In the 1980s, filmmaker Christopher Bell, a former staffer at Venice’s Gold’s Gym and his mother became bodybuilders deriving their inspiration from icons like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who were regarded as just entertainment figures by pop culture junkies.
The bells even turned to professional wrestling, but after trying anabolic steroids just once stopped using it altogether, though he is aware that this practice is dangerously common and this documentary takes viewers through the exploration of the hazards connected to this practice along with the fact that a reflection on whether taking these performance-enhancing steroids sum up to being dishonest in the game.
Bell does not judge others but tries to get the opinions of prominent figures like Olympic sprinters Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and Tour de France cyclist Floyd Landis, along with a number of doctors, lawyers, congressmen, gym rats, and professional athletes and his own family.
The documentary film, Bigger, Stronger, Faster, i.e. The Side Effects of Being American is entertaining and exposes and verifies the truth behind these wonder substances and to this effect includes footages of José Canseco, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire testifying during the federal grand jury and congressional hearings on steroid use in the major leagues.
