Steineded How sad is this?

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Vultural ~ Focused documentary on cyclist Lance Armstrong and the substance use denial. Scant in the way of in-depth biography - marriages, kids, friends, nada. Couple of stills of him with his single mom. When he arrived on the cycling scene, doping was prevalent. Indeed, cycling in general suffers a long, sorry history of cheats and frauds. Nowadays, the money incentives are staggering. Few athletes - of any sport - remotely resemble normal humans. All professional sports seem to be as real as wrestling. I never liked Armstrong, though I empathized with his situation. Had he not joined all other contestants in steroids and blood tweaking, Lance would have been no one, another Damien Nazon.

Raven-1969 When everyone cheats, it becomes a different contest. The powerful friends, money (125 million plus), risk and pain tolerance, influential scientists, compelling story, performance enhancing drugs, viciousness, ambition to win at all costs, willingness to bully others, . . . Armstrong has all this and more. The documentary is a powerful and gripping indictment not just of Armstrong and cycling, but of sports and humanity in general. Armstrong's doping is bad, but his abuse of power is worse. The film shows how willing people are to be fooled, or to trample on others. Despite its two-hour length, the film held my interest throughout. There are so many parallels in a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, wherein he writes, "There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger." So too with Armstrong, cycling, sports, and all of us. This brilliant documentary helps bring such truths to the surface.

priyantha-bandara The Armstrong Lie is a documentary that takes a deep look at one of the most horrendous best kept lies of the sports history, the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong after being disgracefully accused for doping. He was once known as the greatest cyclist the world has ever seeing who won 7 Tour De France titles from 1999-2005 after battling and recovering from cancer.After winning 7 titles and being away for 4 years in retirement Armstrong makes a surprise come back in 2009 with hopes of winning another title and raising funds for cancer patients. The director of this documentary Alex Gibney was hired to make a documentary of the comeback of Armstrong and he has being covering Armstrong's sports history for quite some time. But as the doping scandal came to light the original project was never finished. But in 2013 Gibney decided that he needs a proper ending to his documentary and re-opened it after Armstrong makes a confession on Oprah Winfrey show.This documentary is quite easy and interesting to follow. For someone with even a mild knowledge about professional cycling and Armstrong it can be digested without much effort. While having a deep look at Armstrong's sporting career and the doping dilemma the documentary effectively provides important background information about the sport itself that fuels the main plot. And it manages to tell the story from several perspectives than being biased in to one point of view, the intention being the viewer to have their own conclusion of what had really happened. There ample amount of historical footage of practice runs, races, press conferences, court trials and other video that builds a strong case relating to each other. Obviously for being someone like Armstrong most of his well-known part of his entire life is on film somewhere. The challenge which the director goes through is to filter the most relevant and create a flow that doesn't over hype or dull to the viewer. In my opinion the job was well done.The Armstrong Lie is a powerful piece of documentary film making. And it would give you new perspective of what really went on with Lance Armstrong. Maybe you have followed his case eagerly while it was hot but now since things have gone a bit cold a relook would be ideal. Just as Armstrong phrase many times it felt OK at the time.

supatube Nice insight into a controversial sport star that's filled with arrogance and a false sense of self worth. Breaking the film down component by component it would read as: a main character that is actually a social noob, athletes 'cheat', people still don't want to admit that athletes are fake, and money pours in without doubt until PR starts looking shady. The saddest part of the documentary is the spectators (even the director himself's) praise of a man while, firstly, he is faking his superiority in cycling and second, he is just a cyclist and maybe shouldn't be praised as such a hero. Sometimes the hype around Lance Armstrong was as if he cured cancer. Therefore his lie was such a scandal, not because doping is such a big deal in the world away from competitive sports but because the people wanted to believe he was a super human and they believed their own disillusionment until it shattered like fragile glass. South Africa is home to a sports hero that shattered the hope of many when murder charges were brought against him. I don't think doping is the worst thing a sportsman could do. So Armstongs lie was overshadowed by Pistorius' violence in the eyes of many but that does not mean that Lance is not a less than impressive human being. Interestingly enough it was not the cheating that gives him this label but his malicious nature that goes above and beyond the world of cycling.Putting the 'cheating' aside, the documentary managed to showcase Lance in the most alarming way; a man unrepentant of the people he hurt to conceal his lie. An arrogant man that proceeded to relentlessly debase people, ruining their credibility all to protect his secret of inadequacy. The film itself began as a puff piece about the hero that is Lance Armstrong. By the time that original idea hit the cutting room the Armstrong story had taken a turn - which was not surprising with all the allegations over the years - and needed to find a new foundation. The largest missed opportunity was the director himself. As a fan, a man who started shooting the cyclist before the drama, why did he not then turn the camera on himself? A scandal is only as big as the amount of people that believed the lie. So Alex Gibney totally believed the lie. Why not address the other party in the Armstong scandal, the people? Maybe because the person lied to always wants to blame the liar for their own gullibility? Yes, the lie is horrid but many people believed the doping allegations, are these 'nonbelievers/haters' hurt by the truth? Probably not.So by the end the documentary focuses on Armstrong's downfall and his own personal inabilities to be a decent human being and totally forgoes everything that makes the 'cheating' an option - to be the best, to be a star, to be rich and a hero, to live the American dream, which can't happen if nobody pays attention. It's an interesting viewing, doesn't touch on real issues regarding the drive to be a sports hero, showcases a pretty shameful human being but it was topical at the time of release. I wouldn't rank it up there as some of Gibney's past work nor would i put it next to a great sport biography like "Senna".