|
Bigger, Stronger, Faster* |  | Director: Christopher Bell
Actors: Christopher Bell, Mark Bell, Mike Bell, Christian Boeving, Floyd Landis
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $7.80
as of 11/22/2009 01:13 EST details
You Save: $12.18 (61%)
New (26) Used (17) Collectible (1) from $4.91
Seller: pieceofmindmedia
Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 6202
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 10140
UPC: 876964001403
EAN: 0876964001403
ASIN: B001B7CNW4
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Features:
| • | In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size and above all else: winning at sport, at business and at war. Metaphorically we are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs?From the producers of Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 comes a new film |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
BIGGER STRONGER FASTER (DVD MOVIE)
Amazon.com
Pop culture junkies tend to think of Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as entertainment figures. In Poughkeepsie, NY, back in the 1980s, filmmaker Christopher Bell and his brothers viewed them as heroes and became bodybuilders. Like the Hulkster, Mike and Mark Bell even turned to professional wrestling. Chris, a former staffer at Venice's famous Gold's Gym, doesn't use anabolic steroids--he did try them once--but his heroes have and his brothers do, leading him to look deeper at this increasingly common practice. While Bell explores the health costs of juicing, he's mostly concerned with the moral consequences involved in the use of performance-enhancing substances. Though he refrains from judgment, he stopped taking steroids because it felt dishonest. Naturally, his burly brothers feel otherwise. Aside from his family, Bell speaks with doctors, lawyers, congressmen, gym rats, and professional athletes, like Olympic sprinters Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and Tour de France cyclist Floyd Landis. He also includes footage of José Canseco, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire testifying during the federal grand jury and congressional hearings on steroid use in the major leagues (prompted by the publication of Canseco's Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big). For the most part, Bell doesn't leave any stone unturned and the personal nature of his entertaining and enlightening inquiry elevates Bigger, Stronger, Faster, i.e. The Side Effects of Being American, above your average exposé. Recommended to athletes, sports fans, health nuts, and of course, pop culture junkies. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 51
 Fascinating look at steroids' effect on the lives of the Bell family August 22, 2008
Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Chris Bell's "Bigger, Stronger Faster*" is a brilliant documentary. His triumph is to crystallize the steroids debate into its effects on a single family: His own. The stars of the film are the Bell brothers - big brother Mark (aka, Mad Dog) is a would-be WWE wrestler; younger brother Mike (aka, Smelly) is one of the world's top power lifters; and writer/director Chris - no less addicted to perfecting his physique - balances his bodybuilding obsession with a degree from USC Film School. His unique blend of interest and career path has given us a fascinating film.
Here's the thing: his work is neither ardently pro- nor anti-steroids. But, as its subtitle ("the side-effects of being American") implies, Bell notes what happens when three young brothers obsessed with wrestling (we see family tapes of them re-enacting WWE plotlines) have the various heroes of their youth (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan, and Sylvester Stallone as notable examples) subsequently revealed as pharmaceutically-fueled.
It's a testament to Bell's skill as a filmmaker that the unexpected standout is Smelly's wife, Andie. Attractive and articulate, she emerges as the soul of the film. She comes across as a decent, trusting person. Without belaboring the point, Bell makes you see her as testament to his brother's depth and inherent goodness. Her presence also evokes feelings of betrayal in the film-goer when Smelly begins to waffle on his "no more steroids" vow at the end of the film.
Despite the glut of documentaries that have flooded the film world over the past two years, this one ranks at the top of my list.
Documentary Perfection July 2, 2008
Clyda Bell (Westchester, NY USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Clever, Funny, Touching!!! An absolute MUST see. A family touched by the use of steriods, a parent's perspective through tragedy and triumph. The good, the bad, the ugly and anything you can imagine in between. This movie is so objective it begs you to have your own opinion about the topic. Don't miss it, buy a copy for your local high school or library... Tons of acurate information that will benefit the masses!
Excellent!!! October 30, 2008
Sandro Fabres Viana (Rio Grande, RS Brazil)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Finally the truth about the Ben Johnson' case. The whole world know that the american athletes only compete "in juice". Always there were stories about a tam arriving in a country to a competition and, when knew that they have a dopping test, the whole team returned to america. Also, is was commom, some years ago, that always when a no american athlet won a international competion, some "dopping test" take back the medal and it fall in american hands. We, that live in another countries always was intrigued how it can happen ,if american atlets are always " in juice"?!!
This docummentary show how, explainin that Ben Johson/Carl Lewis controversy and we have only a honest conclusion to this: in a competition wiht all athletes juiced, the real champion was Ben Johnson, not Carl Lewis. However, this film show much more than this and help to clear some myths against steroids.
A much more message dominates the whole film: Why these poor people think that they only worth if they "the first one, the better one, the bigger one"? This point apperas to in Bowling for Columbine. What is wrong with a view of a whole society that can not be happy being good husband, good worker, good friend, good father or mother? THIS IS RESULT OF A IDEOLOGICAL BRAINWASH! You have no right to happiness if you are not a "perfect gear to the system".
Only a point I think that is a little exagerating: Arnold Schwarzenegger is the "dark ship" in this film. Please, when he began, so much muscles was a obstacle, not a advantage, to actor career! He launched a new standard because he is a PERSONALITY. The secret never were his muscles or he never would act in another movies beyond adventures. We always like his face, his voice, his charisma, and if in USA there are thousands of musclemen, the most in juice, how explain that they are not so famous as Schwarzenegger? The muscles never was the answer to success, there is no shortcuts to explain this, some people have qualities that, as unique human beings, help them to be a success in some goals and are obstacles to another, and the most of them are innate qualities, not created qualities, as a brainwasher ideology would like the people believe.
The problem with steroids is the truth: if the champions always tell the truht and the people can choose if they want to risk their health to be "hugge" or "the first one", or if they will choose ohter goal or other heroes that do't use them. For example, if you know that a man 5'9" only can reach 220 lbs with natural training you can be satisfied and a sucess weighting 200-220. But if you, because steroids, believe that a man 5'9" can wieght 280lbs, you will kill yourself trying to reach this, and when you reach ONLY 220lbs you can think that you are a failure. If you know the truth you can choose the truth or the cheating, and analize your sucess in a more realistic base (220 to natural, 280 to juiced). The truth free us, always!
Thought provoking documentary that may shatter your preconceptions .. October 25, 2008
Kevin Quinley (Fairfax, VA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Our heroes have always used steroids ..." Or is that how the song goes???
I expected this to be an anti-steroid film. It was neither that nor a pro-steroid commercial. Instead, it is a thoughtful and thought-provoking documentary of the role of performance enhancers in our society. It seems to imply that steroids are wrapped up in the American culture (though elsewhere the film implies that the American sports establishment started using them to ape the Soviets, echo were kicking our butts in the Olympics.)
Focal to the story is the tale of three brothers from Poughkeepsie, NY. Adolescent chubbies, all three grew up to worship weightlifting, which took them on common paths of anabolic steroid use.
(Any film that makes Rep. Henry Waxman look like an idiot can't be all bad, not that that is such a difficult task.)
This film will grab you by the biceps and pecs, command your attention and make cause you to re-think much of what we have been conditioned to decide about anabolic steroids.
A good film!
Biceps in Balance! November 11, 2008
P. Goodman (Connecticut, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bigger, Stronger, Faster is a well done, honestly written documentary that avoids the usual hyperbole involved in the steroid debate. It's balanced and personal and deals with real lives of people who you know and with whom you work and live. It stays away exclusive focus on steriod usage in the upper eschalon of athletes and bodybuilders. And the personal struggles and the willingness to do whatever at whatever risk to achieve a goal is both insightful as well as a bit chilling. I left watching this a little less clear about my opinion than I was before -- and that's a sign of a well done presentation.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 51
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Powered by John Stone Fitness | |
