The
Program’s opening scene is stark, showing a lone cyclist in the distance
huffing and puffing up a steep road in the snow-covered Alps. Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner
of the Tour de France only to be stripped of his titles years later for doping,
has a desire, a hunger, to be a
winner. Soon after, we see him
playing a game with a British reporter named David Walsh (O’Dowd), with the
stakes that if Walsh loses to Armstrong (Foster), he has to shave off his
beard. Upon winning, Armstrong
insists that Walsh follow through, which says a lot about the characters of
both men. Walsh does shave it off,
but becomes relentless in pursuing a case against Armstrong for doping.
The
Program, directed by Stephen Frears (High
Fidelity, The Queen, Philomena), is based on David Walsh’s novel with a
screenplay by John Hodge. It
chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the champion after overcoming
testicular cancer with brain metastases and setting up a charity, Live Strong,
to help others with the disease.
His decline resounded more loudly partly because of Armstrong’s
cockiness and partly because he defended himself so vociferously for so long,
even sacrificing some personal and professional relationships in the process. After he brought a suit against Walsh
and his newspaper, which resulted in Walsh being fired, two of his fellow
cyclists who had been
friends/colleagues but whom he had dumped along the way, testified against him,
issuing in the beginning of the end.
After an investigation ended in 2012, a U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency decided that Armstrong had indeed used
“performance-enhancing drugs” throughout his cycling competitions and banned
him from competing in any sport that followed its code. They stripped him of his titles as
well.
And Lance Armstrong did after many years
ultimately acknowledge the doping, saying, his was “a mythic, perfect story,
but it wasn’t true.”
Although many of us followed the news about
Lance Armstrong and the pervasiveness of doping in cycling (in a context where
most of the cycling leaders kept overlooking it), Frears’ movie gives a concise
and interesting account of all the events, highlighting the kind of man
Armstrong is and all the factors that led up to the outcome. Ben Foster has an uncanny physical
resemblance to Armstrong, and his acting skills in portraying the man are
impressive.
The
Program is a good dramatization of the life so far of Lance
Armstrong, the legendary cyclist.
Grade: B By
Donna R. Copeland
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