Friday, February 21, 2014

The Armstrong Lie (2013)

Director: Alex Gibney. 124 min. Rated R. Documentary.

This is what I think happened: Alex Gibney set out to make a documentary about Lance Armstrong's 2009 Tour de France comeback, and his struggle with doping accusations. But then halfway through, in January 2013 Armstrong admitted to doping on all 7 prior championships, so that messed up the documentary's entire perspective. Gibney tried to salvage the documentary by making it about the lie, but that didn't help, because now you're not sure which of the film interviews are before the guilty admission, and which are after. So Gibney is added to the long list of people Armstrong screwed over.

Mo says:

3 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this documentary although it is not one of my favourites.

    It did show Lance Armstrong as a thoroughly ruthless individual that would stop at nothing to win. This is a problem in all areas of sport, winning is everything.
    I'm sure that many of the worlds greatest athletes have never cheated but no doubt that there are many who have gotten away with it and will never be found out.
    I'd prefer to see two strands of sport, one where doping is allowed and one where it is forbidden. This will of course never happen.

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  2. Exactly. What you mention at the end of your comment is the same thing that was going through my mind: If *everybody* is doping in a sport, why don't they don't have a free-for-all version of sports, and let everybody dope their brains out? Maybe because human nature is so corrupt, there won't be any clean sport left, not even for children to play.

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  3. A drug fueled Olympics would be incredible but would result in deaths which would be unpalatable.

    I'm quite relaxed in my views of drug taking generally, if an adult wants to get high why should they be stopped by governments? It should be a personal choice.

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