What makes Christopher Bell’s Bigger, Stronger, Faster* so compelling is its bait-and-switch premise. It sets you up to believe one thing in the beginning and then spins you around to reveal a completely different conclusion by the film’s end. Bell’s summation is profound yet devilishly simple, obvious yet incessantly overlooked. He takes a subject matter that shouldn’t have the stamina to endure as a feature film — steroid use in America — and crafts from it a thoughtful, insightful and consistently entertaining documentary.
Bell, a gym rat who cuts a figure not unlike the Incredible Hulk, begins his film where it most hits home — his own family. He describes his and his older brothers’ childhoods, pumping iron to compensate for rotund adolescences and an obsessive need to be just like their heroes: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hulk Hogan — all men who got to where they are fair and square, right? All three siblings quickly realized that success like that of their heroes required more than nature made available. Whereas Bell chose the “high road,” his two, older brothers turned to anabolic steroids as a way to amass muscle. Now in their mid-30s, both continue to use steroids to further their elusive power-lifting and pro-wrestling dreams.
Taking a page out of Michael Moore’s playbook, Bell assembles a cavalcade of experts who speak to the ridiculous sensationalism of steroids’ side effects by the media. He skirts preconceptions and stereotypes to get to the truth of the often-negligible fallout of the drug use. Bell even visits congressman Henry Waxman — one of the lead opponents of steroid use in Washington, D.C. — for an interview that makes the California Democrat come off as an ignorant buffoon. Then, just as you assume that the hypothesis of Bell’s film is that the dangers of steroids are little more than over-inflated hype, he switches gears to the larger, broader issue: American’s obsession with winning and its fixation on the “perfect” body image.
If one thing is certain in America, it’s that we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest and fastest country in the world. With that standard to live up to, is it really any wonder that so many of our athletes take performance-enhancing drugs? Rather than crucifying the subculture of admittedly pathetic musclemen who keep searching for the golden ticket long after their time has passed by altering their bodies, Bell assails the mentality that drove them to the gym in the first place: America’s win-at-all-cost philosophy and the lie that insists one’s physical appearance is directly related to one’s personal happiness, an advertising mantra that permeates every aspect of modern American life.
For Bell, steroids are abhorrent, not because they represent a physical danger (a line of reasoning he doesn’t buy), but because, for him, it’s all about basic fairness. Steroids are a moral issue played out in the character of an individual. They propel one to the front of the line unfairly, sidestepping those who choose to play by the rules. Cheaters, Bell believes, shouldn’t prosper. Raised in a deeply religious family, Bell reads the current steroid debate not as good and bad, but right and wrong.
Forget your brainless muscleman clichés. Bell is incredibly socially astute, constantly entertaining, and, because he is so willing to be vulnerable to the point of implicating himself and his family, always authentic and genuine. He may come across sanctimonious at times, but his default is always forgiveness and understanding rather than judgment and condemnation.
Steroids are the side effect of being American, Bell contends. In arguing that drugs are the symptom, not the cause, Bell raises the steroid debate to a whole new level.
© Copyright 2008 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.