The Age of Commercialism

People are voting emotionally.

As Good As It Gets

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Before watching The Program, I said to myself: "It's always the same. I think I'm not going to like a sports movie because I'm not interested in the sport in question, but I generally end up liking them because the sport is just an excuse to tell stories about internal strength and triumph over adversity". And, to a certain point, my prediction was true; however, I unfortunately didn't end up liking The Program very much. Don't misunderstand me. The Program is well acted and solidly directed by Stephen Frears, who keeps a sober point of view which doesn't judge Lance Armstrong for his bad ethic decisions, even though they aren't justified either; Frears just shows the facts with the talented vision which distinguishes his filmography (by the way, my favorite films of it so far are Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity and Dirty Pretty Things). Regarding the cast, Ben Foster brings a solid performance, playing Armstrong in a pragmatic and realistic way, while the rest of the cast also makes a good work, highlighting Chris O'Dowd and Guillaume Canet. So, why wasn't I left very satisfied by The Program? Because I didn't find the story particularly interesting. It might be so for the fans of cycling, but the facts are so simple and linear that they could have been told in 10 minutes of documentary footage. In other words, the story lacked the necessary "punch" in order to capture my emotions; or maybe, I was right from the beginning, and the problem was my ignorance regarding everything related to cycling. Anyway, I think I can give it a slight recommendation mostly to fans or haters of Armstrong's and to those who like cycling. For the rest of the audience, better read the article on Wikipedia; the effect will be the same as the one I had while watching this movie, with the difference that you will have to invest much less time.

I saw this at home on DVD from my public library.I have lived in Texas for the past 30 years, which almost makes me a "native." I also have been a follower of the Tour de France bicycle races over the years so I am very familiar with Lance Armstrong and his exploits in bicycle racing.Lance was an up-and-coming racer when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer which had spread and he had tumors in his head. A combination of good fortune to get to the right doctors combined with Armstrong's fighting spirit, he overcame the cancer. Then he began racing again and was much better than he had ever been. The story was that the cure made him leaner and stronger. In spite of doping allegations he denied them all, mentioned over and over that he had never failed a drug test, and went on to win the Tour de France 7 times.Of course as people continued to come forward, including some of his teammates, Armstrong eventually had to face the music, famously on the Oprah Winfrey show he admitted that all his protests were a lie, he had in fact been running the most sophisticated doping "Program" in cycling. His brand was tarnished, he had to relinquish all his victories. This movie tells that story and they chose a good actor in Ben Foster to play Lance Armstrong. Chris O'Dowd is the Irish journalist David Walsh who had been so dogged in pursuing the Armstrong story. And Jesse Plemons works well as Floyd Landis, himself a disgraced Tour winner after Armstrong's retirement and whop was an integral part of the "Program."Having known the basic story already I found watching this movie worthwhile.

-The Program (working title Icon) is a 2015 British-French biographical drama film about Lance Armstrong directed by Stephen Frears, starring Ben Foster as Armstrong and Chris O'Dowd as journalist David Walsh.-The film is based on Walsh's book Seven Deadly Sins. It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2015 and was theatrically released in France on 16 September and the United Kingdom on 14 October.--Development: -Screenwriter John Hodge has said that he primarily based his screenplay on Seven Deadly Sins, in addition to other journalism and affidavits from cyclists. Hodge says he ruled out using Armstrong's own accounts of his behavior during this period, and that scenes shown from Armstrong's perspective are fiction.--Casting: -Lee Pace joined the cast in November 2013. Dustin Hoffman joined the cast in December 2013.-To better understand his role, Foster took performance enhancing drugs while shooting the film.

Greetings again from the darkness. The fallen king. The disgraced idol. We expect there to be more to the story of Lance Armstrong, but the bottom line is really pretty simple. Lance Armstrong is a liar. Lance Armstrong is a fraud. The movie offers little in the way of excuses or explanations, and you'll likely think even less of Armstrong after the movie … if that's even possible.Ben Foster turns in a nice performance and is believable as Lance the cyclist, Lance the teammate, and Lance the doper. But even Foster can't quite capture the public façade or reach the level of deception that the real life Lance maintained for years. Chris O'Dowd is spot on as David Walsh, the sportswriter who wrote the book on which the film is based, "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong". In fact, the movie would likely have been more interesting had it focused on Walsh's research and pursuit, rather than re-hashing the all too familiar Armstrong deceit.Director Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity, The Grifters) works with the screenplay from John Hodge (Trainspotting) and we see how Lance battled through testicular cancer and later sought out Dr. Ferrari (Guillaume Canet) – the Godfather of blood doping. We get many shots of the familiar yellow jersey during numerous Tour de France races, and we hear Lance pontificate on what sets him apart: desire, hunger, heart and soul, and guts. Later we hear his proclamation of innocence followed by "I'm the most tested athlete on the face of the planet".Jesse Plemons ("Breaking Bad", "Fargo") has slimmed down and plays the crucial role of Floyd Landis – a devout Mennonite, Lance teammate, and the final straw in the crumbling of an empire. It's Landis who broke "the silence around cycling", and forced an industry and the public to accept what most of us hoped against all hope wasn't true.Armstrong's infamous "Oprah" appearance and public admission brought poignancy to his own words: "We are the authors of our life stories." Perhaps this lesson is as valuable as all the money Livestrong raised for cancer research. Picturesque Hamilton Pool in Austin makes an appearance, as do songs from The Ramones, The Fall ("Mr. Pharmacist") and Leonard Cohen. While the film is not at the level of Alex Gibney's documentary "The Armstrong Lie", it is a reminder that real life can be more dramatic and devastating than the movie version.