Some of the best docs I've seen in recent years have come from Alex Gibney (his "Mea Maxima Culpa" was one of the most memorable films from last year).
"The Armstrong Lie" grew out of a project that he initiated in 2009 to film Lance Armstrong's attempt to come back and win that year's Tour de France. At the time, the suspicions around Armstrong's use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) existed but he was still vigorously denying the allegations.
It was the following year that things began to stick to him, leading to last year's interview with Oprah. Gibney is honest about his feelings of betrayal and arranged for follow-up interviews with Armstrong. As a result, the shape of the film is very different, although the 2009 Tour de France represents a foundation element of the work (one can only wonder what the original film would have looked like if things hadn't worked out the way they did. Gibney also makes the point that it was Armstrong's assertion that he would win the race cleanly that appeared to inspire many of his opponents to bring him down).
Early in the film, he makes the point that it is a film about power rather than drugs or cycling. Armstrong is given ample opportunity, both in archival and current interviews and in film of his races to show that. He is a fighter and an opponent has to be not only beaten but humiliated or destroyed. He's also incredibly charismatic and it's the juxtaposition of the two qualities that makes him so compelling. People still want to believe that he is innocent, despite all evidence to the contrary -(as Gibney puts, people prefer to believe in the "beautiful lie" than the "awful truth").
Highly recommended and not just for fans of cycling. At its base, it's a portrait of a complex human being.
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