The core bodybuilding community is failing to support the critically acclaimedsteroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*” at the box office. Bodybuilders have the most to gain by the commercial success of a movie that presents the audience with factual information challenging uninformed beliefs about the alleged dangers of anabolic steroids; such a brilliant documentary has the potential to change attitudes regarding steroids in mainstream America. But if the bodybuilding community fails to support a movie that was, as producer Alex Buono says, “made for them” then it may represent the loss of an incredible opportunity to influence public opinion regarding anabolic steroids.
I still meet people who obviously have a serious problem with testosterone deficiency who have all the old AIDS symptoms and the doctor will not give them testosterone because their doctor is so afraid of the legal implications. Thousands of people have died because their doctor wouldn’t prescribe testosterone or anabolic steroids for their HIV.
IFBB pro bodybuilder and two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler talks about anabolic steroid use in the sport of bodybuilding and the necessity of steroids to be the best in bodybuilding in a deleted scene from the highly acclaimed steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster.”
… [E]veryone is looking for that edge. You know there are steroids involved in the sport - in bodybuilding - obviously. And that’s the problem with the sport and why it has to get accepted by a lot of society. They look at bodybuilding and they say, ‘oh steroids.’ But they don’t actually understand what goes into the sport. You do what you do to be the best at what you do. You do what you do to win. If you want to call that cheating, fine. But I have the edge. And that’s why I’m the best.
Certainly, there will be debate as to whether this is a tacit admission of steroid use. And certainly, people are going to ask why Muscletech did not fire Jay Cutler for talking about steroids when fitness model and former Muscletech spokesperson Christian Boeving was fired for talking about steroid use.
“But I didn’t think I would get into that much trouble, because I thought it was pretty apparent that the top people in the industry use steroids to look like we do.”
A company whose products he endorsed, Iovate Health Sciences, apparently did not think so, and promptly severed Mr. Boeving’s contract. Iovate Health Sciences did not return calls for comment last week.
Mr. Boeving had represented over-the-counter dietary supplements in Iovate’s MuscleTech division, including Hydroxycut, which is meant to burn fat, and Nitro-Tech, which is meant to build muscle. But the type of performance-enhancing steroids Mr. Boeving referred to in the movie are legal only with a doctor’s prescription; he said in an interview that he had a prescription for testosterone.
While he may not been breaking the law, Mr. Boeving was apparently breaking a taboo in the bodybuilding world, one that Mr. Bell’s documentary was aiming to expose. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been looking at muscle magazines,” Mr. Bell said in an interview. “I would see these guys that are huge, and they’d say, take this pill and you’ll look like this. We know that’s not the case.”
Authorities seized from his Plano home 146 vials of steroids, a plastic jar containing suspected steroids and three jars of clear liquid believed to contain steroids, according to court records obtained Friday by The Dallas Morning News.
This evidence (especially if accompanied by a toxicology report confirming recent steroid use by Jacobs) will set the stage for the media to sensationalize anabolic steroids as the drugs that “caused” the homicide and subsequent suicide much like they did in the Chris Benoit murder-suicide. Jacobs supposedly was mandated to submit to 5-6 drug tests every month; certainly federal agents would test for steroids.
Ghastly acts such as the Benoit case are rare and, as science would predict, their association with AAS use is virtually non-existent. Many other characteristics are far more predictive of such events. It cannot be said with certainty whether AAS contributed to this tragedy or not. If they were involved, AAS were not a sole contributor but part of a larger set of characteristics and circumstances. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that AAS alone caused this behavior and they are obviously not necessary for such events to occur. The evidence does suggest that most AAS users do not become aggressive. Nonetheless, science will, at best, play a small part in society’s verdict on Benoit and AAS in this tale and it will be another instance where a drug is linked to a heinous act by association and, therefore, the untested popular notions that dominate the headlines today will be reinforced.
During my meeting with Don Hooton and Steve Smith of the Taylor Hooton Foundation yesterday, Mr. Hooton told me the breaking Jacobs/Savell case in his hometown of Plano kept him busy fielding calls seeking his reaction to the tragedy; it was particularly troubling for Hooton that one of the largest steroid dealers in the country lived only minutes from his house. (For the record, Mr. Hooton graciously ignored these calls during our 90-minute meeting which focused on finding common ground in efforts to minimize and prevent steroid use in adolescents.)
As far as the connection between steroids and the David Jacobs murder-suicide, I hope the media is sufficiently resourceful to also seek reaction from researchers like Dr. Jack Darkes at the University of South Florida who have a specialized academic interest in anabolic steroids and aggression to provide additional voices to the discussion.
I was fortunate to be in Venice, California this week when my friend Rehan Jalali invited me to attend the premiere party for “Bigger Stronger Faster*” in Hollywood on Tuesday, May 27, 2008. I had the chance to see director Chris Bell, producers and co-writers Tasmin Rawady and Alex Buono again since I last met with them in Dallas. I also had a chance to meet Chris’ parents and brothers Mark “Smelly” Bell and Mike “Mad Dog” Bell. I interviewed several of the “stars” of the film as well including Christian Boeving, Rick Schaff, and Rehan Jalali and other fitness celebrities and insiders in attendance like Mike Ryan. These raw, unedited video streams were originally broadcast live from the Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California.
I talked to a fitness model named Christian Boeving, who was probably the top fitness model in the past 10 years for the company MuscleTech. Christian was basically…his contract ended and they would not redo his contract, and he was their top guy, because he was in this movie. They saw a little clip on CNN and were like, “You know what Christian, that’s it!” They’re not allowed to tell the truth. It’s like they know they’re taking all of these supplements and steroids, but they’re not allowed to say that. There is a big hypocrisy going on when a company like MuscleTech says they do not support the use of anabolic steroids and then they also sponsor the Mr. Olympia contest, which is not drug tested and we also know that Mr. Olympia is definitely on steroids. It’s a big hypocrisy going on that we can’t tell the truth in this country. You see an ad with a guy who is juiced out of his mind, but he’s selling supplements. Who are you kidding?
I was disappointed to see Gregg Valentino at the beginning of the trailer conveying the message to a mainstream public that his arms are the result of anabolic steroids when that is clearly not the case. I actually enjoyed Valentino’s appearance in the film; Valentino was very open about steroid use and his scenes were very entertaining and provided a good deal of comic relief. So while I enjoyed Valentino in the movie, not so much in the trailer!
America’s performance-enhancing appetite has never been bigger. And it’s not just in professional sports or Hollywood. From high school locker rooms to anti-aging clinics, our nation is embracing steroids and human growth hormones like never before, spurring a furious debate about the ethics of enhancement. Join Christopher Bell, who documented his brothers’ struggle to be “the best,” BALCO founder Victor Conte, Jon Romano and Mark Haskins in a provocative discussion about the pitfalls and promise of the asterisk era, and where we go from here. Moderated by Steroid Nation author Shaun Assael.
New Yorkers have really embraced the film; this was confirmed firsthand by Anthony Roberts who had the opportunity to see Bigger Faster Stronger for the second time witnessing a large crowd of bodybuilders at the screening. Several sports writers, bloggers, and movie critics have screened the film at Tribeca and have written mostly positive reviews.
If anyone had the opportunity to attend the panel discussion, please post your reactions to the event in the comments below.
Cinematical interviewed Christopher Bell, director of “Bigger Stronger Faster*” at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. Cinematical picks up on anti-intellectual theme that pervades discussion of anabolic steroids, particularly in Congress. Chris Bell discusses how politicians (in this case, Republican Senator John Sweeney) make decisions on steroid policy.
In the movie, [New York congressman] John E. Sweeney says one of the most retarded things I’ve heard. He says that Donald Hooten, whose son Taylor committed suicide and they blamed steroids, was more important than statistics or any of that stuff. As a congressman, how can you be more concerned with emotions than statistics? If you were going to go to war based on emotions, that would be insane. We’re kinda in that situation right now.
It seems that emotion-based or faith-based policy has triumphed over policy based on science and logic again and again in the past several years. As has been said before, this documentary is about much more than the steroids. The anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism seen in the steroid debate is only a microcosm of tendencies that pervade our society. Scholars have written books on the dumbing down of our culture.
, and included Chris Bell, John Romano of 
