Lance Armstrong had a pretty drastic fall from grace. He was synonymous with athletes like Michael Jordan, Joe Montana and Serena Williams. Then the news came out about what he had done to win those 7 Tour De Frances and his legacy crumbled overnight. It definitely seemed like an appropriate subject to do a biopic about so I remembered The Program when I got the chance to catch it on DVD. I would have thought that this movie would have got some more attention, Ben Foster has always seemed like he was one key role from being an A list star. So this was the kind of project that might get him there. The Program opened in a limited release to a decidedly mixed reception and while I'm happy to talk about it, I think I'm going to echo what other reviewers have said. This is an absorbing story of betrayal and deception but the movie seemed very eager to tell it's own version of events instead of presenting a more unbiased look at Lance Armstrong's story.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead* Lance Armstrong (Ben Foster) is just starting out and he's meeting up with journalist David Walsh (Chris O'Dowd) to discuss his team and his chances. They bond over a game of Foosball and David is impressed with Lance. Lance is behind the curve though and is looking for an edge. This leads him to Michele Ferrari (Guillaume Canet). Ferrari is reluctant to take him on, he doesn't have the optimal body type and his requirements are below Ferrari's standards. Lance claims he'll do what it takes and when Ferrari is about to take him on and Lance begins to succeed, he gets diagnosed with testicular cancer and his fight to get to the top takes on a whole new challenge.
Ben Foster has always been underrated in the way that he's always providing solid supporting work in bigger projects. He throws a lot into his performance as Lance Armstrong. He's painted as a complete villain and Foster is up to the task, radiating arrogance and spitting venom at whoever gets in his way. I also really liked Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh, he's clearly the white knight in the movie. His character is single-minded and also arrogant but he doesn't overplay it and you get where he's coming from. I was impressed with the supporting cast: Jesse Plemons, Guillaume Canet, Denis Ménochet, Lee Pace and Dustin Hoffman all fit within the movie nicely and there wasn't a sub-par performance in the bunch.
The Program does a good job of dramatizing the story of Lance Armstrong. I had a couple of issues with how they decided to tell it (more on that later) but I remained interested in the movie throughout. If you're familiar with Lance's story even a little bit, you might know it didn't come to a clean end and the fallout was pretty severe. The movie borders on being a thriller with him hiding drugs and circumventing the regulatory bodies. You probably know how this story ends but that didn't bother me, the ending was a little anti-climactic but the movie achieved what it wanted to achieve.
The Program just had one big flaw for me. This movie picks sides almost immediately and does almost everything it can to make you hate Armstrong. I understand that there is inherent bias in everything and it's not the movie's job to present this subject like a documentary. It's based on true events, as opposed to reporting the facts. But The Program doesn't even approach being objective. I'm also saying this while largely being on The Program's side. Reports about Lance Armstrong describe his behaviour as bordering on psychotic and completely obsessive and his achievements are now tainted because of his cheating. But the guy did raise millions of dollars for cancer research and he revitalized cycling. It's okay to not be completely down the middle but you have to compensate by making an excellent film (e.g. Snowden) and for me this movie didn't hit those heights.
I would re-iterate that The Program did present an interesting story and made it dramatic enough to be entertaining. It just didn't reach high enough to hit iconic biopic status and it was a little embarrassing to what lengths they drove this movie trying to sway viewer opinion. I think they would have been better served diving deeper into Lance's motivations and showing the complete picture around his life. With that said, this was still worth a watch to see Ben Foster giving it his all and learning some of the finer points around Armstrong's story.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead* Lance Armstrong (Ben Foster) is just starting out and he's meeting up with journalist David Walsh (Chris O'Dowd) to discuss his team and his chances. They bond over a game of Foosball and David is impressed with Lance. Lance is behind the curve though and is looking for an edge. This leads him to Michele Ferrari (Guillaume Canet). Ferrari is reluctant to take him on, he doesn't have the optimal body type and his requirements are below Ferrari's standards. Lance claims he'll do what it takes and when Ferrari is about to take him on and Lance begins to succeed, he gets diagnosed with testicular cancer and his fight to get to the top takes on a whole new challenge.
Ben Foster has always been underrated in the way that he's always providing solid supporting work in bigger projects. He throws a lot into his performance as Lance Armstrong. He's painted as a complete villain and Foster is up to the task, radiating arrogance and spitting venom at whoever gets in his way. I also really liked Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh, he's clearly the white knight in the movie. His character is single-minded and also arrogant but he doesn't overplay it and you get where he's coming from. I was impressed with the supporting cast: Jesse Plemons, Guillaume Canet, Denis Ménochet, Lee Pace and Dustin Hoffman all fit within the movie nicely and there wasn't a sub-par performance in the bunch.
The Program does a good job of dramatizing the story of Lance Armstrong. I had a couple of issues with how they decided to tell it (more on that later) but I remained interested in the movie throughout. If you're familiar with Lance's story even a little bit, you might know it didn't come to a clean end and the fallout was pretty severe. The movie borders on being a thriller with him hiding drugs and circumventing the regulatory bodies. You probably know how this story ends but that didn't bother me, the ending was a little anti-climactic but the movie achieved what it wanted to achieve.
The Program just had one big flaw for me. This movie picks sides almost immediately and does almost everything it can to make you hate Armstrong. I understand that there is inherent bias in everything and it's not the movie's job to present this subject like a documentary. It's based on true events, as opposed to reporting the facts. But The Program doesn't even approach being objective. I'm also saying this while largely being on The Program's side. Reports about Lance Armstrong describe his behaviour as bordering on psychotic and completely obsessive and his achievements are now tainted because of his cheating. But the guy did raise millions of dollars for cancer research and he revitalized cycling. It's okay to not be completely down the middle but you have to compensate by making an excellent film (e.g. Snowden) and for me this movie didn't hit those heights.
I would re-iterate that The Program did present an interesting story and made it dramatic enough to be entertaining. It just didn't reach high enough to hit iconic biopic status and it was a little embarrassing to what lengths they drove this movie trying to sway viewer opinion. I think they would have been better served diving deeper into Lance's motivations and showing the complete picture around his life. With that said, this was still worth a watch to see Ben Foster giving it his all and learning some of the finer points around Armstrong's story.