Bigger, stronger & faster.. at a price.

Byline: Oliver Holt

BASEBALL'S home run king, Barry Bonds, is about to stand trial for perjury because he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

The same fate may soon befall one of the sport's most famous pitchers, Roger Clemens. And yesterday, New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez, who was supposed to be squeaky clean, admitted he used steroids.

The drugs issue is starting to dominate American sport again so this week I finally got round to watching a brilliant documentary about American attitudes to steroids.

In Bigger Stronger Faster, director Chris Bell uses the struggles of his elder brother, a small hall wrestler, and his younger brother, a leading power-lifter, to put forward the idea that "steroids are not the problem - they're just another side-effect of being American".

The most challenging part of the film, particularly for those of us opposed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport, is the examination of what people in other walks of life will do to get an edge.

There are the US Air Force pilots who pop amphetamines before they fly missions, musicians who take betablockers to steady their nerves, students who take pep pills before they write an essay.

Bigger Stronger Faster blurs the lines between right and wrong. It raises questions about how dangerous anabolic steroids really are but then it answers them with its depiction of the pain they unleash on one American family.

No one is innocent in an American society obsessed with material gain and celebrity, the film argues. It's just some are less guilty than others.

CAPTION(S):

CONFESSION Alex Rodriguez; ON TRIAL Barry Bonds