In Greek mythology, Icarus and his father Daedalus used wax and feathers to make wings and flew into the sky. When escaping from Crete, Icarus flew too high and the wax on his wings was sunburned and fell into the water.
The director’s answer to why he chose this title is as follows:
I chose Icarus before I ever picked up the camera. The idea for the film came to me in mid-2013 in the fallout of [Lance] Armstrong's confession. I came upon Icarus because it was the story of every athlete that had been caught for doping in sport. You can fly and you can have wings, but just don't keep pushing the boundaries. If you do, you're going to get too close to the sun. Your wings are going to burn or melt, and you 're going to plummet to the earth.
Director Bryan Fogel is also an amateur cyclist. In order to explore the impact of drugs on athletes, he personally took the drugs as experimental products and injected them for half a year. During the 2016 Tour de France mountain stage, Bryan failed because of a bicycle transmission failure. , The ranking dropped all the way to outside of 20, not even as good as last year's ranking under normal conditions. A friend said after the game that he couldn't imagine Bryan surpassing certain players. Everyone has their own limits. The result of challenging the limit may not be a breakthrough. On the contrary, he may be disappointed or even useless.
Of course, raising the level of competition is not only the expectations of athletes, but also one of the standards for measuring a country's overall strength. Politics is an important part of modern life. Sports cannot be spotless. Political considerations are indispensable behind every major event. Successfully hosting an event can increase international prestige, and getting good results can inspire the people. For the leadership, it is an excellent way to increase the voter's support rate.
The main body of the poster is a string puppet player controlled by a big hand. The lifting loop on the big hand happens to be the Olympic rings. The shadow of the athlete's feet is the Soviet Union's sickle and hammer. In addition to the metaphor of Icarus, George Orwell’s "1984" runs through the film. The main quotation is also from the mouth of the protagonist Grigory Rodchenkov, and his words also constantly imply what the Russian authorities are doing and " "Big Brother" comes down the same line.
Grigory Rodchenkov was obviously educated in Western countries and was inevitably affected. At the same time, he served the Russian government. His thoughts were constantly being pulled and he could not stabilize. As a whistleblower, his own interests are deeply involved in the incident, and he is more likely to be seen as a avoidance than his conscience. After all, his friend Nikita of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency "suicide". Following this line of thinking, he frequently mentioned "1984" and appeared to be a little deliberate, as if he was trying to find a reason and a step up for what he had done. Someone should preside over justice, and the U.S. Department of Justice is among the vanguard. The United States is a collection of contradictions, and politically leading unrighteous things have not been done less, but with a strong national power and great power of speech, it is still an uncle who upholds justice and defends freedom and equality to the outside world.
The state-hosted large-scale fraud, the so-called murder of insiders, and the Crimean crisis have embarrassed Russia on all sides. The situation in China today is exactly the same as the situation in Russia before. The difference is probably that the United States now has a more advanced method of making things out of nothing. Sometimes, amidst the overwhelming accusations against China in the West, I am also confused, questioning whether I am narrow-minded, and later discovered that the media does not have absolute objectivity. The most important thing is not to be led by the nose.
Doping fraud destroys the future of athletes and the reputation of the country, while politicization is a trend that continues to develop and has no benefits. From this film, "1984" to Snowden to Gregory, the political machine Running endlessly, how to avoid doublethink and how to distinguish the truth are skills that must be learned.
View more about Icarus reviews
