Documentary Review: "Bigger, Stronger, Faster"

The tagline of director Chris Bell's documentary on the (sub) culture of steroids is "the side effects of being American". That sweeping social indictment and much of the tone of this documentary follow Michael Moore's brand and his approach of including the narrator in the film as the curtain on media, merchandising and congressional subcommittees is pulled back. So it is no surprise, that, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" was produced by two people behind Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11".

In contrast to Moore's films however, Chris Bell's documentary is anchored by his personal and family's stories, and he puts much at risk through this offering. Bell used steroids for a period of time when weightlifting competitively and both of his brothers continue to use steroids to this day, mainly 'Test', synthetic testosterone. The film brings the viewer up close into struggle and self-deception that his brothers undergo as they attempt to deal with their drug use. Towards the end of the film Bell reveals to his mother on camera that he had regularly juiced and in fact it was her brother that first introduced the boys to steroids. More heartbreaking are the 'doping is for cheaters' mantra that the high school football players say their coach, one of the Bell brothers, nicknamed "Stinky", had instilled in them. (Hey team, don't watch this film!)

The documentary begins with a childhood montage in which we learn that for three brothers in the late 70's and early 80's the route to success and acceptance was to become larger and stronger than their peers. Their heroes: Arnold, Hogan and Stallone- Reagan era Cold War 'Strength through Greatest Fire Power'.

All three boys came into their own through weightlifting. The oldest brother, 'Maddog' played football for University of Cincinnati and later wrestled as a foil against the stars on WWF. Early on in life the brothers quickly learned that in order to compete they needed to juice. And when they learned that their heroes, Arnold, Hogan, Stallone, and most of the WWF had been juicing themselves, their disappointment hardened into the acceptance and adoption.

The science is presented loose and brief in regards the negative effects of steroid use. We do learn that among men most negative side effects reverse after discontinuing use, but among women, effects are longer lasting or permanent. But this is a film about ethics and choice.

Bell allows the pro-steroid community to articulate its case: steroids should be regulated, negativity is conflated by media, 'roid rage is a myth, cortisone is just as bad.

Among professional athletes (no ball players, sadly) we hear Floyd Landis and Ben Johnson defend their legacies. We are reminded that Carl Lewis, who emerged as a saint in the Seoul Olympics, tested positive for over the counter amphetamines found in cold medicine.

We also learn that in the weight lifting community, to not juice is to not be competitive. When Bell asks a lifting mentor what he thought about Stinky quiting steroids, the older man coolly commented that it was only a matter of time before his brother was back on the juice.

The film teases out, of course, the question as to whether we (American society) are to blame for the widespread use of steroids in competitive sports. Is our high pressure, numbers oriented, highest possible yield culture the culprit? If all the successful athletes are juicing, are you handicapping yourself if you play 'clean'? This argument is strongest in the context major league sports where injuries and just average output quickly end young careers.

A person with little conflict over this issue is one of the featured body builders and infamous juicer, Gregg Valentino. We had the treat of meeting him at the theater after the screening. He is well known for having the biggest biceps on earth, which became the iconic image of roid madness a few years ago when the media covered his arrest over selling steroids. Valentino, still huge, and eager to answer questions, encourages steroid use among lifters when they hit the age 30. As the majority of the crowd made their way out of the theater, Valentino had the last word as a huddle of young lifters lingered to ask questions and hear stories. His tag line which he repeated often was, "drop the reps, increase the dose".


"Bigger, Stronger, Faster", directed by Chris Bell and produced by Magnolia Pictures, 2008.

It's Tuesday Night again...What State and or Commonwealth am I thanking?

Tuesday night May 20th, it feels closer to March as the temperature dropped at Yanqui Stadium following the day's heavy rains. The Bombers lost before we even arrived at our seats in the top of the 2nd. Mike Mussina's glint of late career recovery is snuffed by eight runs in two innings of meltdown error and choke against his former team the O's.

Meanwhile in pundit pandemonium crazytown, the action in another pastime of self-punishment followed a predictable course of results: Oregon loves Obama, and Kentucky hates him ("dang copycats" said one West Virginian).

The tired dissection of Democrat demographics goes on (liberal educated vs. working class vs. blacks vs. women vs. latinos vs. whites vs. bullmastiff vs. pugs.). Obama supporters fret at what they (me) interpret as the racist, pre-electricity voting block in West Virginia and Kentucky (Sorry, CBM).

I mean, Obama losing by 10 percent in PA and Ohio works out; but 41 percent in W.V, 35 percent in KY. Wow! Clinton really must have connected with their needs and values in a special and specific way.

As said by an Obama supporter late one night this weekend..."they're (W.V & KY) just not wanted."

Tonight became yet another dangerous dose of enabling for the New York Senator who is on track to high-jack the Democratic party come two weeks from now at its weekend retreat.

Will Ted Kennedy rise to outmatch and out scream Terry Mcauliffe? Godspeed.

So we're off to Puerto Rico (?) for our next battleground in time for the winner to ride on a float down 5th Avenue a week later in the PR Day Parade. Donors will be hiding upstairs in their Coops as is their annual tradition.

Fatigue level on these matters is high.

Now to solutions and insight from a Southern Dem. strategist named Mudcat.

Jim Web VP: Answer to Southern White and Foreign Affairs Problem?
Well, here's a petition from VA Progressive Blog Raising Kaine.

Post Script:
I promise I will get back to posting interesting, heartwarming, non-staggering works of genius about stories and ideas on things both big and small that are not related to the endless campaign.

Overheard the Day After North Carolina and Indiana

"Senator, we just raised another eight figures, so just hold steady, she's bound to drop out. Also, I found the number for that group we talked about. Yeah, the one that makes people disappear. They said he's meeting somebody in D.C today, should we intercept now?"

"Bill, call the bank and line up some more speaking engagements. I'm not stopping and I'm taking it all down with me."

"Senator McCain...It's Karl on line three with Rev. Wright. No, really. He says you guys need to talk."

Mitchell Commission Needed for Horse Racing?

Readers may note, or not as it turns out, that I have been devoting a lot of real estate to the Derby and the Eight Belles incident- and I'm not much of a racing fan or fanatic of horses.

Well, I'm at again today while cyclones devour Myanmar, Somalia descends into a total food crisis, and we approach two huge primaries in Indy and N.C. Perhaps it's the overwhelming magnitude of those global events or my fatigue of this gas tax nonsense, but it's really the sight of that filly collapsing and then being put down that got to me.

So here's the take away: The media discussion has turned towards systemic poor and irresponsible breeding, speed over durability. There is also an indictment of pain killer and drug use within the industry, the effects of which mask pain and poor heredity with the animals, not to say also enhance performance.

William Rhoden of the Times is calling horse racing animal cruelty, just as bad as greyhound racing.

Here's a lively debate between Rhoden and Washington Post's Andrew Beyer on the Newshour tonight. A great listen.

ESPN's Pat Forde's call for the sport to examine itself.

This is horse racing blogger Railbird's take on it. Spoiler alert... She's moved on. To the Preakness.

Why was Eight Belles euthanized? We learn why from the same reasons Barbaro was put down.

Answer: It's a horse anatomy issue.

A Sour Exacta

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown in the lead as filly Eight Belles bravely pursues.
Photo Credit: AP

In a sad and unexpected postscript to his day at the Derby, Charley Miller describes how he heard about Eight Belles' death while on line to pick up his winnings from her final race.

Click Here

Eight Belles

For the rest of us in America that do not fit inside Churchill Downs, and still want to connect with the race and it’s festivities, we go to our friends homes to drink bourbon, sometimes wear big hats and sit around the television and look at the parade of beautifully preserved southern matrons and statuesque prize horses. To make the sport more interesting to most of us who don't follow horse racing outside of this day, we place informal house bets or formal wagers on horses with names or odds that we like, and all of this is fun.

But the race itself is only 2 minutes long and it’s really over before you are able to identify your horse in the pack. And because the race is short, the Derby is really a front-loaded event, anticipation, speculation and admiration all leading up to the explosions of the gates opening and the blur of hooves. Sometimes what happens after the gates open is inspiring or even magical, such as the races with past winners like Smarty Jones, Barbero and before them Secretariat. But the Derby doesn't always present us a winner and a storyline we can fall in love with, and we as viewers are left suddenly uneasy with what to do or say with an unsatisfying or upsetting outcome. "What have we gotten into?", we may ask.

Yesterday we were presented a somewhat grotesque victory celebration of a horse that is difficult to embrace, while we were harshly reminded of a brutal fact of horse racing when Eight Belle was euthanized after her second place finish fall. These were the unscripted events that surely neither NBC nor The Kentucky Derby wished played out, after all, why should we face the heavy consequences of our sports or our wagers.

After the dust settles, the spectator gambler looks down at his or her betting receipts, as I did, and was reminded of my participation in the events on the track. Sorting through the remaining combinations that might accommodate the unexpected outcome, not finding any, I further disdained myself and what I saw on the field. Life was lost and so had I.

Postscript:

And if I had won, would I have not cashed my ticket in opposition to the sport/industry?

Answer: I would be thinking about brave Eight Belles quietly with a burn in my pocket.

Where proceeds could go:
Second Careers for Horses

Seven Questions for Charley at Churchill Downs

With just a few hours before race time, Charley Berkeley Miller gives us some background on the state of horse racing today, and how the Derby is tough to buy.

1) When did you get into horse racing?

first trip to churchill downs was with my boy scout troop 110 while in grade school. the scout masters would place the bets for us and teach us the finer points of handicapping. we didn't get a merit badge for this yet it was probably the most valuable lesson i got in the scouts.

2) Who's your favorite horse all overall?

as the barbaro legend grows, i think people are forgetting about what afleet alex did in the triple crown: just miss the derby win, takes the preakness after falling to his knees, and then winning the belmont in a nearly secretariat-esque romp. that horse had more guts than anyone i've seen... with one exception: smarty jones, the only horse to give me goose bumps nearly every time he ran. and the day he was ganged up against and subsequently lost the belmont was a sad, sad day.

3) Every year you buy into a superfecta (full disclosure I am joining him this year). Explain what it is and how you arrive at your line up?

superfecta is an exotic (not erotic but to me it is) bet that consists of nailing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers in exact order. it's only a $2 bet. but usually my gang (and) i spend somewhere in the $800/$900 range to maximize our chances with lots of combinations. for $840, you can have 7 horses able to come in the top 4 in any order. the payouts are tremendous in the derby if you're able to hit one. i've hit two lifetime, but not on the derby (although twice i've had 3 of 4).

4) Big Brown positioned poorly in the 20th slot, but his trainer is optimistic. Is this spin or is this horse the real thing?

this is a good horse. maybe great. but even great horses get bad trips and lose the derby (see Native Dancer). starting from the 20 nearly guarantees a bad trip. because the rest of the field is so mediocre, i'm going against my "bettor" judgment and keeping him in the superfecta.

5) The Kentucky Derby is the premiere event for horse racing in America and close to 150,000 people will descend on Churchill Downs, but overall attendance is thinning at the tracks, mainly because the betting crowd is now placing wagers online at home. Are we in the last days of spectator racing? Where will all those older gentlemen with cigars and Panama hats spend their afternoons?

everyone knows the sport needs to operate with casinos to be profitable, as this is where people like to gamble with their entertainment dollars. most states with a healthy race horse population are pushing to have slots installed in race tracks. who knows if this is really the answer, i have my doubts. while places with tremendous history like suffolk downs in boston is dying a slow death, the good news is that the industry overall is healthy if you just look at how the ownership of horses is expanding (as are the horses' price tags). match races is one idea to lure people back into the sport (think title bouts) but apparently this can be really hard on horses.



6) Sheik Mohammed has yet to win the roses despite investing the equivalent of the GDP of a small nation into his prospects. Why can't the man who brought alpine skiing to the desert get his horse to cross the finish line first?

i wish i had time to give you the exact stats, but for every recent derby winner that cost over a million as a yearling, there's a winner that no one wanted, that cost maybe 10 grand. in a lot of ways the derby is the only championship sport in the world where everyone (you, me, your readers) have a chance to win the derby NEXT YEAR... not as fans or bettors but as horse owners. and the best stories the sport has are the ones where the little guy finds a special unwanted colt and in a year's time are on top of the world. back to Native Dancer: he was owned by Vanderbilts who were the Sheik Mohammed's of their day. Never was able to win the roses and had all the money in the world to spend in doing it. Winning the derby takes a lot of luck and a damn courageous pony.

7) Are you going to call Chelsea an elitist if she doesn't do a shot bourbon with you?

Depends on how many bourbons I've had up to that point ;)

Stayed tuned to for Charley's photos from the Kentucky Derby.

Blogging from the Twin Spires

It's the first weekend in May and that means two things: Off Track Betting and yelling at a television set for two minutes straight as horses run on a track and either break your heart or pay your bar bill.

That said, I have been recently informed there is more to the Kentucky Derby than crying over crumpled wagers with your new friend Kansas at the the betting cum funeral parlor over on 9th Avenue. The Derby is about people, stories and million dollar three year olds.

Did you ever want to know, who's under the big hats or why Chelsea Clinton can't go into the infield?

Of course you did, and here you go...

Lodge Porch is pleased to announce exclusive reporting from our man at Churchill Downs: Louisville's favorite son and unofficial booster of all things Kentucky, and maven of the track,
Charley Berkeley Miller .

We are graced with Charley's native eye and ear for all the energy and drama in the stands, the stables and the Saudi suites, where dreams are made, banks broken, and all the possibility in the world courses around a hallowed oval of wet dirt for the most examined two minutes of equine excitement.

Stayed Tuned!