PANTANI-The-Accidental-Death-of-A-Cyclist

In 1998, Italian cyclist Marco Pantani won both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, the two most prestigious and arguably difficult events in road cycling, a feat that hasn’t been equalled since. As with almost every success story to come out of road cycling in the last few decades, Pantani’s career was marred by accusations of doping and drug abuse. No stranger to sport documentaries, director James Erskine (One Night in Turin, Battle of the Sexes) turns his gaze on a sport whose reputation is still reeling from years of doping scandals. In Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist, Erskine pieces together the life of one of the era’s most revered figures and the events leading up to his untimely death in 2004.

Regarded as one of his generation’s best climbers, Pantani’s aggressive riding style and imposing image led to him becoming an immensely popular rider. He had the look of a pirate and so adopted the nickname ‘Il Pirata’. Erskine adopts a relatively straightforward approach to telling his story, making use of talking head interviews from members of Pantani’s family as well as journalists and a number of riders. They tell what is, at times, a fantastically exciting story. Pantani’s literal rise to the top of world cycling is often breathtaking to watch as he passes rider after rider on his way up the mountain. The inevitable descent, however, isn’t quite so fun and his death from cocaine intoxication looms large over the whole film (the clue is in the title).

What makes Pantani very uncomfortable to watch is the fact that, for some time, the film keeps oddly quiet about the doping allegations that effectively ended the rider’s career and led to his spiral into depression. We see him winning race after race with barely a mention of the massive elephant in the room. When eventually it does come up, the film appears to take an unashamedly apologist view on the matter, claiming that it would’ve been impossible for him to win without cheating (umm… isn’t that the point?).

Also jarring is the film’s bizarre use of reconstructed footage in which a Pantani lookalike undergoes drug tests, snorts cocaine, and at one point punches a mirror. These scenes are totally at odds with the archive footage and only serve to cheapen the whole affair. One wonders why they were included when Alex Gibney (The Armstrong Lie) and Asif Kapadia (Senna) have shown that storytelling in sport documentaries works best when it lets the footage speak for itself. Pantani would have benefitted hugely had it done away with the reconstructions and interviews.

Pantani is ultimately a disappointment as it takes a gripping and intriguing story and tells it in a way which is often dull and frustrating. It never really asks the questions you want it to ask and always feels like it is hiding something. There is a much better Pantani documentary hidden away somewhere, but sadly, this isn’t it.

[Rating:2/5]