Bigger Stronger Faster* (2008)

Thanks for the memories!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It takes guts to do a documentary about steroids because no matter what you're going to upset somebody. There is the anti-steroid crowd and the pro- steroid crowd, and it's just not possible to please 2 masters. Having said that, this was probably the most balanced look at steroids I've ever seen. It covers as many bases as possible in a 105 minute film.Bell interviews his own family, along with his professional wrestler and professional powerlifter brothers. You really get an insight into why people want to use steroids and get to the next level.He interviews professional politicians, a father who lost a son, a muscle magazine editor, doctors, researchers, among so many others. He even compares banned substances/practices to those that are legal in an interesting way that will make you think.I never got the feeling Bell was pushing any type of agenda. It is the most balanced look at steroids I have ever seen. He looks at the myths, the hype, the medicine, the harm, and the stigma.If you watch the documentary with anything but an open mind, you'll probably be disappointed. Roger Ebert was quoted, "remarkable in that it seems to be interested only in facts".

I read through some reviews before watching this film and throughout the film I couldn't help think that the reviewers were wrong. The crux of the point was more about spectators and the heroes that make them feel something amazing... to spite the fact that its sports. It's not some awe-inspiring feed the world campaign, its just a game. And the 'irrational' excitement from onlookers is so glaringly obvious by the use of a simple freeze frame - The moment his brother lifted the weight and his family jumped in excitement. The film wasn't intended as either a pro or anti steroid film. It merely presents some information about steroids and the world it plays out in all the while showcasing the fact that we, as a spectator, actually want to see something amazing and when we see that amazing thing, at that moment, it doesn't matter how it was achieved, at that very moment. And what can be taken away from the documentary: blaming the athlete for cheating is no different from blaming the spectator for being too excited. This steroid culture is fed by the spectator culture.

What I love about this movie is that its shows both side of the story about the use of steroids to boost muscle mass. There is the negative side of it by which the film explains in depth using the very public news stories such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan, Barry Bonds, and other celebs that used anabolic steroids when cheating to boost their career or in the sport they are in. Director Chris Bell also talks to the family to a teenager named Taylor Hooten who committed suicide due to steroid abuse. The movie also explains the dangers of having life stock being dope on steroids to product more meat. The movie also talks to a number of lawyers and doctors about the dangers of the drug. Then the movie talks about the positive side of it by which the film explains in depth using news stories such as the man who has AIDs and who used steroids to reclaim his life. He talks how jet pilots use a similar drug call go-pills which are amphetamines to stay awake during war time hours. Director Chris Bell talks about the history of steroids, and how it might have help the United States win the Cold War against the USSR. Some people think the movie went too far to advocating using steroids and I agree it hurts the film. Was the director advocating steroids? Probably not, but he made a point to show how safe they are when used properly. And also how vital they can be for people with atrophying bodies. Yes at certain points it seems like it is defending steroids, but it isn't, it's simply asking why are steroids demonized when the entire country is OK with similar drugs. Alcohol is far worst. Although the movie doesn't defend steroid use, neither does it go on the attack. One of the major themes of the movie are looking up to Heroes and how our heroes cheat the way to power. The movie explains how people all over insist that steroid use is cheating, because it puts the user ahead. But, if steroid use is considered cheating, why isn't it considered cheating for swimmers to remove all of their bodily hair or long distance runners/cyclists to sleep in altitude chambers? It makes these points using how Golfers to have Lasik eye surgery and porn stars to use injectable Viagra. Not only that, but how Musicians to use beta blockers and students to use Adderall. Simple: It's all part of the competition. These are all advantages and nothing more. So, what makes anabolic steroids any different from them? While Bell explores the health costs of juicing, he's mostly concerned with the moral consequences involved in the use of performance-enhancing substances to the point that the movie isn't about steroids, it's about morality. Though he refrains from judgment, he stopped taking steroids himself because it felt dishonest. Naturally, his burly body builder brothers Mike Bell and Mark Bell feel otherwise. The documentary takes a turn from a documentary about steroids to morality play, pit against what's right for him, and what's seem right for his brothers. All three of them seek fame and fortune. While Chris Bell's movie might portray himself as an angel, the fact eludes them throughout the film is the fact that all three are boys in grown men's bodies. Chris Bell felt to make his family's private life public just to make him look better than them. I mean no disrespect to the brother with a learning disability but the other two were pathetic. Another theme of the film is how America or being American is to blame rather than taking personal responsibility. By saying that everyone is fundamentally a victim due to the side effects of being American because how American culture's increased obsession with winning. While, I tend to agree somewhat with that. I think more to the fact that people make poor decisions. I don't think America or its culture is at fault since steroids abuse is universal around the world. Yes, America had a cultural ideal of what a body is supposed to look like, but to say it's the main fault of steroid abuse is not correct. The movie is great to watch and discussion. So give it try. It's very informative.

This is one of the most entertaining and interesting movies that I've ever seen.The maker's spend a large portion of the movie trying to convince the viewer that anabolic steroids are relatively safer than other commonly used drugs including alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs and even vitamin C. But if they are so safe and even Vitamin C can kill you, why are they illegal? The movie makes the claim that it is 100% politics, specifically Ben Johnson beating Carl Lewis in the 1988 olympics. The movie attempts to explain away the dangers of AAS in ways such as implying that Taylor Hooton's suicide was more likely caused by the anti-depressant drug Lexapro and that roid rage is a after-school- special created myth. The movie slam dunks with implications that politicians who support the ban on steroids are unpatriotic traitors to the nation, needlessly weakening America and how the unregulated supplement industry takes advantage of this by selling products advertised like steroids by people who are taking steroids when in reality they are unhealthy toxic ripoffs that generate billions of dollars a year for shady supplement makers. As well as showing viewers how to obtain AAS and HGH, the maker's also draw a confession from Christian Boeving (who lost his job with muscle tech after this was released) and make congressman Henry Waxman look like an idiot who doesn't know what the legal age for buying alcohol is.Highly recommended for anybody that is already quite sure that the media cant be trusted and is wondering themselves exactly what steroids are, what they do, what their REAL dangers are and why they are really illegal.One important thing that people need to remember is that steroids are *NOT* drugs. Yes, there are drugs that produce steroids, but drugs are not what steroids are. Steroids are hormones produced naturally by the human body. Believe it or not, *YOU* have steroids in your body *RIGHT NOW!*, you just don't have any control over how much. Does supplementing your bodies natural production of steroids have side effects? Yes, but so does just about everything we encounter in our modern lives. So as the movie suggests, why cant 21+ year old adults weigh the benefits and the risks themselves and make an informed decision to *LEGALLY* use anabolic steroids? Fact: Because the government hates muscle. Let's not forget that when they "revised" the steroid laws in 2005 that they also tried banning creatine and one politician responded to a question by saying "If it works, we'll ban it (whatever it is)."As Rick Collins puts it both throughout his career and in this movie, it's what steroids do that's beneficial that gets them banned, not any potential harm that they can cause. When the government banned steroids for the very first time in 1990 - after they had been legal for 50 years - they did so by REJECTING the advice given to them by their own experts, including the FDA, the DEA and the surgeon general. There's some food for thought for ya.What's even worse is that it's not the government on behalf of itself that is on a crusade to ban muscle, it's the government on behalf of the people. For decades most "normal" people have been baffled by the people who would put so much time and pain and effort into building more muscle than they needed in their daily lives that it became a OFFICIAL MENTAL ILLNESS called bigorexia, or Muscle Dysphmoric disorder, and parents can have their early adult childhood INVOLUNTARILY COMMITTED for it if by any twisting of logic they can argue that it's putting their health or life at risk, especially if they're caught using steroids. After all, why would anybody invest so much time, money and effort into building muscle that they don't even need anyway? To intimidate people, or perhaps for the same reason why anorexics starve themselves to death; because they're ill? Now add to it the jealously suffered by pencil neck men and it's easy to understand why only the muscle heads themselves aren't bothered by it, and unfortunately are heavily outnumbered and therefore irrelevant in this legal political battle for the basic American freedom to rights and ownership over ones body.