Genres: Documentary
Releasing Date: 14 November 2013 (USA)
Director: Alex Gibney
Writers: Alex Gibney
Stars: Betsy Andreu, Lance Armstrong and Reed Albergotti
Language: English
They are close for a few moments on the big screen Bill Clinton and Lance Armstrong , but it is one of the images full of meaning of the documentary signed by Alex Gibney , The Armstrong Lie , 70.ma presented at the Venice International Film Festival in the section Out of Competition (category special screenings) had in common the fact that they are loved and respected by the American people, and especially of lying to him, swearing falsely. The president who has publicly denied having had an affair with Monica Lewinski, is so revered in his double champion, who after a career full of laurels, threw the mask admitting to having used doping . Of cheating, we would add, though on this point the Texan would not agree. The Oscar-winning comprehensively describes the enigma embodied by Lance Armstrong and makes him clinging to the truth of the facts, the testimony of many of the characters, without ever forgetting his emotional involvement in the story of an athlete who has built his life on the lie. Born in ’71 in Plano, Armstrong began his professional career brilliantly, gaining so much and appealing to all as the tough guy who is not prepared to lose, in 1996, three years after becoming world champion, discovers have a cancer in the testicles, which heals in 1998. Lance is no longer the arrogant young man who kicks his life, but even before the disease, the collapse of the physical, fails to set aside the atavistic need to win. To get back on track and then pick up where he finished, the cyclist begins to undergo doping practices. Enter into the good graces of Dr. Michele Ferrari who drives him into a delirious spiral which fruit an incredible number of successes.
Here come the seven Tour de France won consecutively from 1999 to 2005, first with the U.S. Postal then with Astana. Suspicions about teams on him and continue to multiply, but somehow manages to make it always free. In 2005, the announcement of the withdrawal, followed by the decision to get back on track in 2009 for one last Tour de France and show the world they can win cleanly. Without doping, however, Lance is not able to be incisive, except for single-step, one of the legendary Mont Ventoux. At 38, with a teammate Contador as the launching pad, the Texan lets go. Not the spring instead of the ‘USADA , the U.S. anti-doping agency, which after a long judicial process lifetime ban Armstrong, sanction followed by the decision of the UCI, the International Cycling Union, to cancel all the victories. And ‘the October 2012, three months later, in January 2013, Armstrong confesses toOprah Winfrey to have taken illegal substances. Gibney began to design the documentary commissioned in 2008 as a work that would narrate the return to the track of the rider and the his attempt to win the Grand Boucle , and then, once the bubble burst, picks up the camera to tell the other side of the coin, dismisses the tale of the sample found and works on that of the great liar . Perhaps the sense of this wonderful film is just that, dig deep in the soul of a man who did not hesitate to lie in order to win more. The documentary passionate because the point of view of Gibney is not aseptic or distant, is not ashamed to admit terms that he felt sympathy for Armstrong and have rooted for the Texan in the famous Tour stage on Mont Ventoux, which represented the ‘pinnacle of not memorable return to racing. Precisely for this reason, the disappointment that is felt clearly in the director’s voiceover is real and genuine