Rising from Ashes

Tell us if you found a gem or a piece of shit, and who peddled it

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Turdacious
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Rising from Ashes

Post by Turdacious »

Documentary about Jacques Boyer (first American to race in the Tour de France) who is trying to redeem himself from tough times by training a group of Rwandan cyclists a few years after the Rwandan Genocide.

It sounded like the kind of feel good sports documentary that I usually like. There are two parts of the story. The first is about Boyer, who was convicted of molesting a girl from the time she was 11 until she was 14, something the filmmakers brush over but don't go into (I had to look it up). Boyer is detached and apologetic in a Lance Armstrongy kind of way (which is creepy because child molester). The other part of the story is about a group of poor Rwandan athletes who are trying to succeed, both for themselves and their families. That part works despite the filmmakers. I don't know much about competitive cycling, and expected to learn something, but I didn't. The filmmaker waited until halfway through the movie to kind of reveal what Boyer did, and it's never clear whether or not Boyer is trying to escape to someplace where he can indulge in his obsession with cycling, or try to redeem himself. I wanted to like this, but couldn't-- there was a great complex story there, but poor storytelling and a massive omission kill it. It's streaming on Netflix.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule