The Last Gold

Director: Brian T. Brown

I typically use IMDB when I write my blog-posts to fill in names of characters, directors, actors and other minutiae I often miss in the credits. But for director Brian T. Brown and his new documentary The Last Gold, IMDB had no information on the film, which was unusual. Even obscure, never-to-be-seen-on-most-movie-screen features have some kind entry on the movie database. Not Brown's. In fact, his film isn't even mentioned under his personal entry! Even Wikipedia; a data source whose reliability is often dubious, can usually be counted to have an entry for mostly anything, was mum on Brown's film. This is the first for any film I've ever reviewed. Its omission is quite vexing, considering the attention heaped on The Last Gold in its film film festival circuit. It's also disappointing, because Brown's documentary on the 1976 U.S. Women's Olympic Swim team; specifically the 4x100 relay squad and its controversial leader Shirley Babashoff, is an exceptional film. This isn't just another sports documentary. Brown's nuanced film is well-researched, well-told and it sheds light on a chapter in Olympic history that has heretofore been ignored: the widespread use of anabolic steroids among the 1976 men and women East German Olympic swim teams and its devastating effect on competition. Brown's film is timely, given the recent doping scandal among Russian athletes prior to the forthcoming Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. In Brown's film, we come to understand how the Cold War rivalry between the United States and East Germany extended beyond geo-political maneuvering into athletic competition, particularly in the Olympic arena.

Early in the film, we meet the American women who would play a historic role in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Though Juliana Margulies narrates the film, the women tell their own stories. We learn about Babashoff; a young, athletic, Californian whose conspicuous passion for competitive swimming in the early 1970s' allowed her to successfully compete against boys. Babashoff describes her intense regimen, which entailed early morning practice before school and more after. We also learn about the other women who would key participants in the Olympic games. Wendy Boglioli, whose swimming talents were honed early on against her athletically competitive siblings. Another is Jill Sterkel, who, like her former teammates, provides valuable insights into her early training. The fourth member of the famous relay team, now deceased was Kim Peyton. Giving the viewer historical context, the interviewees share memories not only of their family lives but of their time as teenagers when male chauvinism demanded women be pretty, unobtrusive creatures.

The film also gives us background and history on the U.S. team's main competitors; the East German women's swim team, whose mediocre medal count in the 1972 Olympic games was eclipsed by the American women's team strong showing in Munich. When the East German women's swim team experienced a dramatic turnaround in international competition a mere year after Munich, few suspicions were aroused as to how a formerly unremarkable program suddenly became a powerhouse in such a narrow time frame.

What is particularly astonishing about Brown's film are his candid interviews with the former members of the East German team on the athletic state of affairs in communist East Germany. Having determined the success over their western rivals was a top priority, the East German government developed a program whereby top athletic prospects were chosen from the young population. But in seeking a competitive edge, East Germany embarked on a state-sponsored program utilizing steroids to develop and enhance their athlete's abilities. Given a little blue pill the coaches claimed was a vitamin, the girls were actually fed an anabolic steroid called Turinabol. The drug increased testosterone in woman, giving them a startling edge over their female competition. Though the men's team was similarly drugged, the effects on the women proved to be more pronounced, as the swimmer's would discover in the Olympic games. Among the interviewees from the East German team is stand-out Kornelia Enders, who would become the bane of the U.S. Swim team in Montreal.

As we see in the film, steroid use had immediate and profound effects on the swimmer's bodies. While the women experienced abnormal hair growth on their faces and bodies, their faces widened, voices deepened and their frames took on a decidedly male appearance. The images of the women in swim suits is telling; their masculinized frames betraying Turinabol's awesome effects. More mind-boggling was the impact of the performance-enhancing drugs on the East German swimmers in international competition. In the 1973 world championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the East German women's team dominated the competition; easily winning the majority of events. Meanwhile Babashoff, a product of superior coaching and intensive training, became discouraged at her repeated losses to her East German counterparts. In the Belgrade footage, the viewer is able to clearly see the the advantage anabolic steroids conferred on the German women.

In spite of East Germany's dominance in international competition, Babashoff maintained her rigorous, daily regimen in preparation for Montreal. Meanwhile, steroid use on the East German teams continued. Though the swimmers were aware of the strange and unsettling effects of the "blue pill," any and all objections were summarily dismissed by their coaches, who were under the thumb of the Stasi; the East German secret police, as well as the state.

Brown effectively builds the suspense leading to the 1976 Summer games in Montreal, where the American men and women's swim teams were pitted against heavily favored East German squads. Though steroids would have a negligible impact on the East German men, who were annihilated in competition against the American men's swim team, it is heartbreaking to see the footage of the U.S. women's team lose again and again to the East Germans, who often won their races by a embarrassing wide-margins. In spite of the American swimmer's breaking many of their own records in Montreal, the East German squad's domination troubled Babashoff. As we see in the film, her veiled comments about doping among the East German swimmers invited vitriolic criticism from the media and the public, which claimed the American team were being bad sports. Another comment from an American journalist would dismiss American team's protests as spoiled behavior. An interview with an American journalist who participated in the vituperative, anti-American swim team attacks has to this day never retracted his condemnation. What seemed clear to Babashoff and her teammates was hardly so to the rest of the world, who regarded East Germany's domination as the fruit of superior training techniques.

Like a true storyteller, Brown saves the thrilling climax for last as the drama builds to the Women's 4x100 relay on the final day of swimming competition. Having been kept off the upper-most spot on the podium for the games entire while the East German swimmers collected gold medal after gold medal, the relay was the team's final opportunity to come away with a gold. The relay allows Brown the tried and true narrative device of pitting the underdog vs the heavy favorite, while a sense of revenge colors the proceedings for the swimmers and the viewer. How it plays out is one of the remarkable stories in Olympic history and an astonishing sequence in the film.

Brown's documentary could have succumbed to the good democracy vs the evil communists chestnut we've seen in many narrative films but as we see, he reaches for the deeper implications of the Olympic competition. Listening to the German swimmers in present day, recollecting their experiences as athletes in a communist government, one can't help but feel sympathetic; knowing the women (and men) were pawns of a totalitarian government determined to push a political agenda. Far from being ignorant hayseeds, the East German teams were fully aware of what was being done to them. Many are contrite, though one swimmer who is seemingly unapologetic asks the pertinent question: how many other athletes did what we did? With doping now a widespread, systemic problem, her question is disturbingly pertinent.

In the end, we see how both teams became victims of a diabolical program. One team is unfairly robbed of fair-play and maybe a lion's share of gold medals, while the other are made unwitting guinea pigs; their femininity scientifically inhumanely suppressed with the state's consent. Brown makes us aware there were no real winners on either team. Though Babashoff feels some sense of vindication, knowing she was eventually proved correct about her suspicions, we can still detect the bitterness and anger in her voice, which is understandable and justified.

Brown's story is exceptionally moving. I felt anger, puzzlement, wonder, vengefulness and elation; an array of emotions only a master storyteller can elicit from his audience. But we also see a more thoughtful perspective, one that considers the point-of-view of the so-called villains. In the brilliant film that is The Last Gold, we find the only villain was the East German government and its preposterous, ideological quest to tamper with nature.