Theatrical Review of Bigger, Stronger, Faster

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There is no shortage of documentaries about bodybuilders, but the number of documentaries directed by bodybuilders is considerably smaller. I don´t know the exact number; it may be a field of one, and if it is, then Chris Bell´s "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" (2008) blazes quite a trail.

Chris and his brothers Mark and Mike grew up idolizing Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hulk Hogan. These were heroes to look up to, men who lived clean, said their prayers and got totally pumped the natural way. The Bell brothers practiced wrestling moves in the basement as kids, and as they eased their way into adulthood began to lift weights obsessively. As obsession led to the world of professional competition, the question of steroids inevitably came up. Except that in the world of competitive bodybuilding, there really is no question: you either do steroids or you´re not going to compete. Everyone knows and, quite frankly, hardly anybody has a problem with it. Except Chris.

Like his brothers, Chris tried steroids. Unlike them, he stopped because he couldn´t the shake the feeling that he was cheating. Mark and Mike don´t share the same qualms, and both are quite enthusiastic about their use of steroids. The goal, as most of the bodybuilders in the film state, is to get as strong as possible, and you can´t get there without chemical assistance. It would have been easy at this point for Chris to launch into an exposé into the seedy world of steroid-use and the criminals who distribute and use them, but he adopts a much more nuanced and provocative perspective.

Chris challenges the most basic assumptions most of the public has about steroids: that they are bad for you, and that they constitute "cheating." Is there a rational basis for the moral indignation that motivates some fans to demand that Barry Bonds´ career home run total be accompanied by asterisk? Is this an issue so vital to national security that Congress actually has to hold public hearings on the matter?

Chris begins his inquiry by talking to several medical professionals who argue that there is little evidence that steroids "eat away your liver" or "give you cancer" or even that they cause you to lose your temper, a charge familiar to anyone who remembers wrestler Chris Benoit´s murder of his wife and child and subsequent suicide, an act attributed to "´roid rage" though in truth Benoit was on a host of medications that could also have been responsible for his violent breakdown. As in any documentary, we must consider the possibility that Bell has been selective with his experts (though he does provide screen time to Dr. Gary Wadler, who has become the public face of the anti-steroid crusade) and the evidence provided is not definitive to dismiss the potential serious health-risks of steroids. But, to use a cliché, it sure makes you think. As Bell points out, we use steroids (as prescription medication) to help sick people all the time; why is it then wrong for healthy people to use them to get even stronger.

Bell´s most persuasive line of argument comes when he wonders why steroids have been singled out from all other performance-enhancing drugs as being "evil." He interviews several professional musicians who have no shame in admitting that they use beta-blockers to avoid performance anxiety. One man claims it´s different than professional sports because music isn´t competitive. Bell cannily replies "But what about auditions? Aren´t they competitive?" The man can only mumble an "I guess so" in response. By the way, though it´s not mentioned in the film, beta-blocker use is also commonplace on the PGA tour just to steady the hands a bit when you´re making that million-dollar putt.

"Bigger Stronger Faster" follows the Michael Moore/Morgan Spurlock aesthetic with Bell functioning both as narrator and on-screen interviewer and occasional provocateur. Fortunately, he keeps the snarky use of animation and 50s era information films (a Moore specialty) to a minimum, and his on-screen persona is far less irritating than Spurlock´s. The film also veers into "Capturing the Freedmans" territory when Bell grounds the broader issue in the familial. He crafts a narrative in which his loving mother, who has remained blissfully ignorant until this point, has her heart broken when she discovers that her sons are all "cheaters." She wonders what she did wrong to make them have such low self-esteem. It´s an uncomfortable moment, to say the least, and also feels manufactured. It is the film´s only major lapse of judgment.

There´s also a simpler point to be made that Bell glosses over. Steroids are banned in most professional sports, thus the use of them is, by definition, against the rules. He´s not challenging this, but rather the moral outrage that steroid-use in sports seems to provoke. It´s a violation of the rules, but does it really "challenge the integrity of the game" as so many pundits claim? And on a much sounder point, Bell is willing to concede that perhaps steroids should be banned in professional sports, but wonders why in the hell everyday Joes and Janes just trying to get "bigger, stronger, and faster" should be considered criminals for using supplements like steroids to improve their physique.

We live in an age of "better living through chemicals" but our standards for determining which ones are socially acceptable are arbitrary, at best. Tobacco good. Marijuana bad. Anti-depressants good. Anabolic steroids bad. Chris Bell´s intelligent, low-key documentary may not change American society, but it will make most viewers re-evaluate their opinions about steroids and other drugs. "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" is one of the best films of 2008.

The film rates an 8/10 on the DVDTown scale.

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