Some people might be interested in the news that a documentary named Icarus is returning to the movie theaters. Said documentary was purchased by Netflix for $5 million, which is why it can be watched by interested individuals through the streaming service. However, it is now available in certain movie theaters as well, which is something that can be attributed to recent events.
For those who are curious, Icarus is a documentary about doping. To be exact, it is centered around an amateur cyclist named Bryan Fogel’s interest in seeing whether he could pass an anti-doping test while making use of performance-enhancing drugs in his preparations for the Haute Route Cycling Series. Initially, he had approached a U.S. expert on said subject matter for assistance, but said individual decided against getting involved for fear of the harm that could be done to his reputation, with the result that Fogel approached a Russian expert for assistance instead.
The Russian expert was Grigory Rodchenkov, who used to be the head of one of Russia’s antidoping institutions. With that said, what is interesting is that as Fogel and Rodchenkov continued to cooperate on their shared project, they became closer and closer, which resulted in Fogel learning that Rodchenkov had a full-fledged system for helping Russian athletes take performance-enhancing drugs without being detected by the standard antidoping methods. In turn, Rodchenkov’s role in said program came out, which resulted in him fleeing to the United States with some help from Fogel. Once in the United States, Rodchenkov provided valuable testimony about what Russia had been doing before being put in protective custody because of fear that he would be targeted for retaliation.
As a result, it can be said that Icarus started out as one thing but managed to become something much more interesting in the process because of developments that could not have been foreseen by its creator. Based on this, it is no wonder that it managed to receive so much positive attention, so much so that it is being considered a serious contender for the most important awards and accolades out there.
Why Is Icarus Returning to the Movie Theaters?
There are a couple of main reasons that Icarus is making a return to the movie theaters. First, Icarus is seen as a serious contender for the most important awards and accolades out there, which happen to include the Academy Awards. However, if the documentary is to be a contender, it will have to be in the movie theaters for some time, meaning that its return can be seen as an effort to ensure that it meets the necessary requirements.
However, it should also be noted that Icarus has gained renewed relevance because of recent news regarding Russian participation in the Olympics. For those who haven’t heard the news, Russia has been banned from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics because of a systematic effort to cheat antidoping measures, which is an enormous step to take to say the least. Russian athletes will still be able to compete so long as they pass the standard tests, but they won’t be able to compete under the flag of their nation. As a result, Icarus is exactly the sort of documentary that would receive renewed attention under such circumstances.
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