Biopics are a very interesting genre of films and anything on the lives of sporting legends evokes special interest. Recently I watched two of this type each of quite different nature.
First one is Race on the life of Jesse Owens. Actually his name was J. C. Owens but his teacher in school had some problem in understanding his pronunciation and so he became 'Jesse'. Jesse Ownes was a born genius and he was quite destined to scale great heights notwithstanding the massive racial discrimination still prevalent in American society.
The movie tracks his life from being spotted by Ohio University coach Larry Snyder played by Jason Sudeikis. The movie depicts close and important relationship Jesse shared with his coach without whom there were chances the great talent would have been lost.
Then it moves on to the famous 45 minutes in which he broke and tied 4 track and field records at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Followed by his thumping triumph in the 1936 Olympics where in he captured 4 gold medals thus trashing Nazi theory of Aryan supremacy.
It's an inspiring story of grit and determination winning against the worst forms of racism. The magnitude of the racial discrimination is depicted in one of the last acts wherein because of his skin color Jesse and his wife are not allowed to use the main entrance of a hotel where his success party is being hosted; they happily obliged and used the service lift.
Stephan James gave a stellar performance in the lead role of this 2016 movie.
My rating for this movie would be 3.5 out of 5. A definite good to watch movie.
The other movie, The Program, is also from the same genre but depicts just an opposite aspect of sporting success. A world filled with deceit and systematic cheating. This is based on the life of Lance Armstrong once a poster boy of the cycling world whose successful fight against cancer and subsequent winning of 7 Tour De France became followed by his rapid fall into the abyss of disgrace for doping.
The other day I was also reading a chapter from the book 'Numbers Rule Your World' by Kaiser Fung where the author writes about how probability plays a role in the sports doping world.
It is not an unknown fact that doping methodologies are also prone to errors and hence there are always chances of false-positives being reported. However reporting any false-positive means implicating a sportsman who is innocent and thus dragging the lab performing tests into a costly tussle with the accused.
It is with this consideration that most lab testing methodologies also miss out on many false-positive cases and hence many athletes who are actually doping escape from being caught.
The movie showed the level of sophistication with which Lance Armstrong ran the doping program (and hence name of the film) for his team through all 7 Tour de France titles he won. The success and fame which Armstrong brought to the Tour stopped agencies from reporting against him even when they suspected him of wrong doing and hence while competing he was never caught doping.
The movie is based on the book 'Seven Deadly Sins' by Irish sports journalist David Walsh who had steadfastly followed the doping allegations against Armstrong but couldn't bring him to accept it during his active years. Armstrong was shielded by his picture-perfect image of a cancer survivor who was also supporting the cause through his Livestrong foundation.
This movie depicts one of the darker aspects of the sporting world specially in sports like cycling, track and field where success is more dependent on the physical strengths rather than any skill or technique. And in such sports doping can always play a major role in the recipe of success.
Ben Foster portrayed the lead role of Lance Armstrong in this 2015 movie.
My rating for this movie would be 4 out of 5. A definite good to watch movie.
The movie tracks his life from being spotted by Ohio University coach Larry Snyder played by Jason Sudeikis. The movie depicts close and important relationship Jesse shared with his coach without whom there were chances the great talent would have been lost.
Then it moves on to the famous 45 minutes in which he broke and tied 4 track and field records at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Followed by his thumping triumph in the 1936 Olympics where in he captured 4 gold medals thus trashing Nazi theory of Aryan supremacy.
It's an inspiring story of grit and determination winning against the worst forms of racism. The magnitude of the racial discrimination is depicted in one of the last acts wherein because of his skin color Jesse and his wife are not allowed to use the main entrance of a hotel where his success party is being hosted; they happily obliged and used the service lift.
Stephan James gave a stellar performance in the lead role of this 2016 movie.
My rating for this movie would be 3.5 out of 5. A definite good to watch movie.
The other day I was also reading a chapter from the book 'Numbers Rule Your World' by Kaiser Fung where the author writes about how probability plays a role in the sports doping world.
It is not an unknown fact that doping methodologies are also prone to errors and hence there are always chances of false-positives being reported. However reporting any false-positive means implicating a sportsman who is innocent and thus dragging the lab performing tests into a costly tussle with the accused.
It is with this consideration that most lab testing methodologies also miss out on many false-positive cases and hence many athletes who are actually doping escape from being caught.
The movie showed the level of sophistication with which Lance Armstrong ran the doping program (and hence name of the film) for his team through all 7 Tour de France titles he won. The success and fame which Armstrong brought to the Tour stopped agencies from reporting against him even when they suspected him of wrong doing and hence while competing he was never caught doping.
The movie is based on the book 'Seven Deadly Sins' by Irish sports journalist David Walsh who had steadfastly followed the doping allegations against Armstrong but couldn't bring him to accept it during his active years. Armstrong was shielded by his picture-perfect image of a cancer survivor who was also supporting the cause through his Livestrong foundation.
This movie depicts one of the darker aspects of the sporting world specially in sports like cycling, track and field where success is more dependent on the physical strengths rather than any skill or technique. And in such sports doping can always play a major role in the recipe of success.
Ben Foster portrayed the lead role of Lance Armstrong in this 2015 movie.
My rating for this movie would be 4 out of 5. A definite good to watch movie.
