Netflix Dafa is good. In recent years, Netflix, which has launched many excellent TV series, has actually dabbled in the documentary field and produced a series of different types of documentaries such as "Ladder: Cai Guoqiang's Art", "Guardian" and "Chasing Corals" . And this documentary film involving the 2015 Russian sports ban drug scandal has particularly attracted the author's attention.
The film won the Special Jury Special Award in the Documentary Unit of the 33rd Sundance Film Festival and won the 90th Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in one fell swoop. As the title of the article says, the story told by the film is inextricably linked with the word "drugs".
The movie is divided into two story lines.
The first story line is the experiment of director Brian Fogel. As an amateur cyclist, Brian Fogel was once fascinated by the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong , who is almost his age , was once his idol in his youth.
Of course, later Armstrong had a well-known doping scandal that caused him to fall from the altar. In 6 years, Armstrong has done 150 drug tests, inside and outside the game, at home, during the game, at 7 am and 7 pm, but the test results all showed negative. Could it be said that the entire drug test system is useless at all?
According to Dunn Catlin , the founder of the Olympic Lab , he has done several drug tests for Armstrong, but he has not found any signs of useful drugs. The Olympic Laboratory at the University of California Los Angeles, founded by him, has been developing drug tests for 25 years and has been working to catch athletes who use banned drugs. It can be said that this place should be one of the most professional drug testing institutions in the world.
Dunn Catlin, who is an "old driver in the drug testing industry," told director Bryan that almost every athlete can take drugs because the effects of the drugs are too obvious. At the same time, it is not difficult to escape a drug test. As long as you have certain relevant knowledge, everything is actually so easy.
Director Brian Fogel was inspired by this film at the beginning. He wants to prove that this system of testing athletes is simply nonsense by personally trying doping drugs.
On the one hand, he will compare his performance before and after taking the drug. On the other hand, he will also observe whether he can be detected after taking the medicine. In order to complete this plan, he approached Dunn Catlin to help. But Dunn later withdrew from the project because of fear of damage to his reputation. He introduced one of his friends, Gregory Rodchenkov , to Brian. Rodchenkov is the director of the Olympic Laboratory in Moscow. From the time he came into contact with him, Brian opened the door to another world.
Under Rodchenkov's guidance, Brian began to inject three stimulants including gonadal hormones and testosterone . After that, he needs to inject drugs every day and collect urine. Finally, the urine sample, the name of the drug, and the dose of the drug must be sent to Rodchenkov, who will help him get everything done. Brian's body became strong day by day under the action of drugs, and he was promoted to a "medium-sized beast."
Although in the end he failed to achieve better results in the high road cycling race due to an accident, his mistakes and collisions have become the witness of the biggest scandal in the history of sports in this century .
The second story line follows. In the process of communicating with Rodchenkov, director Brian Fogel gradually learned the truth about the drug prohibition plan in the Russian sports world.
In 2014, a documentary called "Drug Secrets: How Russia Made Its Champions" was broadcast on German television. The film pointed out that 99% of Russian athletes have used banned drugs. In addition, Russian officials have systematically helped athletes conceal the test results of taking banned drugs.
WADA (anti-drug organization) launched a comprehensive investigation, and finally found that everything described in the film is true. After that, WADA closed Rodchenkov's laboratory, and as the laboratory director, he himself resigned. For a while, Rodchenkov became a scapegoat for scandals in the Russian sports industry.
On the one hand, anti-drug organizations need to investigate it. On the other hand, people from the Russian Federal Bureau of Investigation began to monitor Rodchenkov, and his life may be in danger at any time. For safety reasons, Luochenkov chose to run away. He asked Brian to help him buy a ticket to Los Angeles and fled to the United States for refuge. Russian officials began to speak out, refuting all the arguments about the drug prohibition incident. From here, Luochenkov became the "Snowden of sports . "
And the plot trend of this film is getting closer and closer to the Oscar best documentary "Fourth Citizen" that exposes the truth about "Prism Gate " . However, the overall look and feel of the film is more like a fascinating suspense blockbuster. The more I look back, the more shocked I feel. An investigation into the drug scandal involved a series of events such as national conspiracies, political fights, murders, and defections.
And this film even introduced George Orwell's "1984" under the right opportunity . "War is peace, freedom is slavery", especially "ignorance is power" has a great influence on Rodchenkov.
Facing the interview with Brian Fogel, Rodchenkov knew everything. "Does Russia have a national mechanism for athletes to use banned drugs to cheat during the Olympic Games?" "Yes."
"Are you the mastermind of this national mechanism that deceives the Olympics?" "Yes, of course."
"Russia won 73 medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How many athletes did it take medicine?" "30."
Such shocking scenes were revealed in such a question-and-answer dialogue. More importantly, according to Luochenkov's revelations, the chief ambassador behind Russia's drug prohibition system is actually Putin and the Russian authorities . Before 2008, China was the world's largest producer of steroids. Steroids produced in China are sold globally because they are pollution-free and high-quality. The raw materials of Russia's stimulant drugs come from this.
As early as 1968, Podugarov was the steroid coach of the Russian national team. He used drugs to improve the level of athletes and allowed them to win Olympic medals.
However, in 2008, the Chairman of the Olympic Committee Zach Rog had questioned the fact that China, the host country of the Olympic Games, had been producing large amounts of steroids. He asked China to stop production. China complied, but Russia lost its source of steroids.
Therefore, Podugarov boldly adopted a drug called "Stanozolol". However, this drug can be easily detected due to its impurities. Upon seeing this, Rochenkov threw these "Stanozolol" into the trash can. At that time, he had already mastered a source of high-quality steroids, so he became the middleman of the entire steroid plan.
This naturally caused Podugarov's dissatisfaction. He called the anti-narcotics police and took Luochenkov to prison. During this period, Luochenkov was depressed and tried to commit suicide. Later, he was sent to a mental hospital. For a long time after that, he worked in a mental hospital. It was not until the invitation of the Olympic Committee in 2012 that Luochenkov was released from prison and saw the light again.
He became the director of the London Olympic Committee and had the opportunity to get access to materials from the London laboratory. And all this is bound to have a huge impact on Russia's doping program. So Putin personally withdrew Luochenkov's case. As compensation, Rodchenkov continued to work hard for the Russian doping program. During the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, Rodchenkov used his own authority to discard all the drug test samples of Russian athletes who took banned drugs. The drug test samples are collected from athletes’ urine and are generally divided into A and B bottles. Bottle A is mainly used for analysis, while bottle B will be stored in the freezer. The sample is packed in a seemingly inconspicuous small bottle, but in fact it has a tight seal and a strong airtightness. If it is opened, it will inevitably damage the bottle.
But even so, the Russians found a clever way to open the bottle, and finally succeeded in dropping it. This plan made Russia a great success in the Sochi Winter Olympics and eventually won 33 medals , including 13 gold medals .
In 2015, Rodchenkov finally helped Russian athletes conceal the fact that they were using drugs, and told the New York Times. Once the news was reported, the public was in an uproar. Russian Sports Minister Mutko first stood up to refute, saying that all this is a fiction, stressing that this is a continuous attack on the Russian sports world. Deputy Sports Minister Yulinag Yuko also stated that there is no drug ban plan at all. Russian President Putin even condemned Rodchenkov, calling his actions "traitor slander . "
Faced with the cunning methods of politicians, one's power cannot be countered. Fortunately, WADA quickly launched an investigation after obtaining the evidence given by Rodchenkov.
On November 9, 2015, WADA announced that there is indeed an “organized” use of banned drugs in the Russian sports world. On November 3, 2015, the International Athletics Federation announced a total ban on the Russian track and field team involved in a doping scandal. On June 17, 2016, the International Athletics Federation continued to maintain the "blocking order" against the Russian track and field team.
Faced with WADA's investigation results and various negative public opinions, Putin once again condemned, saying that this is another time the world has allowed politics to interfere in sports. However, what makes people feel quite ironic is that on July 25, just before the opening of the Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee rejected the complete suspension of the Russian sports team. In the end, politics overwhelmed sports . As a "whistleblower" Rodchenkov also accepted the US government's witness protection program because of his personal safety issues.
Throughout the film, the director tried to pass an in-depth disclosure of the scandal, allowing us to witness a "systematic collusion". The overall impression was shocking and staggering. The scenes of bloody facts are exactly like the words written by George Orwell in "1984". "In a world full of lies, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary action."
However, it is fortunate that both Snowden and Rodchenkov in this film have become true brave men in the era. Their behavior seems absurd like Icarus, but they possess infinite courage and courage.
View more about Icarus reviews
