(2008) Are most of the dire warnings about the negative health effects of using steroids mostly an urban myth? Is it cheating if everybody else is doing it? Comparing his own family from Poughkeepsie, NY, with his boyhood heroes - Hulk Hogan, Rocky and Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger - Chris Bell, 33 years old, who directed and co-wrote this documentary of a nation on steroids, presents a picture of Americans as wanting to believe in hard work and playing fair as the path to success (nevertheless willing to enhance performance by whatever means necessary).

Too fat, too short, too slow, Chris and his brothers, "Mad Dog" Mike and "Smelly" Mark, took to building muscles and wrestling. As a high-school senior, Chris had become one of the strongest kids in America, but 15 years later he was selling gym memberships at Gold's Gym. "Where did I go wrong?" he wonders. His older brother Mike, a pro wrestler, and younger sibling Mark, weight lifter, got bigger with anabolic steroids (a synthetic version of hormones similar to testosterone). Even more disappointing, Chris found out that his heroes had all used performance-enhancing drugs as well.

Just look at Major League Baseball's biggest sluggers - Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds - all alleged to have been using BALCO juice. But aren't steroids bad for a person's health, or worse, a form of cheating? Delaware Senator Joseph Biden derided such stimulants as "un-American." In Sylvester Stallone's Rocky IV the Commie boxer uses steroids while Rocky trains clean and natural to kick ass. Just look at what happened to Lyle Alzado, the football player who died of brain cancer from using steroids.

Steroids can also damage the heart, joints, and reproductive organs say experts such as Dr Gary Walder. So where are the bodies? Show us the documentation. The high-profile testimony before Congress of Donald Hooton from Plano, Texas, whose teenage son Taylor committed suicide, for which the father blames steroids, ignores the fact that the young athlete was also taking anti-depressants.

Anabolic steroids were first introduced to the US Olympic team, accidentally by a Russian coach, in the 1950s. Peanuts and vitamin C can be dangerous. Only three people have been known to have died as a direct result from using steroids. A physician speaks of a "benefit-to-risk ratio" when considering using any type of drug or engaging in a risky activity (such as bungee jumping, rock climbing, motorcycle racing, skydiving).

The media, with political enhancement, have unleashed a stereotype of "roid rage," similar to the "reefer madness" hysteria of the 1930s. Yet the government and the press haven't been able to avoid dishonestly presenting the issue as black and white: President George H.W. Bush signed the control act outlawing steroids (passed by Congress against expert recommendations not to associate steroids with narcotics) while naming Arnold Schwarzenegger, poster boy of steroids, chairman on the President's Council for Physical Fitness.

What really seems to bother Chris, John Romano, body-builder Greg Valentino (man with world's biggest, ugliest biceps), among others, is the apparent hypocrisy of idols like Schwarzenegger ("Work hard, play by the rules") and Carl Lewis (relying on a legal loop hole of "inadvertent use" to explain away a failed drug test) in misrepresenting themselves to the public by claiming to be what they aren't.

Athletes as role models are held to a higher standard than porn stars (no concern for moral values), who use stimulants to sustain an erection; Air Force pilots, who take "go pills" to maintain an edge (war's different from sports); musicians, who dissolve anxiety with beta blockers (not competing except in auditions); or students, who keep their focus longer with amphetamines. Then there are alternative enhancements to performance such as Tiger Woods sharpening his vision with Lasik surgery, Floyd Landis sleeping in an altitude chamber (legal, as is residing as I do at 7200 feet above sea level, while blood doping and EPO, which also increase the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood, are not), numerous athletes getting injections of cortisone to speed recovery from injuries, and human-growth hormone (HGH), which cannot be detected. Even Popeye was dependent on spinach for his strength. Talent, a genetic variation among humans, may eventually be manipulated through gene engineering.

Most significant is the fact that sports fans - who buy the tickets, fill the stadiums, watch broadcasts of sporting events, purchase the merchandise - demand to see bigger-than-life athletes performing superhuman feats. For many consumers of sports, performance has become more important than character - winning is everything.

After viewing all of the evidence, comparing the Bell boys with their obese mother and overweight father suggests that their parents' health is at greater risk from fat than are adults who choose to take steroids.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .