5/31/2008

in

A movie chronicling the use of steroids here in the States, and body image, came out Friday.

Marshall Burns

*Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, which opened here in the United States on Friday, is a documentary that takes a look at the steroid abuse that hints at an American culture concerned with winning at all costs. The use of steroids, however, is at odds with the condemnation of the drugs throughout society.  
  
The documentary has interviews with gym junkies, medical experts, U.S. lawmakers and athletes such as sprinter Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson, and cyclist Floyd Landis, according to Reuters. The film includes confessions from the director's brothers who weight lift and body build with the help of steroids.  
  
Chris Bell, director, told Reuters, "I am basically looking at all the hypocrisy surrounding steroids." His film shows how he grew up idolizing such people as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Seeing all these larger-than-life heroes, I wanted to be like them and I did not know they were using steroids. Nobody wants to talk about steroids and I knew my brothers would tell me the truth so I started with them."  
  
It shows why the drugs have such a bad name, how they have real medical purposes but it's illegal to use them without a prescription in the United States, and why we as a culture obsess so much over body image. "Everything has to be bigger and better and that is part of the American psyche," he told Reuters. "It's not steroids that are the problem, they are the side effect of being American. The idea of steroids comes out of the idea of winning."