The list of winners of the 90th Academy Awards has been released , and "Icarus" won the title of "Best Feature Documentary" .
(For more introductions to excellent documentaries, please click the link: The 90th Oscar Finalist Best Documentary & Short Film Introduction + Resources, they are all here! )
This is a documentary about the 2015 Russian drug scandal .
As a participant, director Brian Fogel told the audience about the "grand" storm in the sports world from the first point of view .
▲ Director Brian Fogel appeared in "Icarus"
Brian is an amateur American cyclist . After 28 years of cycling, he intends to challenge the most difficult amateur bicycle race in the world-the Tour de France .
How difficult is this game?
In Bryan’s words, this is basically a competition for lunatics, and the qualifications for the competition are:
You have to be stupid enough.
Although it sounds like a joke, it is enough to explain the challenge of the Tour de France to the limits of the human body.
"The master led the door", for Brian, the master who made him like cycling was Lance Armstrong .
▲ Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong, an icon in sports , has defeated cancer and won the Tour de France championship 7 times in a row .
However, in 2012, Lance Armstrong's use of banned drugs was exposed .
People can't believe that he has gone through about 500 drug tests in his career , and each test result was negative .
So the question is, is this drug testing system useless at all ?
Later, Dunn Catlin, founder of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Olympic Laboratory , gave an explosive answer in the interview:
They all use banned drugs , and each one has. Medication is very effective. With a certain amount of knowledge, you can escape every drug test. It's easy .
▲ Dunn Catlin, founder of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Olympic Lab
It is such a virtual drug test system that proves "fairness" to the world.
As a result, Brian had an idea that he would take a banned drug to participate in a bicycle race .
The purpose of this is twofold:
First, I want to test the results I can get after taking the medicine ; second, I want to prove that the drug test system has huge loopholes .
After several setbacks, Brian contacted the director of the Russian anti-drug laboratory .
He is also the person in charge of all drug tests at the Sochi Winter Olympics - Grigory Rodchenkov .
▲ Left is Grigory Rodchenkov
Grigory can be said to be a "social man". He agreed to Brian's request and taught Brian the rules of drug use through video .
As a result, Brian began a year-long process of injecting and taking drugs . Various needles of various thicknesses and drugs of various thicknesses were greeted on the body together.
Taking the medicine made him feel that his body is getting stronger and stronger, and his physical fitness is constantly rising.
However, in the end, Bryan's ranking remained at 27 .
Although he did not win the championship, he proved Catlin's words:
It is easy to escape a drug test.
If this documentary stops here, then it may not be the best documentary feature film at this year's Oscars.
The hot spot of "Icarus" began when Grigory asked Brian:
Have you seen my movie?
The film here is the documentary on German television that exposes the drug prohibition incident- "How Russia Became a Big Winner" .
The film mentions that Grigory is familiar with the drug inspection process, and he is the manager behind the entire ban drug scandal .
This documentary became the fuse of Russia's "drug-prohibited door".
For a time, Grigory became the chief culprit in the drug scandal .
His laboratory was shut down , he was forced to resign , and his every move was monitored at any time . In the end he decided to flee to the United States.
At the same time, he announced to the media about the use of stimulants throughout Russia , and has since embarked on the road of whistleblowing.
There is such a dialogue in the documentary "Icarus":
-Does Putin know that Russia has a drug prohibition system? -Yes, he knows my name.
In this way, this documentary is a bit interesting.
The protagonist is full of contradictions :
Brian, the athlete who used banned drugs, became the recorder of the banned drug scandal ; Grigory, the director of the anti-drug laboratory, became the driving force behind the use of banned drugs ; and this banned drug promoter turned out to be the banned drug scandal. Whistleblower .
However, these contradictions of the characters make it impossible to evaluate with absolute, black and white standards.
Who is right and who is wrong?
We cannot give an answer.
Just as Grigory’s old friend and founder of the UCLA Olympic Lab said:
I cannot criticize Grigory.
In this film, the director intentionally or unintentionally quoted part of the content from "Nineteen Eighty Four" , and the beginning of the film used a quote from George Orwell :
In a world full of lies, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary action.
Grigory became the man who told the truth, Edward Snowden in "The Fourth Citizen" .
Uncover an unknown conspiracy with one's own power, and then become "homeless" in the controversy.
The honor of the country, the authenticity of the Olympics, the political game between the East and the West, etc. , are all hidden in the "ban on medicine ."
In Greek mythology, Icarus made a pair of wings out of wax and feathers.
When he fled the island of Crete, the wax on his wings was melted by the sun because of flying too high, and he fell into the water and died.
Prohibition is like the wings of Icarus for athletes, soaring in the sky for a while, and in the end, it will be a dream.
Click to watch the full movie of "Icarus"
Finally, let me introduce the best documentary short film "Heaven Jam" at the 90th Oscars .
Mindy Alper is a tortured 56-year-old artist who has achieved brilliant results . She represents the top level of painting in Los Angeles.
Confined by anxiety, mental disorders and severe depression , she had to receive electric shock treatment from a psychiatric institution and spent ten years of aphasia.
Her superb self-interpretation ability has enabled her to create art works that can accurately express her inner state in quantity and body.
The film presents the birth process of the 8.5-foot bust of her beloved psychologist through interviews, re-enactments, etc. , and also traces back to her childhood paintings .
All of these let us understand the story of her struggling to get out of a world of darkness and loneliness for many years and reshape a world full of love and trust.
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