Bigger Stronger Faster filmmaker and star Christopher Bell in a mock-ad, from a hilarious segment of the film showing how a "Before" and "After" ad for bodybuilding supplements can be taken in the same day.
By Terry Keefe
Hulk Hogan. Arnold. Sly. Like many who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, these were some of the heroes of future filmmaker Christopher Bell when he was a teenager in Poughkeepsie, New York. And one of the things that these heroes all shared in common was that they had physiques which were, well, jacked. Christopher wasn’t alone in his household in having mighty muscled role models. His younger brother Mark attained success as a teenage power lifter, and his older brother Mike went on to play Division 1 football at the University of Cincinnati. All shared the Heroes Triad of Hogan, Stallone, and Schwarzenneger. But just lifting weights and eating right wasn’t enough to make you look like Hulk Hogan. While the Hulkster regularly preached on WWF (later WWE) television that his physique came from “saying his prayers and taking his vitamins,” he should have included the use of illegal steroids in that statement. Which Hogan finally did in 1994, when he testified to using steroids during the federal government’s trial of WWF wrestling promoter/mastermind Vince McMahon, who was charged with the illegal distribution of the drugs to his wrestlers. This revelation from Hogan was a significant one for Bell, who had believed a lot of his hero’s speeches, but perhaps even more surprising for Bell was when his older brother Mike started taking steroids one week after his college football training started, believing that he couldn’t be competitive without that edge. Christopher Bell would later attend USC Film School and after graduation started thinking once again about steroids, which would become the focus of his feature documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster, debuting in theaters this month.
Hulk Hogan. Arnold. Sly. Like many who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, these were some of the heroes of future filmmaker Christopher Bell when he was a teenager in Poughkeepsie, New York. And one of the things that these heroes all shared in common was that they had physiques which were, well, jacked. Christopher wasn’t alone in his household in having mighty muscled role models. His younger brother Mark attained success as a teenage power lifter, and his older brother Mike went on to play Division 1 football at the University of Cincinnati. All shared the Heroes Triad of Hogan, Stallone, and Schwarzenneger. But just lifting weights and eating right wasn’t enough to make you look like Hulk Hogan. While the Hulkster regularly preached on WWF (later WWE) television that his physique came from “saying his prayers and taking his vitamins,” he should have included the use of illegal steroids in that statement. Which Hogan finally did in 1994, when he testified to using steroids during the federal government’s trial of WWF wrestling promoter/mastermind Vince McMahon, who was charged with the illegal distribution of the drugs to his wrestlers. This revelation from Hogan was a significant one for Bell, who had believed a lot of his hero’s speeches, but perhaps even more surprising for Bell was when his older brother Mike started taking steroids one week after his college football training started, believing that he couldn’t be competitive without that edge. Christopher Bell would later attend USC Film School and after graduation started thinking once again about steroids, which would become the focus of his feature documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster, debuting in theaters this month.
The film centers around Bell’s on-camera quest to learn as much as he can about the drugs, and his research brings him to the surprising conclusion that steroids may not be as bad for you as the media has led us to believe. Which was not the point of view that Bell started out with. He explains that he initially was going to do a film about two brothers who go to college to play football, and one of them begins doing steroids, which has very negative effects on him. Bell elaborates, “My point of view at first was, ‘Steroids are terrible and they’ll kill you.’ Both of my brothers got heavily into steroids. And I was really concerned. I wanted to find out more about it. But when I started researching, I realized that it was a lot more complex than I thought. A lot of the things I heard were myths, basically lies.” Although Bell hardly comes across an advocate for steroid use in his film, his inability to find hard studies proving that steroids are dangerous to use in moderation is startling to the viewer, as it was to the filmmaker. His own life experiences played into his exploration as well. Bell has both worked out and worked at the famous Gold’s Gym in Venice, and he has even been a writer and producer for the WWE. He has certainly known some folks on steroids. Some of those lives ended tragically, but not necessarily because of steroids. Says Bell, “You can’t just make a blanket statement and have to look at these stories on a case-by-case basis. A lot of these guys were doing steroids, but also painkillers and alcohol and ten other things.”
Bell’s film also raises another significant question, which his movie’s poster tagline sums up very well: “Is it still cheating if everyone is doing it?” The American motto is to be the best and strongest at everything. We’ve made a movie star and governor of Arnold Schwarzenneger, who initially came to fame because of his mighty physique, which he freely admits came from the use of steroids. It might be reasonable to say that taking steroids is, like one bodybuilder says in the film, as American as apple pie.
Bell’s film also raises another significant question, which his movie’s poster tagline sums up very well: “Is it still cheating if everyone is doing it?” The American motto is to be the best and strongest at everything. We’ve made a movie star and governor of Arnold Schwarzenneger, who initially came to fame because of his mighty physique, which he freely admits came from the use of steroids. It might be reasonable to say that taking steroids is, like one bodybuilder says in the film, as American as apple pie.
More info on the film can be found at http://www.biggerstrongerfastermovie.com/
Check out the Trailer here:
Check out Christopher Bell's award-winning short film BILLY JONES here:
Billy Jones
Most athletes today are taking homeopathic hgh oral spray because it's safe, undetectable, and legal for over the counter sales. As time goes on it seems it might be considered as benign a performance enhancer as coffee, aspirin, red bull, chewing tobacco, and bubble gum.
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