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'Bigger' steroid questions

By Christian Toto | Friday, June 6, 2008

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Documentary director Christopher Bell holds a grudge against Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and every other 1980s-era action hero.

Those muscle-bound icons, more often than not, used steroids to feed their bulging biceps. In "Bigger, Stronger, Faster," Mr. Bell lands a pile driver on all of the above before turning his sights on our steroid-addicted nation.

It's all very Michael Moore-ish in the best of ways. Quick edits. First-person narration. Using humor to hammer home his point.

Yet although Mr. Bell and his two brothers, featured prominently here, are all serious weight lifters, the director is no dumbbell.

He uses the steroid boogeyman to build a fascinating case against a culture that prizes winning above all else - and too often excuses cheaters with a wink.

The Bell brothers started hitting the weight room in their teenage years. They wanted to get bigger, first and foremost. Though Christopher Bell felt ambivalent about just what might be required to get massive, his brothers harbored no such misgivings.

That, of course, led them to steroids.

Meanwhile, "Bigger" examines some of the well-charted territory in the steroids debate, including the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home-run chase and Olympic runner Ben Johnson.

Mr. Bell isn't content with superficial arguments, though. Instead, he pores over reams of documents, such as emergency-room statistics, to find out just how dangerous steroid abuse really is.

His answers will surprise you, and the data send his documentary into increasingly fertile directions.