The Armstrong Lie

Lance Armstrong has two stories, and Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney tells both in his new film “The Armstrong Lie,” with different degrees of success. The first is about the fall from grace of an all-American hero who won a record seven straight Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005, and then came back to the sport in 2009. The second is more interesting that every single professional cyclist was doping like they were at a rave. As Deep Throat might’ve said in “All the President’s Men,” everyone was involved.

That doesn’t excuse the pure mendacity, belligerence and unpleasantness of Lance Armstrong, who comes across like someone you wouldn’t want to sit next to on a long flight or have a beer with. When Gibney started shooting (he’d actually finished it but hadn’t shown it), he intended for his film to be about Armstrong’s comeback. Then the scandal broke. After some time had passed, Gibney changed what he wanted to say and went back into the footage. What he wound up with was a portrait of an overambitious man whose supreme (almost clinical) self-assurance sliced through him like a scalpel.

His past movies “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” or “Taxi to the Dark Side” tended to have much more deliberate, assured structures than this movie does, but that’s an understandable given around which any filmmaker would have had to build his structure: A case as complex as this one, involving so many people, changing dynamics during production Steamroller like subtlety aside (did you know that bike racing is hard?), such is life.

So certain moments stand out but they don’t come together. Catharsis isn’t ever really allowed because there are still enough blanks left for a viewer to fill in for himself or judge Armstrong on their own terms; this aspect of Gibney’s film is way more interesting than the “arrogant pellock dopes and lies” story.

What it does do, however, is show that Armstrong was part of a much bigger hypocrisy. The use of EPO erythropoietin, a hormone that boosts red blood cell counts and thus endurance was not just widespread; it was almost universal. Undetectable for years, the drug was pumped into the veins of Armstrong, many of his teammates and most of his opponents. The occasional blood transfusion (also illegal) didn’t hurt either. To nobody’s surprise, it seems like it would be hard to find anyone who actually raced clean during that 1990-2005 period.

The problem with Armstrong wasn’t what he did; it was whom he went after. There were enough people with evidence but no one who dared stand up to La Armstrong.

Similarly, “The Armstrong Lie” shows how close Lance Armstrong and the International Cycling Union are to each other as the highest governing body of cycling. This is something that is not mentioned by Gibney in detail or even at all but he doesn’t dismiss it either; in fact, he leaves hanging the possibility that the very boss of UCI may have been involved in this scandal.

As per the film, if anyone ever questioned him they would be met with almost biblical wrath anyone who suggested anything fishy was going on got personally attacked by Armstrong himself. He was a scary man. A sad story for many reasons but it’s not a Greek tragedy. The moral of the story is simple: don’t be an asshole.

The Armstrong tale is interesting stuff how could someone lie so big for so long right out in front of everyone’s eyes? It’s like Jimmy Savile over there someone must’ve known! And they did know some brave souls tried talking about it but if anything came out of what happened with him then we learned that telling truth ain’t shit unless there’s somebody listening.

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