The title "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" is not as important to the filmmakers as the subtitle: "The Side Effects of Being American."

This absorbing look into the world of anabolic steroids takes the position that America is obsessed with winning, with being the biggest, strongest and fastest. This attitude, the filmmakers say, is what has brought the country to its place as a world leader. Americans will do whatever it takes to win, to gain a physical edge, and that includes using steroids.

So far, this is nothing new. But then the documentary moves in a wholly unexpected direction. It says: Maybe that's not a bad thing.

Director and co-writer Chris Bell, who says he finds steroid use among athletes morally akin to cheating, believes (or pretends to believe) that cheating is the American way. And then he brings up some fascinating points.

Tiger Woods got LASIK eye surgery, giving him abnormally good vision in a sport that relies on depth perception. Is that cheating?

Untold numbers of athletes receive cortisone shots to relieve inflammation. Cortisone is a steroid, with side effects even worse than anabolic steroids. Is that cheating?

Bicyclist Floyd Landis, who was accused of steroid use, says he didn't take steroids but does sleep in an altitude chamber, which raises the red blood cell count. Is that cheating?

An altitude chamber mimics the effects of being at a high altitude. American Olympians train at a center 6,000 feet above sea level for the same purpose. Is that cheating?

Bell affects a false naivete a little too reminiscent of Michael Moore in his narration, and he even attempts a Mooreian ambush interview. But he does one thing Moore does not: He provides compelling arguments on both sides of the steroid controversy.

On the one hand, he shows doctors describing the ill effects of steroid use. On the other hand, he shows doctors saying those doctors don't know what they're talking about -- literally, because there haven't been any scientific studies done about the recreational use of steroids. And there haven't been such studies because the use of steroids has been banned.

The medicinal use of steroids, however, is common and can be extraordinarily beneficial. Bell even finds a man who has had HIV for 25 years and says the steroids have been keeping him alive.

It is true, one doctor says, that steroid use leads to increased aggression in about 5 percent of those who take it. Another man posits that steroids only make you more of what you were before; if you were aggressive before taking them, you become more aggressive afterward.

The man who says this, along with certain other men who are interviewed, look like they may know something about being increasingly aggressive.

Bell lightens the mood with humor and with frequent pop-culture references. But sometimes he drifts off on a tangent, such as a segment about how dietary supplements are not regulated and about the details of his own family life. It is at times like this that the movie feels much too long, like it is bulky and bloated.

It is, as the film itself would say, a documentary on steroids.