Back in 2009, Oscar winning documentary director Alex Gibney set out to make a documentary about Lance Armstrong’s cycling comeback. This all changed when the doping scandal hit and the project was shelved, that is, until Armstrong confessed in an interview with Oprah on January 17, 2013. Three hours after that interview Gibney picked the project back up and that’s where his documentary, The Armstrong Lie, begins, telling the story of Lance Armstrong and one of sports’ most thrilling and fascinating scandals to ever rock the world.
I remember being in school when the Livestrong craze was going on, I didn’t understand the point of wearing yellow bracelets but I wore one, for about a week, because everyone else seemed to be doing it. After that bracelet came off my life continued back to the way it was. Earlier this year when Armstrong came clean, I didn’t pay attention, I would see a headline here and there and got the gist of what was going on and that the man had lied for so many years. It was because of my initial lack of interest in the Armstrong case that I became engulfed by Gibney’s latest documentary. It’s a riveting and exciting documentary that puts us in Gibney’s shoes as he tries to navigate the murky waters of Armstrong’s words. He has unparalleled access to Armstrong and allows the man to set the record straight once he comes clean but until then it’s impossible to tell throughout the film when he’s lying and when he’s not, something Gibney makes sure we realize and leaving us with a sense of the unknown.
If, like myself, you never followed competitive cycling this movie will teach you everything you need to know while learning about the record setting cyclist’s career and the cheat that he was. You might think, cycling… doesn’t that sounds boring? Well my friend, that is where you are wrong, because this documentary is quite the opposite of that, it’s a fascinating look at the extent one person will go to maintain his image, lie and championship status. Lance Armstrong is a guy that cringes at the word “defeat,” he is highly motivated and would do anything necessary to win, like ruin the lives of even his closest friends. This is a massive lie that spans over 15 years, millions and millions of dollars, and effects just as many people who looked at Lance as a hero and a miracle story, who followed the tour because of him, not because they liked cycling.
Furthermore, it’s interesting to watch Armstrong convince people with his dead panned face and strategic dialogue but then hear from those who may have threatened him, either directly or indirectly, and ended up being bullied by him instead. We learn that he is a man of opposite extremes, he has two faces and you can go along with him and ride his joyous celebrity-like wave or you can burn in the pits of his tainted crap.
The thing with Lance Armstrong was that he was a gifted storyteller and thanks to his meteoric comeback from cancer people bought into it. Not only that, he had the Livestrong Foundation campaign going on and was able to use that as a smoke shield to deflect people from seeing that side that might have suggested he was doping. Though he passed every test, he was attacked with allegations and questions as each Tour de France win piled up. The guy nearly got away with it all once he retired in 2005 but when he returned in 2009 that’s when everything changed. Gibney’s purpose for the doc shifted from this miracle come back story to “why did he come back?” The answer becomes clear near the end of the film but you’ll have to see it to find out, though you can probably guess why based on my above summation of his character.
Unlike many scandals from the past 10 years, The Armstrong Lie stands out because it stars and features a ton of commentary from the accused as well as those who were close to him, those that were feverishly against him and those that supported him up until the end. Gibney’s two hour film is a fascinating exploration of one of the biggest lies to rock the world of sports and how it all eventually cam crumbling down until all that was left to do was confess. If you’re a fan of sports, scandals, crazy stories and great documentaries, then the decision to watch Alex Gibney’s The Armstrong Lie should be an easy one, just do it.
Rating: An exciting front row look at one of the biggest sports scandals that took the world by storm (7.5/10)
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