Lifestories: Families in Crisis (TV Series) A Body to Die For: The Aaron Henry Story (1994) User Reviews

Early Affleck in steroid abuse PSA from HBO.

[=G= · 5/10 · 1 December 2002]

"A Body to Die For" is a compelling title for a very ordinary 30 minute HBO PSA about performance enhancing steroid abuse. Affleck, whose performance in this 1994 edu-drama serves to show how little his acting skills have improved over the years, plays Aaron Henry, a "roid" abuser who does an on-screen bio-epilogue in the final minutes. With much better info available more quickly with random access via the Internet, there are few reasons to watch this obvious and preachy show. However, it's short length is suited to the short attention spans of teens making it a suitable educational watch for High School athletes. (C)

Meh

[Suriname86 · 6/10 · 15 April 2016]

If you were a preteen or teen in the 90s, you probably saw this movie at least a couple of times in your health classes. So most people were probably compelled to see it rather than seeing it by choice.

It's entertaining but cheesy and wildly exaggerates the effects of steroids.

It also feels a bit dated at this point; the music and clothes in particular are very early-90s.

If you're curious, it's worth tuning into see a very-young Ben Affleck, who is now an A-List Hollywood actor but otherwise,pretty useless PSA film.

did you know

[mlago29 · 11 December 2006]

A study of the National Football League reported that through the 1970's and 1980's approximately 75-90% of all players used Anabolic Steroids. Furthermore, 65-75% of the New York Jets and "at least 50% of the big guys" on the Oakland Raiders used Steroids. Additionally, In 2001 approximately 15% of admitted steroid users in the NCAA admitted to starting experimenting with anabolic steroids as early as junior high school. 40% of them reported that they started in High school. In a separate study, 11.1% of male high school students reported to have used Anabolic steroids. Finally, a widespread USA study in 1995 revealed that around 2.26% of children 14 years old reported using steroids.

I just wanted to throw out a number or two but when they didn't let me post it because the message was too short I added a couple more.

Incredibly Backwards

[justin-71-535250 · 1/10 · 3 June 2011]

Without question this has to be one of the more blatant propaganda pieces ever put on film. It appears no effort was made to reveal truth, as is the point with such films; instead the film relies on the ingrained ideas of popular culture and the vast array of misinformation and urban legend. As someone who works in the field of bodybuilding and fitness in a both research and applicable manner, I find the film highly offensive to basic intelligence as every aspect of the film can be dismissed and disproved with simple medical and scientific data. For those who have their doubts a good place to start would be The New England Journal of Medicine and their 1996 study on anabolic steroids in a performance enhancing capacity. You'll note Roid Rage does not exist and you will find this to be the case in all studies of a neutral nature, as it has been proved myth time and time again.

as a teen watching this in high school I was able to enjoy it...

[wvchica · 31 March 2006]

I watched this in my junior year of high school (2001-02) in my Anatomy class. I actually liked it. I thought it was good. I don't know if this was because I was young and didn't really know what was good and bad in movies, etc. But really, if you're younger usually a video you have to watch in school isn't going to appeal to you at all. I don't know, I guess I'm not the average student. I enjoyed the class so maybe that's why I liked the movie. Ever since I watched it back then I've been trying to find information about it and haven't had much luck until now. I guess to each his own, but if you like things that show you the truth behind serious problems in our society then I think you'll like this look into the realities and risks of steroid use and abuse.