Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sports, A+E, In this Issue...
Pumped up
‘Bigger, Faster, Stronger*’ examines the conflicting culture of performance-enhancing drugs
Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Bodybuilder Jay Cutler (left) and Christopher Bell
“BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER*”
Directed by Christopher Bell
Rated PG-13
Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
By Chris Renaldo
When I was offered the opportunity to write for The Sunday Paper sports section, I agreed with the caveat, “As long as I don’t have to always write about sports.” I offer this because after meeting Christopher Bell, the former power lifter and writer and director of the documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*,” I get the feeling Bell has made a movie about steroids that isn’t just about steroids.
Bell is an affable and analytical middle child from a tight-knit and loving family in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He’s engaging and intelligent, the type of person you’d chat up in a bar over beers. And his film is a brilliant study of the passive-aggressive mixed messages of American culture, and a beautiful homage to an average American family trying to succeed in a culture where being average is frowned upon.
Like “Hoop Dreams”, the 1994 documentary that chronicled the divergent paths of two Chicago prep basketball players, “BSF” should be required viewing for any aspiring athlete, filmmaker, politico and/or average Joe. It’s a powerful film that’s poignant without being mawkish and humorous without being superficial.
Coming of age in ’80s, Chris, his older brother “Mad Dog” and younger brother “Stinky” developed their sense of what it meant to be American from the sound-bite jingoism and machismo of the Regan Administration and its subsequent ripple effect through the athletic-entertainment complex. Influenced by the defiance of America’s tough-talking Chief Executive to the good guy-bad guy dichotomy of professional wrestling and the action film genre, Chris decided he wanted to be a real American hero—a professional wrestler.
Despite his lofty aspirations, at 5-foot-6, Bell wasn’t likely to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, who for a time earned a living as a pro wrestler. “I’m probably better suited on the other side of the camera,” he tells The Sunday Paper.
“Bigger, Stronger, Faster*” bears that statement out. As a filmmaker, Bell’s pile drives and atomic drops aren’t scripted or staged entertainment. His presentation of the hypocrisy of America’s veneration of those who seek to “be the best” while at the same time vilifying those who will do “whatever it takes” to do so hit this onetime steroid user like a folding chair to the back of the head.
Bell deftly juxtaposes the bandwagon blathering of politicians like Joe Biden and George W. Bush, who label performance-enhancing drugs as sending “the wrong message” (Bush) and being “un-American” (Biden) with interviews of American fighter pilots (sent to Iraq by Bush) who take “go” pills (amphetamines) to cope with their rigorous nonstop sortie schedule. He also presents information about Biden’s Senate colleague Orrin Hatch, who supported legislation that made his home state of Utah the epicenter of the $24 billion dietary supplement “medicine” show.
The film also weaves the House testimony of current and former MLB players like Mark McGwire, Curt Schilling and Jose Canseco with the embarrassingly confused comments of his California Congressman, Henry Waxman, who headed the MLB steroid hearings. Waxman spends the majority of the interview asking an off-camera aide to corroborate or confirm facts and information related to the legality and ethics of the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Bell investigates the mainstream media’s romanticizing of performance-enhancing drugs in American culture, as embodied by the frequent phrase “it’s like a [fill-in-the blank] on steroids.” “BSF” examines the world of these drugs through a fuzzy lens, instead of the de rigueur position that steroids are dangerous drugs used by cheaters. And he nails the contradictory attitudes regarding performance-enhancing drugs with a look at the career of bodybuilder and action hero turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who openly admitted to benefiting from steroids but later encouraged his constituents to “play by the rules” in pursuit of the American dream.
And therein lies the rub. Who established the rules? And will those rules even matter years from now? “Bigger, Stronger” features a candid interview with a geneticist who suggest that in the future, steroids will be a moot issue, as genetic engineering and gene splicing allow scientists to design whatever body types they like.
In the end, Bell suggests that the possible side effects of anabolic steroids are overplayed in comparison to the confirmed lethal side effects of legal recreational drugs such as alcohol and nicotine, pointing out statistics that show an average of three steroid-related deaths per year, as compared to more than 500,000 deaths related to tobacco and alcohol. We don’t need to worry about the side effects of steroids: As the movie itself states, steroids are a side effect of being American. SP