Review of Icarus (2017) by Sandra B — 07 Aug 2017

This film blew me away. I just watched Tour de Pharmacy on HBO, which made a joke out of doping in the Tour de France. Now, two weeks later.. Icarus comes out. This isn't a joke (no hate to Tour de Pharmacy.

.. it was AWESOME). I'm not an athlete, I watch the Olympics like most of us do; if I happen to be home and if i'm semi-interested in the sport. But this film gave me pause. Sport is more than just sport.

Since the beginning of time, it was our human barometer of man's physical strength, not of our inherent but of our extrinsic worthiness. Until recently.. industrial revolution,etc... this measure was what we had to prove our people, our nation, our sex.

. was superior. The Greeks started this measure with the Olympic games centuries ago. We continue this tradition and even though I never thought about how profound that was... I now see it. And in this film, we the audience get to learn that the spectacle we see isn't at all what we thought it was.

This man, Grigory, is like Walter White on Breaking Bad. A man with a strong inner code that ignores the letter of the law but intolerant of deviation from things regarding the sanctity of human life, science and fairness.

This man, Grigory.. he risked his life to expose what he saw as an assault on his convictions. With little to no regard for his legacy, his reputation and his safety... he chose to tell the story so that we could all know.

Again, I was blown away by this film And to tell you the truth... i'll never watch the Olympics with the same sense of awe and wonder again.