Untold: Hall of Shame 2023 Movie Review
“I think the masses remember Victor Conte as the guy who single-handedly brought down the world of sport.” It says at the end of Untold: Hall of Shame . The criticism could basically stop here. The third batch of new documentaries in the Untold series on Netflix seems to have nothing in common with the original concept of the first nine parts after three of the four new parts so far. Like its direct predecessor , Untold: Johnny Football, this entry would have been more appropriate for the Unsportsmanlike series . Who never by Victor Contelogically everything will be new to him here. As a documentation itself, the contribution is successful again. But in principle everything is well known.
Doping is an inevitable part of professional competitive sport. Every few years there’s a public doping scandal that has people stunned as if it couldn’t possibly exist. Just because someone doesn’t get caught doesn’t mean they don’t take anything. Most doping tests are simply IQ tests, especially if the athlete concerned is given advance notice of the test date. On the other hand, nobody has to pretend that simply taking performance-enhancing substances is enough to compete at world level.
Victor Conte founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in 1985. BALCO carried out blood and urine analyzes but also sold dietary supplements. In 2003, the United States Anti-Doping Agency received an anonymous tip that Conte had supplied several athletes with an undetectable steroid. Athletes accused of doping included Marion Jones , Barry Bonds and Tim Montgomery, among others. Watching Marion Jones at the 2000 Olympics, where she won three gold medals and two bronze medals, was an absolute delight. In the course of the BALCO investigation, however, these medals were finally revoked in December 2007. Montgomery is the only athlete involved to comment on the matter in the documentary. His contributions are undoubtedly interesting and help to classify everything better or to show a different perspective. But the whole thing is not particularly untold.
In Untold: Hall of Shame , Conte is not only allowed to have his say, he makes the documentary a kind of one-man show. The man knows how to talk to captivate an audience, so it’s no wonder he’s been given so much running time here. After all, an emotional outburst is actually a rather surprising moment in the documentary.
“Untold: Hall of Shame” deals with a doping scandal at the beginning of the millennium. Even if not much new is told, the documentation is not only interesting for those who have never heard of it.
