Wired to Win

Recently got to see the new IMAX movie "Wired to Win". It's about how the
brain is wired to get riders through the Tour de France. Great race
footage. (It was from I believe two years ago, when Lance was taken down by
the spectator's bag and a huge crash near the beginning took out many
riders.) I thought the brain part was a bit weak, but seeing racing in full
IMAX dome mode was very cool.

Cathy Kearns wrote:
Recently got to see the new IMAX movie "Wired to Win". It's about how the
brain is wired to get riders through the Tour de France. Great race
footage. (It was from I believe two years ago, when Lance was taken down by
the spectator's bag and a huge crash near the beginning took out many
riders.) I thought the brain part was a bit weak, but seeing racing in full
IMAX dome mode was very cool.

The initial plan for that movie was to focus on Tyler Hamilton. They
had his helmet wired w/ various sensors that SHOULD've allowed for
real-time brain wave information. After the doping scandal they had to
practically remake the movie, removing any reference to him. You may
have noticed he was prominent in some of the footage, but his name was
not mentioned once.

Frankly, I think the movie lost a lot of his appeal, having edited out
all the real-time info. The footage was, of course, phenomenal.

Cathy Kearns wrote:
Recently got to see the new IMAX movie "Wired to Win". It's about how the
brain is wired to get riders through the Tour de France. Great race
footage. (It was from I believe two years ago, when Lance was taken down by
the spectator's bag and a huge crash near the beginning took out many
riders.) I thought the brain part was a bit weak, but seeing racing in full
IMAX dome mode was very cool.



waiting for it to come to my town...
http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/venues.html

Wasn't this to star Tyler who then crashed basically killing the movie?
But then Tyler turned the movie to gold by hanging in giving the
directors more brain n pain than they could have dreamed of. Then while
editing... the disaster that turned to gold turned back to disaster.

Scott wrote:

The initial plan for that movie was to focus on Tyler Hamilton. They
had his helmet wired w/ various sensors that SHOULD've allowed for
real-time brain wave information. After the doping scandal they had to
practically remake the movie, removing any reference to him. You may
have noticed he was prominent in some of the footage, but his name was
not mentioned once.

Frankly, I think the movie lost a lot of his appeal, having edited out
all the real-time info. The footage was, of course, phenomenal.

I haven't seen this movie. I understand that IMAX movies
have to have mass appeal and aren't likely to tell stories
that have a lot of shades of gray, or have a protagonist you
feel ambivalent toward.

But I wonder if turning Ty-Ty into a non-person was the
only or even the right way to deal with his fall from grace.
I have to think that a documentary maker who could handle
ambiguous subjects - like Errol Morris - could have made
something interesting out of the situation. Even apart
from Tyler's brainwaves.

In article .com,
" wrote:

But I wonder if turning Ty-Ty into a non-person was the
only or even the right way to deal with his fall from grace.
I have to think that a documentary maker who could handle
ambiguous subjects - like Errol Morris - could have made
something interesting out of the situation. Even apart
from Tyler's brainwaves.

I don't think that eighty-sixing him from the movie was the right thing to do
at all. But it surely must have been down to some IMAX executive being afraid to
have a movie associated with someone who seems to be considered a "cheat." But
that doesn't make the movie any less compelling (at least not to me). For me,
his departure made me less interested in going to see it.

--
tanx,
Howard

Grandma Smith said a curious thing
Boys must whistle, girls must sing

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

" wrote in
oups.com:

But I wonder if turning Ty-Ty into a non-person was the
only or even the right way to deal with his fall from grace.

I have to think that if the basic premise of your film is how the brain of
elite athletes adapts and the role that adaptation plays in their success,
Tyler's other "adaptations" sort of invalidate that premise. Are his
successes a better subject for a movie about neuroscience, or hematology?
And, in the end this is a film about the nervious system that uses cycling as
an example, not a film about cycling. To deal with the Hamilton issue in any
meaningful and fair manner would require a substantial amount of on-screen
time, and change the whole focus of the movie,

And, BTW, just who the ****, exactly, is this guy?
http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/pr...tomlinson.html

Tim Mullin wrote:
" wrote:
But I wonder if turning Ty-Ty into a non-person was the
only or even the right way to deal with his fall from grace.

I have to think that if the basic premise of your film is how the brain of
elite athletes adapts and the role that adaptation plays in their success,
Tyler's other "adaptations" sort of invalidate that premise. Are his
successes a better subject for a movie about neuroscience, or hematology?
And, in the end this is a film about the nervious system that uses cycling as
an example, not a film about cycling. To deal with the Hamilton issue in any
meaningful and fair manner would require a substantial amount of on-screen
time, and change the whole focus of the movie,

Like I said, I haven't seen the movie, so I feel a little reluctant
to criticize specifics of its content. I would imagine that whatever
neural adaptations Tyler made are somewhat orthogonal to
blood doping - higher hemoglobin supposedly lets you do
whatever it is you do, just more of it. Anyway, I kind of doubt
they dropped Tyler for scientific reasons, rather that he was a
hot potato. This seems a little paranoid - people are still going
to baseball games, you have to lie to Congress to look bad in
that biz.

But my larger point is that although Tyler's bust made it harder
for them to make the film they envisioned, dropping him down
the memory hole might not have been the right decision. Maybe
they _could_ have changed the focus of the movie. That's why
I gave the example of Errol Morris. But it probably isn't what
the producers of an IMAX movie are looking for.

And, BTW, just who the ****, exactly, is this guy?
http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/pr...tomlinson.html

Hmm, "wired to win" really is something of a double
entendre, isn't it? You think bike messengers ride on
mineral water?

" wrote in
oups.com:

Anyway, I kind of doubt
they dropped Tyler for scientific reasons, rather that he was a
hot potato.

I didn't mean to suggest he was dropped for scientific reasons, but for
better storytelling. Once again, this is a movie about the brain and the
nervious system, not bicycle racing. The racers are the vehicle they use to
tell the story, but not the story itself. And the story can be told with or
without Hamilton.

But my larger point is that although Tyler's bust made it harder
for them to make the film they envisioned, dropping him down
the memory hole might not have been the right decision. Maybe
they _could_ have changed the focus of the movie.

See, here's the problem with a movie like this....IMAX is hugely expensive,
and the audience is limited, with no future DVD release or international
market to help recoup expenses. So, what's a film maker to do? Well, as is
the case with most of the productions, they have grants and corprate
sponsors. In this case the grant came from the National Science Foundation,
and the deep corprate pockets were those of Ortho-McNeil Neurologics. Can you
imagine going to them and saying, "Ya know that nice movie about the brain
you gave us all that nice money for? Well, it's about something else now."
No, I can't either. Likewise most of these movies wind up showing in science
centers where they like nice, simple stories that are long on science and
don't tackle a lot of thorny social issues like doping.

That's why
I gave the example of Errol Morris. But it probably isn't what
the producers of an IMAX movie are looking for.

Exactly.

wrote:
But my larger point is that although Tyler's bust made it harder
for them to make the film they envisioned, dropping him down
the memory hole might not have been the right decision. Maybe
they _could_ have changed the focus of the movie.

You mean they should have changed the storyline to involve two gay
cyclists in Wyoming.

In article . net,
Tim Mullin wrote:

And, BTW, just who the ****, exactly, is this guy?
http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/pr...tomlinson.html

Cool story - thanks for the link, Tim.

--
tanx,
Howard

Grandma Smith said a curious thing
Boys must whistle, girls must sing

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?