MovieChat Forums > The Program (2016) Discussion > Good, but something lacking

Good, but something lacking


Saw this the other night

Some spoilers ahead

As a big fan of cycling i probably knew the ins and out of this before seeing it. I also read david walsh's book the week before.

while i agree it is about Lance, i felt it was lacking the desire and dedication by Walsh to bring him down. he sacrificed a lot to pursue this and lost some good friends along the way

there wasnt enough time dedicated to the 1996 Hospital incident, Emma O'reilly wasnt in it enough, no mention of tyler hamilton, greg lemond, stephanie Mcilvain. Barely mention LA Confidentiel, also no mention of bill stapleton threatening walsh too

Lee pace was poor and the guy paying Frankie Andreu was horrifically bad

Still, good performance by Foster. the scene where he meets his wife is toe-curlingly cringeworthy tho

"Its lucky I`m insane after all I`ve been through"

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While I like the film, I agree wit you. This could have been a sporting version of All the President's Men, and I'm not writing that because Hoffman is in it. The downfall of Armstrong is the sports equivalent of Watergate. It obviously didn't have to be exactly the same as ATPM, but it missed the mark by not making Walsh (and Ballester) much more central to the plot and giving Armstrong (despite Ben Foster being brilliant) less screen time.
Still, it's a good film and I recommend it..
SURRENDER DOROTHY

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I wasn't very familiar with the story before watching, although I am a keen cyclist, I got into it after the Lance debacle.

I thought it did focus on Walsh and I did get a vibe of dedication etc. (this is coming from someone who hadn't heard of it before)

I felt like what was lacking was the contribution of USADA/WADA who were also trying to investigate, and more importantly than just some journalist (because they have enforcement powers)

In terms of his wife - what I thought was interesting was how they never showed her after that scene! There was no discussion between her and him about what he was doing/had done so it wasn't clear if she knew and didn't care, disapproved but didn't leave, helped him or didn't even know, whatever. I can only assume this is because the filmmakers don't know about their private discussions, and didn't want to make it up? But I actually didn't realised they'd divorced, and she's talked about it since...

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