Bigger Stronger Faster DVD review

The Film:

I have never used HGH, steroids, or any other performance enhancing drug when writing a review, nor do I plan too. I felt compelled to open this review with something as absurd as that, due to Chris Bell’s documentary on steroids, in Bigger, Stronger, Faster.

The wonderful thing about this timely film is that while it takes on a serious subject matter rooted in deep moral choices, there’s a lot of fun happening here. Currently, there’s this big hoopla about MLB and the players using steroids. What could’ve been a standard documentary following Barry Bonds around or something, is elevated beyond its ESPN journalistic point of view, by flipping this finger wagging back on us.

The interesting way he presents his subject helps put the film into something we can talk about as we leave the theater, instead of saying, ‘okay, that’s that. They are cheaters.’ It’s not as easy as it might appear, Bell slowly unravels what we might be thinking about people using steroids and constructs a well-researched gray area. Using experts, senators, news footage, and interviews from everyone from the fore mentioned senators to ‘gym rats’, the real people affected by steroids. And to what effect are they hampered by their decision? Chris Bell spares no one; Hulk Hogan, Mark McGuire, Arnold, Sly Stallone, and even his family members. In fact, when he studies his family, I found it far more interesting than the pro athletes. His mother is unknowing to the fact that her three sons are using body enhancing steroids, two of which still are regularly. Call her naive, but Bell establishes this very hard gray area of what’s right and wrong about steroids.

More importantly, why must we cast out our sports and film heroes because they have used steroids? The facts indicate that only 3 people a year might die from steroid side effects, compared to the 400,000 people that die from tobacco or the 70,000 from alcohol. Vitamin C offers more side effects than steroids, but it’s the Congress hearings and the Chris Benoit case that makes this seem far more tragic.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster simply gives you the facts, a thorough look at our culture, and offers to you, no answer to the question of is using steroids bad for sports? When Stan Lee presents that Captain America went from a string bean guy to a muscle bound hero, then you know the area is quite gray. America’s need to be the winner, no second best, might have given way to this current steroid craze world we live in. But that’s the interesting thing about this film, it offers plenty of tangible facts and research, and you’ll be walking out thinking and talking about it. I came in being disgusted knowing that people like Roger Clemens and Rambo have been caught using steroids, but leaving this film, I might not want to look that down on them, it’s our culture you know?

The DVD:

Audio/Video: Clean and good sounding audio, I mean, it’s a documentary, so what did you expect? It’s hard to judge the video presentation since Bell used footage from a variety of sources, but it’s good, especially scenes with him or interviews with him on camera.

Additional Footage: Over 40 minutes of scenes that didn’t make it into the film  and for the most part they’re good. They are broken up into individual chapters making them easier to soak in. Give them a look as they add some more info to the film’s discussion.

Behind-the-Scenes: A very, very short promo piece if you will, about the team who gave us this documentary. Eh.

Trailers

Conclusion: With steroids in our papers and on ESPN a lot as of late, this documentary is very timely. Chris Bell presents it all in a fun, easy to follow manner, with humor and passion making this an easy recommendation.

Rating: