After a montage of pumped up imagery of pro wrestling, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, Bell explains "I was always against steroids and when I found out that all my heroes used them I'd like to say that it didn't bother me but it did. I can't imagine how my mom would feel if she found out that both my brothers were on steroids right now." That's right, Bell's two brothers use steroids and Bell focuses on them as he explores steroid use in the U.S. Bell's approach takes it's cue from the humorous personal narrative style of Michael Moore's Roger and Me . So Bell's film has a rather jocular tone about what can be a serious subject. His tone makes the film entertaining but doesn't prevent him from dealing with the issue in a compelling and often informative manner.
The Bell Brothers (HD Net)
Since Bell hangs out with people like his brothers that have no problems with using steroids, the pro-steroid camp definitely gets to have a say in the movie. So some people will probably see the film as biased in favor of steroids. Contributing to the perception of the film as pro-steroid is the fact that the people Bell does let talk about the negative side of steroid use often come off looking like idiots. Take Congressman Henry Waxman who headed up the congressional hearing about steroids in baseball. During the course of the interview, Waxman can't seem to answer a single question without consulting with Brian, his off screen aide. Waxman can't even remember if steroids are legal or illegal. (Brian says they are legal with a prescription.)
But in the end I think Bell is not so much pro-steroids but rather eager to open up a debate about the drug. He doesn't pretend to have answers but he's full of questions. He questions why -- with all the other legal and possibly more dangerous substances -- have steroids become so demonized? Why are certain kinds of performance enhancements okay and other like steroids not? Bell's also troubled by hypocrisy. Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted to using steroids yet he is asked to head the president's fitness program. What kind of example does that set for kids? Then Bell discovers that certain U.S. Olympic athletes have allegedly been allowed to compete despite positive drug tests. Their drug usage was deemed "inadvertent" and therefore not an issue. But was it inadvertent or was that just a way to spin the test results so that these top U.S. athletes could still compete?
Bell also raises the question about whether athletes deny usage because they know that steroids are wrong and they are attempting to cover up their usage and the guilt they feel, or are they denying usage because they believe society has become too biased for anyone to judge their choice fairly? Bell leaves these questions open. But he's not afraid to ask some hard questions of his own brothers. He confronts his brothers by asking them why they can't be happy with who they is and the bodies they have? His younger brother's response is that "there is a clash in America between doing the right thing and being the best."
That's where the asterisk comes in - are these all the side effects of being American? That's what Bell's interested in almost to a greater degree than the question of steroid use. He wants to know why our culture places such high value on physical appearance and on winning at all costs. The title was inspired in part by what Senator Joseph Biden said about steroid use in baseball being "un-American." Is it really un-American, Bell asks, or is it a direct result of American cultural pressure to succeed? Is doing whatever it takes to be number one the most American thing there is?
The attitude that athletes like Barry Bonds takes may also reflect what it means to be American - deny everything and rather than answering the question, lash out at your critics. So at a press conference, Bonds doesn't answer questions about steroid use but rather points his finger at all the journalists and tells them, "you have all lied." Shirking responsibility and just telling the truth seem to be a problem not only in sports but in many aspects of American culture.
Bell's same day before and after experiment. (HD Net)
Bell also looks at how politics have come into play in the diet supplement business and how a lack of regulation and oversight there is dangerous yet ignored because it has become a booming industry. Bell even tries his hand at manufacturing his own dietary supplement complete with posing for a before and after picture (shot on the same day) to promote his new product. Bell tries to examine a variety of facts to uncover exactly what evidence is really out there. The results are mixed. On the one hand, Bell makes a convincing case that the young teen Taylor Hooten who supposed committed suicide because he quit steroids cold turkey may have been more likely to take his own life because he was depressed and on psychiatric medication. Yet Bell looses points for bringing in Harrison Pope to talk about the Adonis complex and how action figures have gotten cartoonishly pumped up, yet fails to ask him about his research regarding whether or not steroids cause aggressive behavior.
Bigger Stronger Faster* (rated PG-13 for thematic material involving drugs, language, some sexual content and violent images) serves up an entertaining exploration of American culture. It also reminds us that sometimes we have to look behind the media hype to discover what the real issues may be.
Here's what Bell had to say when I interviewed him earlier this week.
BETH ACCOMANDO: Were you always interested in making documentaries?
CHRIS BELL: I went to USC Film School, which is also known as the George Lucas school of cinematic arts. So I went there with the intention of making narrative feature films on kind of a big scale. And then realized that my mission as a filmmaker was much different than that. The first film I made out of USC was called Billy Jones and it was a short film about a kid who smokes himself to death to win a prize from a tobacco company. And it was basically a reflection of how they market cigarettes toward kids. And Bigger Stronger Faster is really an exploration of America's win at all costs culture told through the steroids issue. So I feel like I went with these intentions of making bigger, larger than life films and I came out of school more a thinking filmmaker and wanted to make films with a social relevance and that could affect people's lives or at least the way that they think. I think I just grew as a person and a filmmaker. When I was in High school I think I missed out on a lot of things because I was doing sports of lifting weights. When I was at USC I was forced to learn about a lot of things that I wasn't really interested in but I became interested in because they are important. So it was going away to a major university was a good experience for me.
BETH ACCOMANDO: Was Michael Moore's
Roger and Me
an influence or inspiration for you?
CHRIS BELL: Michael Moore's
Roger and Me
definitely influenced me. Some of our producers -- Jim Czarnecki and Kurt Engfehr -- were producers on
Fahrenheit 911
and Kurt was also the editor on Bowling for
Columbine
and
Fahrenheit 911
. And I think that was very instrumental in defining how we were going to tell this story. I wanted it to be a first person narrative but it was also much more complicated because if you see in Michael Moore's films he's not sticking his family in as well. So it was really personal and there were family issues and I was at the center of it. It was really a complicated thing to figure out but luckily we had those guys on board who had done this before and helped us define what the story was.
BETH ACCOMANDO: Was this a difficult film to make because you're not just a filmmaker, you're also related to the people you are interviewing?
CHRIS BELL: I learned some things about my older brother that I didn't know these kind of secretive behaviors with other drugs besides steroids and I didn't know about that and it was really hard to take. My older brother was my hero when we were growing up. And I don't think we ever want to hear that any of our siblings are doing drugs or something that could possibly harm them and then my younger brother I was surprised to find the extent of what he was doing just to win local power lifting competitions, and what lengths people go to to win in this country and that's what I wanted to explore. I definitely unlocked a lot of secrets in my family. But we also find out that someone like medal-winning U.S. Olympic athlete Carl Lewis also failed a drug test and should not have even raced against Ben Johnson, the hypocrisy behind all these things that we uncover in Bigger Stronger Faster was really fascinating to me.
BETH ACCOMANDO: Were there ever times when you were conflicted about how to use material you got from family members?
CHRIS BELL: I was basically in over my head, I was trying to figure out how to tell this story and I said to my dad what is Mike doing and he starts telling me what drugs he's doing and I said oh my god I didn't know about that. So in talking to my family and uncovering these things of course you have an ethical line to draw. We cut the movie and there were a couple of things that I said I wanted to have out and we took them out. And I said to my brothers and my parents, if there's something that you don't want to be in the movie you let me know. But for my brother it's been very therapeutic because he's really straightened out his life.
Mr. Bell goes to Washington (HD Net)
BETH ACCOMANDO: Were you surprised by people like Congressman Waxman who seemed so ill-prepared for the interview?
CHRIS BELL: It's weird because I'm not a journalist and I wasn't a documentary filmmaker when I started this journey so I was super nervous because I had never interviewed a congressman before and when I asked him why are steroids illegal and he turns to his assistant and says, "Are they illegal?" And I thought oh my god this is the guy who called the baseball hearings and he doesn't even know what he's talking about. That's really interesting to me because we really uncovered how we don't always have the facts when we are making the laws in this country. So I question in the movie why steroids became illegal in the first place. So I wanted to explore both the myths of steroids and the bad side effects of steroids and the possible positive medical applications as well.
BETH ACCOMANDO: Do you feel that your film is one-sided or advocates steroid use?
CHRIS BELL: I think we are just looking at starting a debate here. I mean I would never advocate the use of anabolic steroids but I would also not advocate hypocrisy. Or advocate being a hypocrite about the subject. So when you have guys who are talking out of both sides of their mouths saying steroids are bad but they are not cracking down on testing, or you ask that steroids are killing people and you ask for proof and they can't produce it, I just want to see the proof. I looked for the evidence and felt like let's start an intelligent debate on this rather than hiding it away and calling it taboo as we have done in the past.
BETH ACCOMANDO: I was interested in the way the athletes tended to strike out at the people asking questions, Bonds called reporters "liars."
CHRIS BELL: The side effects of steroids are that they turn you into a liar. This behavior has been demonized so much that you put these athletes' backs against the wall then of course they are going to say no and lie about it because that's the way the culture is portraying it as over. We're looking at fallen heroes. I mean everyone is responsible for their own actions so when we talk about different things about steroids you have to be responsible for your own actions and what you put in your body as long as you're not hurting anyone else. So I wanted to see how steroids fit into the context of American culture and I think we do see a degree of people lying about the subject and that made it hard to make this film because nobody wanted to tell me the truth. And that's why I put my two brothers in the center of it all because they were willing to tell the truth.
BETH ACCOMANDO: So how has your family reacted to the film?
CHRIS BELL: My family loved it. I think it brought us closer together. I know there were things that were hard for them to watch. But in the long run they ended up appreciating the fact that I was honest and told the truth and did a fair job of showing every side of this.
Companion viewing Roger and Me, Stay Hungry, Nip/Tuck
