The ins and outs behind doping in sports and more particularly the Russian doping program. A strong documentary. Timely in an age of politicized truth and deliberate deception. A 90th Oscars nomination for documentary feature. I give this documentary a 9 (superb) out of 10. [Documentary]
Now that I'm a Netflix subscriber, I can view 3 available films nominated for the 2018 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. This is one of 'em; I also saw "Strong Island" & "Last Men In Aleppo." Not on Netflix are "Faces Places" &, uh, "Abacus." I was already impressed by "Last Men In Aleppo" assuming it'll win or just hoping it'll win (although not caring enough to bet money on it). But there's something unique about "Icarus," something that sounds positive enough for me to think in this film's favor regarding that Oscar. It started out as something traced on the "Super Size Me" template, the difference being Bryan Fogel tries to get fit, not fat. After Fogel biked his race in Europe, I was expecting him to display on the film any effects of "roiding up." That never came about, not even when the film ended or in the epilogue--no footnotes. "Icarus" had completely focused on Grigory Rodchenkov, the Russian that Fogel recruited to cheat in his bike race. Once Bryan learned that Grigory had connections to a Russian doping agency whose involvement reaches as high as Vladimir Putin, Grigory (& Bryan as well) were both screwed once Russia began investigating & Grigory had to flee to the U.S. What compelled me about "Icarus" was that this film, likely in Fogel's mindset was supposed to be about doping, but he got in gigantic trouble by hiring a Russian to give him the dope, and this film he was making almost got a whole damn nation screwed out of the Rio De Janeiro Olympics. (Incidentally Russia recently did participate in the Pyeongchang Olympics, but the fact they couldn't fly their flag implies they're still doping.) And I was fascinated to see how the film turned out as Fogel & Rodchenkov tried to protect themselves while talking to both a newspaper, the U.S. government, and Olympic officials & representatives about doping in Russia and what Grigory knows. Incidentally, Grigory remains in the U.S. in the witness protection program. I was annoyed there wasn't stuff about what happened to Fogel after he was taking steroids like if he has shorter tempers or smaller privates. Clearly he's not gonna win a lot of bike races, or even compete. Can he win an Oscar? I think so; it could take those in the Academy who've finished watching the Winter Olympics voting in his favor. Update: "Icarus" won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Congratulations.
"we checked a shit ton of urine sample bottles and 100% of them have signs of being tampered with"
"BUT IS RODCHENKOV A TRUTHFUL WITNESS????" - journalist from Russia Today
bitch can you hear yourself
ps. as a kid I adored watching sports, especially winter ones and athlethics. I especially loved Yelena Isinbajeva and she was a symbol of perfection in sport for me. i don't think there is any hard evidence of her doping but realistically, come on, one of the biggest stars and favourites of Putin wasn't taken care of? broke my childhood with this one hens
Icarus played a little trick on me. It made me think in was one of those daft wee 'how much can I fuck up my body' docs when really it was a massively tense international sport/politics conspiracy with added old-man nipples.
If you've heard about this movie and know about Russia's state sponsored doping, then this movie will just tell you "Yeah!". That's it, for 2 hours.
Awesome movie which demonstrates how bad and in the new scope for me Russia is. I’m pleased to see the mention of Ukraine there and the protagonist’s thoughts about it. Enjoyed artistic inserts in the film
The most appalling thing about this documentary is how Russia gets away with it.
Shout by BandarBlockedParent2017-08-05T11:45:37Z
wow this is just crazy how the world just react to the scandal it's like the world is either so corrupt or so numb it doesn't matter no more