warner Home Video is releasing it to coincide with the DVD/video release of Schwarzenegger’s current film, “Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines.”

Last year, the “Terminator” star encouraged the documentary’s directors to re-release the film for its 25th anniversary unedited, complete with the marijuana-smoking scene. “I would refuse to wipe out that record or change it or alter it because of image’s sake,” he said at the time. “That would not be true to the filmmaker.”

As for the long out-of-print VHS version of the film, an informal phone survey of several video stores in Southern California confirmed that “Pumping Iron” is as rare as a Republican supporting Gov. Gray Davis.

Odyssey Video in North Hollywood had a copy of the film at one point, but it was stolen several years ago. Hollywood Video in Westwood had only a copy of “Pumping Iron 2,” which looked at the female side of bodybuilding (sorry, no Schwarzenegger), and Blockbusters in GOP stronghold Orange County and near the bodybuilding mecca of Muscle Beach in Venice report they don’t stock the film either. They don’t typically stock 1970s bodybuilding documentaries anyway.

Besides, there’s no sign of public clamor for the film. The Video Software Dealers Assn., the trade group for home entertainment retailers, reports that the title isn’t among its top 1,000 rentals. There’s a bit more interest in the upcoming DVD release, though. Although it doesn’t come out until a month after the recall election, pre-orders of “Pumping Iron” put it in 80th place on Amazon.com’s DVD list.