1980 Mr Olympia DVD Review by Steve Buccilli

If you don’t mind, I would like to take you on a journey back into the past. My past. Let’s go back some 21 yeas or so. The year is 1984, Lee Haney had just won his first Mr. Olympia, and I had been training at home, with a simple total body workout. I stumbled across a book by Joe Weider titled “Mr. Olympia.” It was a historical account of the Mr. Olympia contest from 1965 through 1982.

I quickly asked for that book for Christmas. I also went to the library and took out the original Pumping Iron book, by George Butler. Two pictures in those books inspired me like no other. One picture was a shot from the 70’s of none other then Robby Robinson, sitting on a bench, tying a ripped and shredded shirt across his massive pecs. His chest, arms and delts were so large in comparison to his tiny waist, it was just mind boggling.

The other picture that left me gob smacked was a small shot of Sergio Oliva. Sergio was hitting a crab pose. Each arm, flexed in front as if Sergio was punching an invisible opponent. His head was pointed straight up at the ceiling. His arms were so large, from his incredible forearms to those unbelievable biceps and triceps. All connected to extremely large delts. Forget about those oversized pecs and traps!

Those two pictures were somewhat of an epiphany for me. I knew right then and there what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a bodybuilder. Over the next 21 years I trained and religiously followed the sport. I won some local shows, and just missed qualifying for the nationals once. I followed the career of Rich Gaspari, and Lee Haney. Gaspari was my idol. At 5’8”, (my height) I could relate to him better then Lee Haney. But the 80’s brought a much more ripped and shredded physique. In the 90’s the word freaky took over as almost the only criteria for winning. I was greatly inspired by Dorian Yates, his work ethic and incredible physique was something to behold. Now present day its Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman. Each decade has advanced our sport like no other sport in the world. But as far as our sport goes the advancement may have come too rapidly.

For me those two early shots of Robby Robinson and Sergio represented a time in the sport in which you wanted to look like those guys. You wanted to train hard and be involved in this sport. You wanted to be a part of this exclusive club called “bodybuilding.” It also made you say “WOW, that’s inspiring!”

I often ask myself, can I go back? Can I go back to the day when I was first inspired to train! Well for anyone who is looking for the same thing, I have the answer!

I recently purchased and watched the 1980 Mr. Olympia on DVD. I was so impressed by this footage of such an incredible contest. Arnold’s last show, Mentzer’s last show. The physique artistry of Frank Zane, the incredibly freaky young Tom Platz, and so on. This show was more then a blast from the past. It represented the top echelon of the sport. Immediately I was taken back to when I first touched a barbell! That incredibly feeling of power and accomplishment. The desire to be big and massive like Mike Mentzer!

Suddenly I was seeing Mike so big and ripped, with such a v-taper and small waist! Seeing Arnold hitting most muscular poses and biceps shots! Wow that’s inspiring! I watched Frank Zane hitting his shots and couldn’t believe how complete and ripped he was. But not only that how thick he was. A truly beautiful physique.

Others in that Olympia were also impressive, such as  Samir Bannout, Dennis Tinerino, Danny Padilla, and Boyer Coe. It was truly great. I felt as if I was center stage.

This DVD is a very complete account of the 1980 Mr. Olympia. Shot from 2 different central angles, and with great commentary by Wayne Gallasch who shot most of the footage. Most athletes are shown in both prejudging and the evening show. If you want to see great displays of posing, every athlete did a wonderful job, much better then the pros of today.

I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who loves this sport - you’ll love this double DVD set just as much as I did. I can’t thank GMV and Wayne Gallasch enough for being there to document this historic contest.