A lot of people admire athletes. From football players, swimmers, boxers, UFC fighters, cricket players, tennis players, body builders.etc.. A lot of our society's cultures are influenced by sports. For example, in Australia, on the night when state of origin takes place, just look at how involved people become watching the show. During these nights, people from all age, gender and background come together to cheer for their favourite player to score, to play football, to perform at their best. Sport and its fans, is a global phenomena where people become emotionally attached to watch their heroes perform and win. Winning is cool, but what about when athletes cheat to win? What defines cheating? This is the topic of this 2008 documentary.
Bigger, stronger and faster is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Christopher Bell, about the issue of steroid use as performance enhancement drugs, and how the use of steroid is connected with the American dream. The documentary started with Chris telling the story of how he grew up in the 70~80's idolizing icons such as Arnold, Hulk Hogan, Silvester Stallone, and how that affected his brother and him. His two brothers and himself thought that by becoming strong and muscular, they too can become famous and live out the American dream. Therefore in their teenage years they started lifting weights. Two of his brothers, Mike and Mark then went on to play football in high school, and in order to become better at the sport, they started using anabolic steroid, and eventually they both landed up becoming professional wrestlers. His older brother Mike wasn't successful because of various substance abuse, while his younger brother Mark stopped wrestling because he had a family and needed to settle down.
However, both of his brothers didn't stop using steroid. Mike continued to use steroid because he always had dreams of one day becoming a famous wrestler and movie star. While his younger brother Mark kept on using steroid because he wanted to be a champion at powerlifting, a recreational activity in his leisure time. Chris, at this point is convinced that his brothers were cheating because he thinks using steroid is cheating, and was not happy with the negative effects of his brothers' obsessions on his family, especially his parents and both of his brothers' wives.
The documentary then started to explore the legality issue of steroid use, and how Chris discovered that all his heroes, Arnold, Sly, Hulk Hogan etc.. the iconic American heroes were all on the juice. The documentary then explored the issue of using steroid in sports. It turned out that a lot of famous athletes were all using performance enhancement drugs. From baseball players to champion athletes. The side effects of steroid use is discussed next, where it raised questions as whether if anabolic steroid is really that bad for people.
The documentary goes beyond the issue of anabolic steroid use, and examined the lack of consistency in America's view of drugs, cheating and what people will do to achieve success. By raising arguments on what is defined as cheating, and raising issues such as: Tigerwood's laser enhanced 20/15 vision, musicians using anxiety reducing drugs, student taking drugs to help them study better, fighter pilot takes Amphetamine, so on and so forth.
The documentary concluded with Mark bench pressed 700 pound in a powerlifting competition while he is on the juice, while Chris' remarked that steroid is not the root to his family's problems, it is merely a side effect of being American.
I was really glad that I saw this documentary film. I think this documentary raised two issues to think about:
1) Body image: Although I've never lived in America, but I too was an 80's kid who grew up in the era of Arnold, Sly, Rocky, Rambo, Terminator, professional wrestling and all the iconic muscular, sports oriented heroes. I guess my mindset has also being affected somewhat by these muscle heroes. I dare say that I am not the only one, otherwise why would people care about body image so much these days? The standard of beauty is so often measured by body fat percentage, just look at how many people eat salad for lunch, take nutrient supplements even they are not doing exercise, and are always watching that they don't gain weight/fat on their bodies. It is questionable whether if the whole "eat healthy and live healthy" social reform is really that healthy for the mind. My grandma never paid attention to these healthy things, and she ate stir fry meat, vegetable and rice everyday yet lived till the age of 95 just fine... do people follow these "healthy habits" because they want to be healthy? or is the reality that they just want to look good?
Personally, I have been doing weight lifting for almost 12 years now. It is a recreational hobby I've enjoyed doing. I have seen people (with my own eyes) who do all sorts of things to themselves to get "bigger, stronger and faster", and how that attitude leads to the imbalance of their purpose in life. At the same time I've also experienced suspicious looks from my Christian brothers and sisters because of my passion for the sport, which has brought a lot of frustrations in the past. My task is to stand firm and rely on Christ, be true to God and myself in the face of both sides. Many times I wish I could have been more upfront and talk to them about the purpose of life, but I always fall short under the fear of being thought of as "judgemental", a label that our society tends to place on Christians partially due to pop culture influence.
The Bible does say you have to look after yourself, but when your life is dominated by thoughts of wanting to improve your body image, then it is an idol and it will make you its slave. One of the most touching moments in this documentary film is when Chris' mother, while in tears say to him that, "every sinew and bone in his body is made by God, and he is what God wants him to be like. He doesn't need to go and use steroid to make himself look physically better." As Christians we need build our confidence based on the fact that we are children of God, instead of relying on our abilities to improve our worldly qualities.
2) The issue of cheating - Unfortunately, our society is one that will always measure our worth base on our performances. People will always, to a certain degree treat each other like commodities rather than as fellow human. Emphasis on personal qualities often precede emphasis on virtue, value and belief when it comes to our society's way of judgement of character, it is unfortunate and a big problem in human relations. In a culture where everyone likes the winner, sometimes it is really hard to keep up the integrity and not to cheat. The Bible says we should only have one audience, that is God (Galatians 1:10). Living for God is not about how well we can perform, but it is an action and thought as a result of love for God (Matthew 22:37-39). Therefore, we ought to give all we are and all we have to the Lord, instead of trying to cheat to get to a certain place to win people's approvals.
Christopher Bell is right in saying that steroid isn't the root to his family's problem, it is merely a side effect of being American. He is implying that the root of the problem is actually the success driven society in America, which is true because an idol drives people into slavery and death. Chris' brother Mike died at the age of 37 in the rehab centre, the cause of death was never reported, had he realised that his worth was not measured by his athletic abilities and success, but measured by the fact Jesus had died for him, his life could have been totally different today.
Final score:
Story 8/10 - The documentary did an excellent job at relating the case of Bell brothers, and their pursue to be powerful strong men to the bigger issues buried deep inside the American society.
Cinematography 8/10 - The film was shot in real documentary style, I was never bored throughout the entire film.
Violence none
Sex/nudity none
Final verdict 8/10 - Who is your master? Body image? Success? Praises from people? Whatever it is, if you choose the wrong master it will not be good for you in the long term. This is a gritty, interesting and well filmed documentary. Highly recommended.
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