Director: Stephen Frears
Writer: John Hodge (Screenplay) David Walsh (Book)
Starring: Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd, Guillaume Canet, Jesse Plemons, Lee Pace, Denis Menochet, Edward Hogg, Dustin Hoffman
Plot: An Irish sports journalist becomes convinced that Lance Armstrong’s performances during the Tour de France victories are fueled by banned substances. With this conviction, he starts hunting for evidence that will expose Armstrong.
Tagline – Lance Armstrong couldn’t be beaten. Except by the truth.
Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Great Cheater Exposed
Story: The Program starts in the mid-90s when Lance Armstrong (Foster) first starting make waves in the Tour De France, he has built a reputation that even journalist David Walsh (O’Dowd) believes he could go onto make history on the day events, but not the full tour and just when his time was coming he gets diagnosed with cancer, a new battle arrives in his life.
Lance defeats cancer and decides to build a new team, playing on the idea of determination to win the Tour De France, only his involves taking advantage of steroids to improve him performance. On his return Lance leads his team to victory in the Tour De France, but David Walsh isn’t convinced and looks to expose the truth about Lance Armstrong cheating scandal.
Thoughts on The Program
Characters – Lance Armstrong starts as the ambitious young cyclist who enters his first Tour De France, learning he might not be the strongest competitor, but wanting to improve himself, he does look to other methods which are not within the rules, only he get struck down with cancer before he can get his reputation up. He overcomes the cancer and sets out to make his history by building a team to compete in the Tour De France, not just to take part but to win, using additional drugs to make the team the best, he becomes an icon in the sport that inspires everyone, only he needs to keep the secret, something he will find impossible to achieve. David Walsh is a sports journalist who has been watching, interviewing athletes for years, he supports Lance in his early career, but after his recovery, he doesn’t believe his career is as fair as it seems and looks to expose the truth, no matter how difficult it will become to prove. We do meet the coaches, teammates and other people that enabled to the cheating to take place, along with the people that could help expose more of the truth.
Performances – Ben Foster is fantastic in the leading role, he is filled confidence and belief that what he is doing is correct, that Foster brings to life with ease. Chris O’Dowd is great too, showing the man that would risk his career for the truth, with the supporting cast doing a great job too.
Story – The story here follows the career of Lance Armstrong, how he overcame cancer to become a record breaking winner of the Tour De France, only for the truth about how he managed it to come out, exposing him a cheat. This story is shown in a way that it could have shown his success, while also showing the darker side of the sport and how he managed to control people for so long. We see how Lance managed to stay ahead of the people trying to expose him for so long before everything came crashing down around him and how he went from inspiration survivor to disgraced cheat.
Biopic/Sport – The biopic side of the film does show the life of Lance from his first race until the moment he finally admitted the truth, each chapter shows how desperate he was to keep the secret in the world of sport.
Settings – The film does use the settings to show us how the acts could have been committed and how the race was front an centre of his life, along with one location which showed how Lance was struggling with his life.
Scene of the Movie – Bridge champion meeting.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We could have seen more of the consequences of his actions.
Final Thoughts – This is great look at one of the biggest sporting scandals of all time, showing how Lance Armstrong got away with it for so long and went from hero to zero with the truth.
Overall: Incredible Cheating Scandal
