Movie
The Armstrong Lie
Documentary film with a runtime of 122 minutes, released in 2013. Presented in English.
At a Glance
Synopsis
Lance Armstrong was a sporting phenomenon: an American who'd not only set his sights on the world's oldest and most prestigious Grand Tour cycle race, the Tour de France, but had won it seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005. And that was after surviving testicular cancer. Of course there were dark mutterings of doping, but Armstrong consistently, forcefully and litigiously countered such allegations. So, when he announced his intention to return to the fray in 2009, after a four-year retirement, the prolific, Oscar-winning documentary-maker Alex Gibney jumped at the chance to film the maligned Texan's attempt to win the Tour an eighth time. Given unprecedented access to Armstrong and his team, Gibney's documentary The Road Back was about to be released when the truth about Armstrong's systematic drug-taking broke. Gibney shelved the project for a couple of years, and then began to transform his film, via the addition of interviews with Armstrong's detractors and footage of the cyclist's own admissions of guilt, from an upbeat observational piece into something altogether more critical. What emerged is an absorbing and fascinating study of a monumentally arrogant sportsman's determination to do whatever it took to win and his equal willingness to do or say whatever was necessary to cover up his less savoury actions. And the film perhaps also serves as a warning for documentary-makers not to side too strongly with their subject too soon.
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Cast
- Lance Armstrong
- Betsy Andreu
- Reed Albergotti
- Frankie Andreu
- Johan Bruyneel
- Daniel Coyle
- George Hincapie
- Phil Liggett
- Emile Vrijman
- Jonathan Vaughters
- Phil Liggett
- Alex Gibney
- Jonathan Vaughters
- Michele Ferrari
- Maryse Alberti
- Steve Madden
- Jennie Amias
- Lance Armstrong
- John McCullough
- Daniel Coyle
- Betsy Andreu
- David Walsh
- Frankie Andreu
- Tim Squyres
- Brett Banks
- Emile Vrijman
- Lindy Jankura
- Bill Strickland
- Mark Higgins
- Andy Grieve
- Johan Bruyneel
- George Hincapie
- Reed Albergotti
- Beth Howard
