[Closed] That Armstrong Lie film

Cheers. Wasn't willing to pay money to watch it but for free it's worth a gander.

I'll have a look, see. Is it worth watching on Monday or is it part-PR/damage-limitation? IF the later I wont bother.

Well I thought I was worth a watch and I bought the DVD.

Its worth watching for the in car footage of Bruyneel when Bert attacks on the Colombière.

[i]Well I thought I was worth a watch and I bought the DVD.[/i]

...and?

A mate of mine saw it on first release. He enjoyed it but is a road cycling nut. He had an interesting back story that film maker access was first granted by Armstrong etc as the intention was to make a film about how he was persued and tested but was innocent of doping. After they had all the material and where editing the truth came out. The film was delayed a year and they put together a different message/theme.

Thanks for the PSA I will watch that.

Thanks for the heads up.

it's on Showbox if you have an android device, watched it a while back. Actually good. very honest (I think?) and had me interested for the whole film.

DezB i.e. Will thinks the money he spent on the DVD was worth it.

Saw it on a flight, well worth a watch.

I feel the same way about Armstrong as I feel about Macdonalds ,Sky and a few others.
I try to exclude them from my life.
I know this means nothing to these huge multinationals but it makes me feel better for not contributing to any part of their empire with money or my valuable time.
So no, I would never watch it, even if it was free.

So no, I would never watch it, even if it was free.

It does (IMO) give LA a very slightly easier ride than I'd have liked but it's certainly not PR fluff on his behalf as it doesn't paint a positive picture of him.

Worth watching if you want to get a fuller picture of the situation and how it arose if you haven't read it all yet.

Is it the case that he will profit personally from you watching it ? I don't know just asking.

I believe he was paid to take part in the original [s]hagiography[/s] documentary so still profited financially from the final cut. Apart from a few new bits (in-car footage mentioned above) it's all stuff you've seen or heard before, with a [s]fanboi[/s] film maker not asking tough questions, and L.A given too much air time to try "control the narrative" as they say, eg rubbishing suggestions of doping in his comeback.

the problem with LA is he's very charismatic, and he is very good at twisting situations to benefit himself, something i think this film is a perfect example of. He doesn't come out of it smelling of roses, but he doesn't come out of it looking nearly as bad as he should have done...

Is David Millar's book available for free anywhere?

@crashtest - what you say makes sense as I understand (see my post above) that the film originally was to be "Armstrong friendly" - it just got re-edited

It's pretty interesting view on the story if you know it all already. Not sure it'd be that interesting or informative if you didn't.

Watched it first time round and paid to watch it too, this is free and I'll record it.

Still a big fan of Road Racing back then, love the styles and attacks, the game play and the shear physical elements to racing.

😀

I watched it on a plane earlier this year. It was very interesting.

However, you have to consider that it was made by a film maker, not a cyclist, so the way he puts the story together is different to what [i]you[/i] may expect. That sounds like a terribly obvious thing to say, but you have to remember that the majority of the audience that this film is intended for, may not aware of a lot of the back story, so I felt he did a very good job of putting together a complicated history into an intelligent documentary.

Also, as mentioned above, he started out making an entirely different film to the one he ended up with, so that in itself makes for compelling viewing.

I don't think anyone comes out of the story smelling of roses. If anything it just makes the whole sport of professional road cycling look (even more) crooked. At best.

Definitely worth a watch.

There's a good interview with the Director, Alex Gibney here

http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/alex-gibney-discusses-the-armstrong-lie

It's been up free on vimeo for a while, err.. so I've heard.

For a different point of view:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/02/emma-o-reilly-lance-armstrong-cyclist-doping

"Cycling’s lengthy battle with its doping demons has led to the emergence of a surprising variety of personal memoirs, but most have one thing in common: to a greater or lesser extent they are self-serving, with the writer – be it David Walsh, Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton or Christophe Bassons – pushing an agenda of their own, either from the view of the campaigner, or the insider seeking to restore his reputation.

Emma O’Reilly’s account, The Race to Truth, has a different feel to it. O’Reilly was the soigneur (masseuse) to Armstrong and his US Postal Service team at the start of his domination of the Tour de France and went on to provide evidence of his and the team’s doping – although critically, not the smoking gun that came later from his team-mate Floyd Landis."