Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 22: SLAYING THE BADGER
John Dower’s look at a major pre-Armstrong cycling controversy debuted at Tribeca this Spring. It went on to screen at Sheffield and AFI Docs before its ESPN broadcast this Summer.
Skillfully interweaving race footage and contemporary interviews, Dower explores the history of Greg LeMond, the first American to win the Tour de France. Following the disqualifications of Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis for doping, LeMond is now the only official American winner – but, as the film reveals, this victory was hard-fought, pitting the naive young rider against his charismatic and self-driven older mentor Bernard Hinault. Like the best sports docs, Dower’s film is able to extend beyond the specificity of its cycling milieu to draw in viewers who don’t have the slightest interest in the Tour de France. While he provides ample background and explanations about the rules of the competition, these simply offer context to allow a general audience to follow the drama as it affects the subjects, rather than function as slavish details that would only serve superfans of the sport. The result is an often gripping, immediate retelling of a rivalry between two strong personalities who were supposed to be teammates.
what (not) to doc 