Too many fans seem to be blown away

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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

Before watching The Program, I said to myself: "It's always the same. I think I'm not going to like a sports movie because I'm not interested in the sport in question, but I generally end up liking them because the sport is just an excuse to tell stories about internal strength and triumph over adversity". And, to a certain point, my prediction was true; however, I unfortunately didn't end up liking The Program very much. Don't misunderstand me. The Program is well acted and solidly directed by Stephen Frears, who keeps a sober point of view which doesn't judge Lance Armstrong for his bad ethic decisions, even though they aren't justified either; Frears just shows the facts with the talented vision which distinguishes his filmography (by the way, my favorite films of it so far are Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity and Dirty Pretty Things). Regarding the cast, Ben Foster brings a solid performance, playing Armstrong in a pragmatic and realistic way, while the rest of the cast also makes a good work, highlighting Chris O'Dowd and Guillaume Canet. So, why wasn't I left very satisfied by The Program? Because I didn't find the story particularly interesting. It might be so for the fans of cycling, but the facts are so simple and linear that they could have been told in 10 minutes of documentary footage. In other words, the story lacked the necessary "punch" in order to capture my emotions; or maybe, I was right from the beginning, and the problem was my ignorance regarding everything related to cycling. Anyway, I think I can give it a slight recommendation mostly to fans or haters of Armstrong's and to those who like cycling. For the rest of the audience, better read the article on Wikipedia; the effect will be the same as the one I had while watching this movie, with the difference that you will have to invest much less time.

I saw this at home on DVD from my public library.I have lived in Texas for the past 30 years, which almost makes me a "native." I also have been a follower of the Tour de France bicycle races over the years so I am very familiar with Lance Armstrong and his exploits in bicycle racing.Lance was an up-and-coming racer when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer which had spread and he had tumors in his head. A combination of good fortune to get to the right doctors combined with Armstrong's fighting spirit, he overcame the cancer. Then he began racing again and was much better than he had ever been. The story was that the cure made him leaner and stronger. In spite of doping allegations he denied them all, mentioned over and over that he had never failed a drug test, and went on to win the Tour de France 7 times.Of course as people continued to come forward, including some of his teammates, Armstrong eventually had to face the music, famously on the Oprah Winfrey show he admitted that all his protests were a lie, he had in fact been running the most sophisticated doping "Program" in cycling. His brand was tarnished, he had to relinquish all his victories. This movie tells that story and they chose a good actor in Ben Foster to play Lance Armstrong. Chris O'Dowd is the Irish journalist David Walsh who had been so dogged in pursuing the Armstrong story. And Jesse Plemons works well as Floyd Landis, himself a disgraced Tour winner after Armstrong's retirement and whop was an integral part of the "Program."Having known the basic story already I found watching this movie worthwhile.

We all know the story and this movie doesn't really add anything worthwhile or insightful to the story. Armstrong is portrayed as an ego-maniacal fraud who only becomes a decent cyclist after discovering EPO (despite the fact that a pre-doped Lance starts the film in the rainbow world champion jersey) and Floyd Landis is portrayed as the innocent fall guy who brings Lance down after he's been betrayed. The way the story is told, Lance and his team are the only ones with access to EPO and Dr. Ferrari's doping know-how. Without getting too mired down in specifics, cheating and specifically doping has long been (and continues to be) a problem in sports in general is glossed over throughout the run time of this film. Most of Lance's main rivals were also clients of Dr. Ferrari (and others such as Dr. Fuentes). If Lance's team were the sole cheaters, why were his stripped titles never awarded to the runners- up?Lance was pretty despicable in his actions and the film lays that out pretty clearly. The film lost many opportunities to tell the whole story of that era. Where were Pantani and multiple runner-up Uhlrich? What about the Cofidis team firing Lance after he was diagnosed with cancer? What about the top riders being barred on the eve of the 2006 tour which allowed Landis to ride against a depleted field?Perhaps most who don't follow cycling won't be bothered by these omissions, but they add to the story and would have added some much needed grey area or tension to an otherwise painfully straightforward film devoid of any real character arc. Instead we end up with Lance going the Reefer Madness route after taking a hit of EPO before a confusing set of events forces him to confess.

Very well-made flick. Cycling scenes are authentic, so are the settings. Acting by Ben Foster was amazing, maybe a little too intense. Yeah it's pretty clear that Armstrong was an intense dude but I've followed along with his career, his social media, his accomplishments, and when he gets the endorphin rush I've seen he can be a pretty happy guy. Only wish there was more of a backstory to Armstrong's life and more detail to the last few years before he ended up confessing. Highly doubt the average fan knows actually how bad of a cheat Contador is/was - every bit if not worse than Armstrong. Also, during his comeback, Lance claims - and other cyclists claim - that he came back as a clean rider. Deep down, I think he hates that he had to dope. But to choose cycling as your profession, and to try to feed a half-billion dollar charity, the only way to turn blood to dollars was The Program.