Bigger Stronger Faster*

Is it still cheating if everyone’s doing it? That’s the question Chris Bell is asking in this documentary about performance enhancing drugs. Chris grew up with two brothers, and he was always the scrawny one. With childhood heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Hulk Hogan, he started working out at a young age, and so did his brothers. He wanted to be like his heroes: strong and brave and patriotic.

But as he got older, he realised that perhaps this image of the perfect American was an illusion. He saw his brothers and his friends start to take anabolic steroids to grow bigger, faster. Chris tried them, too, but he always felt like he was cheating, so he stopped. He saw his childhood heroes get arrested and admit to steroid use.

In this film, Bell examines the hypocrisy behind this phenomenon; he interviews congressmen and local gymrats, he talks to his mother and his father and his brothers.

And all the while, he keeps asking himself: where is the line between enhancing your body and cheating? Why is it that we don’t allow athletes to do certain things, but if you’re not competing on an international level, using drugs to improve yourself is somehow ok? And what about that Ben Johnson scandal? And did all of Bell’s childhood heroes really practice what they were preaching?

This movie was in the vein of a Michael Moore documentary, questioning his country’s policies and politics. I can’t take that much away from it, being neither American nor an athlete, but I did think it was a fascinating look into this world, and Bell asks some questions that deserve better answers.