In Bigger Stronger Faster, winner of Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Chris Bell uses experiences with steroid use as a microcosm for the nation's own obsession... Find out more from this review!
In Bigger Stronger Faster*, winner of Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival this year, filmmaker Chris Bell uses his family's unique and personal experiences with steroid use as a microcosm for the nation's own obsession with performance-enhancing drugs.
 Click To Enlarge.
Bigger Stronger Faster* Movie Poster.
© 2008 Magnolia Pictures.
Raised in a typical, middle-class, upstate New York home with a working father and doting mother, Chris and his two athletic brothers - Mad Dog and Smelly - grow up on a steady diet of the 80's three major food groups for adolescent boys: Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Hulkamania.
With a shared enthusiasm for muscles, strength, and fame, all three brothers enlist the aid of steroids to test the limits of their physicality in football, powerlifting, bodybuilding and even professional wrestling.
Click To Enlarge.
"Big Will" Harris And Director Christopher Bell.
© 2008 Magnolia Pictures.
The director's heartbreaking tale of his own family's struggle with the morality and emotional consequences of steroid use is inter-cut with an entertaining cross-country tour focusing on the film's main theme:
Isn't steroid use just another part of the American Dream?
The film takes the position that in a country that values fame over integrity and the dollar over the soul, the use of performance-enhancing substances in any competitive endeavor - sports, academics, modeling, or even music - is really as American as apple pie.
Click To Enlarge.
Jay Cutler Appears In Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
With Director Christopher Bell.
© 2008 Magnolia Pictures.
From Muscle Beach to the Nation's Capital, Bell uses eye-opening interviews with deluded bodybuilders, clueless congressmen, crooked physicians, and Olympic officials and athletes, to lay the groundwork to support the subtle notion that the media hysteria, exaggerated medical risks, and money-wasting efforts of Congressional investigations are, like McCarthy-ism and the Drug War before it, nothing more than political propaganda focused on demonizing the latest "scourge" on American society.
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Guest: Chris Bell
Dan & Bob welcome the film's writer and director Christopher Bell (meet the artist) for an inside look at his new film and the impact that it may have on the bodybuilding community.
Date: 06/02/08 (Radio Show 116) - mp3 |
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Like a good documentary should, the film refuses to take sides and leaves viewers to draw their own conclusions about the risks and tolls of steroid use. Along the way, Bell courageously lays it all on the table and remains true to his vision, even if it means exposing his brothers' painful confessions that could irreparably damage their marriages and careers.
Click To Enlarge.
Mike "Mad Dog" Bell, Christopher Bell And Mark "Smelly" Bell.
© 2008 Magnolia Pictures.
Bigger Stronger Faster* is much more than a film about steroids - ultimately, it's an important film about honesty.
Now Open in Select Cities: Started Friday, May 30th 2008
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Official Trailer!
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About The Author:
Special Ed is the Host of Big Nation Radio, a bodybuilding radio program that features interviews with professional athletes and commentary that takes an unflinching look at supplementation and steroids.
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