Stop at Nothing:

The Lance Armstrong Story directed by Alex Holmes depicts a world of corruption, subterfuge and greed.

Documentaries of living people can often be difficult to piece together but Holmes, with this story, has struck lucky as the Lance Armstrong story falls into a neat five act structure, just like any Shakespearean tragedy. The difference here is that the person who could have been a tragic figure misses the opportunity. To be tragic one must have some redeeming qualities, some goodness. Whether Armstrong has these qualities or not is not the concern of Holmes.

David Walsh talks about the thought process of Armstrong, how Armstrong believed that ‘different rules applied to the gods and I’m a god’. Armstrong believed that he lived in a world above mere mortals, that he flew above like a ‘superman’.

But this isn’t the world as depicted by Holmes. Holmes shows us a world where cyclists act like teenage boys. We are constantly shown footage of the cyclists behind the scenes, in hotel rooms, showing off their biceps or their abs. These images are juxtaposed with the talking heads. The youth are wearing sporting gear, in bright, colourful, leisurely locations. The talking heads are carefully coiffured, usually wearing suits and lit with one key light before a grey background. The immature have grown up. Well, some of them.

Women are seen as second-class citizens. When Armstrong refers to Betsie Andrew he calls her Frankie’s ‘old lady’ saying that when you’re married ‘it’s required’ that you agree with your wife. The implication here is clear; Frankie is not a real man; he is too cowed by his wife. When Walsh uses Emma O’Reilly’s revelations in his book, Armstrong wants to ‘out her as primarily a whore’. He can’t handle strong women.