Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
by Christopher Bell
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DVD details
Actor: Christian Boeving, Christopher Bell, Floyd Landis, Mark Bell, Mike BellDirector: Christopher Bell
Brand: MAGNOLIA FILMS
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-30
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Product features:
- In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size and above all else: winning at sport, at business and at war. Metaphorically we are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs?From the producers of Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 comes a new film
DVD Reviews of Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
DVD Review: good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This was an excellent movie. Chris Bell took a complex subject and presented a balanced, informative product that addressed the major issues involved.
I like how he explained what steroids do as well as showing the hypocrisy of those who put the current restrictions in place and ignored the advice of the medical doctors who testified.
I also like how he addressed the concerns of those parents who are against steroid use for any reason.
I watched it with my own children and it led to an interesting discussion which we'll repeat periodically I'm sure.
DVD Review: It Didn't Hold My Interest
Summary: 2 Stars
Bigger, Stronger, Faster is an overly-long look at the impact of steroids on American culture. Christopher Bell covers the usual scandals in professional sports, but also looks at the impact steroids have had on his family; Bell and his two brothers have all used steroids. BSF is about one hour, forty-five minutes long and it drags to a close; I wish Bell had cut about forty-five minutes.
The film scores some points on American's contemporary "steroid madness"; Bell makes a strong argument that the way that we regard `roids is similar to the "reefer madness" that the U.S. experienced in the past. We simply don't know that much about whether steroids cause long-term problems. That aspect of Bigger, Stronger, Faster will cause viewers to think.
Bell and his brothers grew up idolizing all of the "ripped" celebrities in the 1980s - Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone. Of course, all of these guys used steroids. All three Bell brothers began to work out & eventually all three tried steroids. The oldest brother, Mark, became a football star who then became a pro wrestler. Youngest brother Mike became a high school football coach who tells his players to avoid taking steroids, even as he abuses them. The brothers seem to suffer from arrested development; they continue to take steroids and dream boyish dreams long after most men have settled down. Mark even moves to southern California to pursue his hazy dreams of becoming an actor or a pro wrestler.
The rest of the movie just isn't that interesting. Bell mentions Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Mark McGwire, and all of the other tainted athletes. He interviews Congressman Henry Waxman in his office; Waxman seems to know very little about steroids even though he led the U.S. House's inquiry into Major League Baseball and steroids.
Aside from the stories of the Bell family's involvement with steroids, Bigger, Stronger, Faster just isn't that interesting. I would not recommend this film.
DVD Review: Absolutely brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
Like the title says. This is a great movie. It touches on what people think about what it means to be a man, what it means to be American, what it means to succeed, what is 'moral', what is cheating, and peripherally on the 'war on drugs'.
Three moments stand out for me:
Chris Bell's meeting with the father of a high school kid who was supposedly driven to commit suicide because of steroid use. Bell questions what else might have been going on in that kid's life. The father mentions that the family lives in a town where achievement is very important. We get to see the kid's room -- it is stuffed with sports trophies. (Maybe dad was pushing his kid too hard?) It turns out the kid was taking Lexapro -- which has been implicated in suicidal thinking. Dad wants to blame steroids, so he bats away all of Bell's questions. Meeting with that kid's father and diverging from the standard "steroids are evil" script took a lot of nerve, but it was done well and respectfully;
The second moment came with (then senator) Joe Biden's grandstanding against steroids in a Senate committee meeting. Biden says that the thought of athletes using anything but what God gave them to win at their sport offends him -- this from a guy who got hairplugs and dental veneers for a leg up in his game (coincidentally, Biden's the same idiot who pushed the RAVE Act, which made possessing a baby pacifier at a party illegal), and;
The third moment was Arnold Schwarzenegger's being named GHW Bush's chairman of the Presidential Council of Sports and Physical Fitness -- after the president signed the bill outlawing steroid use. Arnold never would have been 'Mr. Universe', or a movie star, or governor, had it not been for steroids.
And someone once said Americans don't do irony.
DVD Review: Steroids as a path to celebrity and admiration
Summary: 4 Stars
The documentary 'Bigger Stronger Faster' provides valuable insight as to why so many non-professional athletes turn to steroids to make their muscles larger. The majority of the main characters are struggling with an addiction to being admired and we discover the sons' answers to the question 'what do I want my body to look like and what am I willing to do to achieve that goal?'
The mother is overweight, but still cooks fattening food. Is it because she needs the praise that she recieves from making delicious foods more than she needs to be at a healthful weight?
She raises three sons, and all three struggle with their weight as children, each turning to exercise to mold their bodies, and eventually steroids to improve their results. The oldest and youngest brothers have become dependant on steroids to provide them with bodies that give them the same kind of approval from others that their mother's cooking gives to her. We see the profile of a "wrestler" who is unsatisfied with coaching other athletes because he wants the limelight, and continues to audition for wrestling stardom. We see a "weightlifter" who only achieves the type of praise he craves when he can lift weights that are too heavy to handle without the help of steroids.
Bell spends part of the documentary linking the American obsession with "winning" and the use of steroids. The Bell family is really not so obsessed with 'winning' as they are with being in the limelight and being admired. For the oldest and youngest sons, steroids are the path that they take to achieve this goal.
The filmmaker tells us that he was disillusioned by the fact that his idols all used steroids, which in his minds invalidated the advice that kids could achieve their dreams through hard work and clean living. They completely missed the fact that each of the 'heroes' gave back by helping others to achieve their goals. Arnold encouraged kids to become physically fit, Hulk was famous for telling kids to say their prayers and do right, and Rocky loved his wife, family and coach. A real role model doesn't just 'win' they help and inspire others. The one brother that does find a coaching job dismisses the opportunity to share his knowledge and motivate others by saying "those who can't do, train."
As a long distance runner, I achieve the type of body I want through diet, running and lifting weights. I want to compete in a half marathon more than I want to sleep in, eat a tray of brownies or lay on the couch and watch TV, so I dedicate myself to training. It is the same with these brothers and the other athletes that Bell interviews in the documentary. The sticking point is when having a 'normal life' with a happy family, rewarding job and healthy body is LESS important to the athlete than his/her body image and the respect and kudos that are gained by athletic prowess. Steroid use is a warning sign that their lives and priorities are out of balance.
DVD Review: Worth Your Time
Summary: 4 Stars
Bigger, Stronger, Faster is an entertaining and informative look inside the world of body building and steroid use. Bell gives the viewer access to experts and builders who are for or against the use of steroids, personalizing opinions with insight and access to his own family of body builders.
While I didn't come away from the film with a new opinion on the subject (I am against the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs) I do believe I have a better appreciation for those that do use. Consider the one brother who was able to bench hundreds more than our narrator simply because he did use. It definitely puts a dent in the "steroids don't make the player" arguments.
No matter your view on the subject this film will entertain you and educate you. I recommend it.
Description of Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes? From the producers of Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 comes a powerful new documentary that unflinchingly explores steroid use in the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world: America.Pop culture junkies tend to think of Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as entertainment figures. In Poughkeepsie, NY, back in the 1980s, filmmaker Christopher Bell and his brothers viewed them as heroes and became bodybuilders. Like the Hulkster, Mike and Mark Bell even turned to professional wrestling. Chris, a former staffer at Venice's famous Gold's Gym, doesn't use anabolic steroids--he did try them once--but his heroes have and his brothers do, leading him to look deeper at this increasingly common practice. While Bell explores the health costs of juicing, he's mostly concerned with the moral consequences involved in the use of performance-enhancing substances. Though he refrains from judgment, he stopped taking steroids because it felt dishonest. Naturally, his burly brothers feel otherwise. Aside from his family, Bell speaks with doctors, lawyers, congressmen, gym rats, and professional athletes, like Olympic sprinters Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and Tour de France cyclist Floyd Landis. He also includes footage of Jos? Canseco, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire testifying during the federal grand jury and congressional hearings on steroid use in the major leagues (prompted by the publication of Canseco's Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big). For the most part, Bell doesn't leave any stone unturned and the personal nature of his entertaining and enlightening inquiry elevates Bigger, Stronger, Faster, i.e. The Side Effects of Being American, above your average expos?. Recommended to athletes, sports fans, health nuts, and of course, pop culture junkies. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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