Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story (2014) User Reviews

An overall good documentary that sadly left one issue our of the table

[eurograd · 8/10 · 3 May 2015]

"Stop at Nothing" follows the history of Lance Armstrong as he made extensive use of performance-enhancing drugs and hormones on his long sportive career. It managed to get great testimonials from people who worked very close with Armstrong for years, such as cycling teammates, assistants, his foundation's former manager, sport reporters and more, and this is a very positive aspect of this documentary compared to other features made about the fallen athlete. The personal on-screen first-hand accounts are very interesting and personal.

Throughout the movie, Armstrong is portrayed as a ruthless person who'd stop at nothing to conceal his own cheating and his own fraud, stomping and kicking everybody around him if necessary. First-hand accounts of those on the receiving end of his wrath give a picture many had never seen from following his media appearances over the years and how he was portrayed as an inspirational leader after overcoming cancer and returning to win several times more the Tour de France.

The only critical issue missing is any discussion about the behaviors of sponsors and others whose made huge money out of Armstrong's career, and the indirect or sometimes direct role they play in cycling doping culture. They were treated almost as an afterthought, and considering how many people related to the sport the producers had access to, they should have been able to explore it better, so I give it an overall 8/10 score.

The true story behind the world's greatest swindler

[OJT · 8/10 · 2 July 2014]

Australian documentary which goes down to the core of the story behind Lance Armstrong. The cyclist, the fraud, the liar... The fall from grace.

We follow his story from his seven wins in Tour de France, his battle against cancer, his come back, and the suspicions and all the way to the downfall, and him admitting everything to Oprah Winfrey on live TV.

A well made documentary, which also shows that Armstrong still isn't able to deal with all of his history, even after admitting that he cheated inn all 7 wins in Tour de France, and probably in all of his once great career as the best cyclist the world had seen. It was all a hoax, and here's the whole story in a feature documentary.

Fascinating story about a pathological LIAR who lied to hundreds of millions of people, without any remorse. Shocking documentary about insidious doping schemes and LIES

[imseeg · 8/10 · 8 August 2019]

Fascinating, shocking and insidious. A detailed story, step by step, how the lies and drug use of Lance Armstrong came to light. What is especially fascinating is the amount of public support Armstrong enjoyed in America. He was a hero for years. A celebrated cancer survivor. A friend of the White House. Everybody loved Lance. So it took years to finally find enough people who dared to end this venomous fairytale based on lies.

Especially the first part of the documentary is fascinating, in which the first witnesses get smeared with all sorts of insinuations, based on lies. Even Greg Lemond, an honest Tour de France winner, gets smeared with lies and accusations, simply because he dared answer a simple question by a journalist if Armstrong could have used drugs. Rightfully so, Greg Lemond answered that IF Armstrong did use drugs he would be the biggest fraud ever. All hell broke loose after that...

75 million dollars worth of sponsor money was drawn back instantly when it was proven that Armstrong had taken drugs. The biggest " winner" always had been the worst liar and cheat after all. He became the biggest looser ever in American sports history. What a fascinating story. Highly recommended, even if you have followed all the news about it when the story first broke, because it has numerous juicy details and witness testimonies that are truly mind boggling...

The big lie

[paul2001sw-1 · 9/10 · 27 October 2014]

The Lance Armstrong story is sad and incredible: a talented young athlete cheats and bullies his way to the top, threatening to ruin anyone who attempts to expose him; and this against a backdrop of nearly dying and making a comeback, not only as a sportsman, but as a campaigner against cancer. Meanwhile, a worrying number of other cyclists seem to have dropped dead for no conceivable reason other than suspected abuse of their bodies. 'Stop At Nothing' is a competent documentary: its makers have spoken to the right people, they have the right interviews, but it doesn't need to be artistically stunning, because of the power of the tale it tells. One of the people who appears in this film is journalist David Walsh: read his book, 'Seven Deadly Sins', for a more personalised account of the long, and ultimately victorious, fight against Armstrong.

Overview of Lance Armstrong's strong-arm tactics to win fame and fortune.

[TxMike · 26 August 2015]

By now any of us who pay any attention at all to cycling know the end game here. We know that after years of in-your-face denials Armstrong has admitting that he lied all those years, admitted that he indeed was on a number of performance-enhancing drugs while he was winning several consecutive Tour de France individual championships. Many if not most of us at least saw clips from the interview he did with Oprah.

This is a good documentary, it is over 90 minutes, it has lots of clips from competitions, lots of interviews with teammates and close associates of Armstrong during those years, lots of snippets of Armstrong declaring his innocence. It shows his ruthlessness at going after others and trying to defame them if he thought they had turned on him.

By any measure Armstrong is a dastardly, untrustworthy person and he brought it all on himself. He wasn't an easily-led victim, he was the ringleader. But what I miss from this presentation is more from Armstrong after the Oprah event. What were his feelings now about turning on his friends and trying to destroy them? Does he just look at it as a "business decision" that failed? Or has he come to realize how wrong his behavior was?

I was one of the avid TV spectators as Armstrong won those Tour de France titles. Armstrong was such a convincing fraud and liar I became angry at the French for continually accusing Armstrong of something he assured us was false. I was duped and if I ever happened to encounter Armstrong face-to-face I'd just tell him, "You cheated, you lied, you let all your fans down, how dare you!"

Well made documentary detailing the fall of a myth

[Everybody_Comes_To_Ricks · 8/10 · 10 February 2023]

I watched most of Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France "wins" as they happened. I had a yellow bracelet, I owned his two memoirs, and I bought into the myth. It wasn't until just before his seventh "win" that I began to wonder if the rumors and allegations were true. I brecame convinced he was riding dirty when he staged his ill-advised comeback to the Tour, finishing third (this after Floyd Landis was disqualifed). Since then, I've seen several news stories and documentaries and have read several articles. So when I recently watched this documentary, several years after it was made in 2014, I didn't learn much new.

Still, I found this documentary to be very well done with lots of first-person accounts to build the case against Armstrong.

My only complaint is that after spending so much time with Betsy Andreu and Greg LeMond, detailing how Armstrong bullied, threatened, and did everything he could to destroy their characters, and with is non-apology confession on "Oprah," I would have liked to have seen more of a follow-up with Andreu and LeMond. I suppose that is for the sequel.

Tour de France

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 11 July 2014]

Drugs and cycling go to together like a horse and carriage, or is that love and marriage? No matter, as a sport cycling has been traditionally riddled with drug cheats so when any past racers turn up in this documentary finger wagging you think to yourself as if your era was any cleaner!

Any serious racer, commentator, journalist with knowledge of how gruelling road cycling is would or should had realised that some competitors are drug assisted simply because of the energy that they still have after hours of cycling on the edge of endurance. As Greg Lemond recounts after seeing Lance Armstrong race on Le Tour and someone turned round and remarked to him, 'he is on the juice.'

Of course accusations are one thing, proving it is another. While commentators on television threw platitudes at Armstrong the super athlete, some racers and journalists did have suspicions. However Armstrong, his cycling team, his team of lawyers would ruthlessly bring down any dissenting voices, even friends.

This documentary strips Armstrong of any last vestiges of dignity. Even his early victories are reduced to results of deal makings rather than racing. Armstrong realised early in his career that in a sport where drug taking is rife that the only way to win was to take drugs and call it hard work and training.

Of course if Armstrong remained retired after his string of Le Tour victories this documentary would not had been made, however his comeback meant as one writer said, 'the cancer had returned.' It was the blood samples taken during his comeback that led to the US doping agency to accuse him of cheating backed up with witness testimonies.

The documentary highlights the rise and fall of this superstar in cycling. Armstrong comes across as tough, determined, ruthless, two faced, hypocritical. Although he saw off all previous attempts to bring him down eventually he was demolished and confessed in 2013 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey and headed for financial and professional ruin.

A cautionary tale, maybe overlong but also enthralling. I never liked Armstrong so I do not feel sorry for him and this documentary does not try to elicit any sympathy for him.

Unbelievable

[liamaher · 10/10 · 12 October 2019]

We used to think Lance was incredible - now we know he is Non-credible

Well done but not impartial documentary

[juneebuggy · 7/10 · 30 September 2014]

This Australian made documentary takes a look at Lance Armstrong's doping scandal including interviews with his former teammates, friends and enemies. Using assorted TV clips it follows his career from the beginning, including his seven wins in Tour de France, his battle against cancer, his come back, and the suspicions, all the way to his downfall culminating with him finally admitting everything to Oprah Winfrey on live TV. -Which ultimately made me feel really sad, a feeling I didn't expect.

After so many years of adamantly denying he was doping he finally just... admits it. I tried to figure out why this bothered me so much and I think its because everybody wants a hero.

A well done documentary but not impartial, this destroys him from beginning to end, while also showing just how big this scandal was and the (apparent) lengths that were undergone to keep certain people quiet. It felt like a giant conspiracy with huge companies, millions of dollars and death threats. Wow. 7/7/14

Wowza!-did this movie SLAM Lance!??...

[MovieHoliks · 7/10 · 23 July 2015]

I just saw this documentary about 7-time "Tour de France" winning cyclist, Lance Armstrong, and trust me, it ain't pretty...LOL The film begins as your usual bio-doc. about a celebrity, starting with his humble up-bringings, and then going into his early success at age 21, huge winning streak, his bout with cancer, etc.. but very quickly evolves into an Armstrong-slam-fest by his former friends who claim he destroyed their lives with his combination of doping and lies.

I dunno, this doc. seems to be very one-sided. I mean I realize Armstrong was using the "performance enhancement drugs" and everything, but then again, weren't most of them probably using them-??- or something else-?? It just seems that he used them, and WON-?? This doc. itself I quite enjoyed, however- very well done, other than the one- sidedness...