This documentary does not go very deep into Jones's issues and wrongdoings, and is rather soft- hitting. Although one man interviewed informs us at one point that Marion Jones is a tough woman who knew exactly what she was doing and don't buy into the idea that men around her got her into something she didn't want to be a part of, most of the rest of the interviews which made the cut are making excuses for her; blaming her persecution not on her cheating and lying, but her race and her trainers. Watching this documentary you'd think that she only got into trouble because while being interviewed by the authorities she actually answered some of the questions honestly instead of walking out of the room for a break. You'd think she was a naive woman whose coach hoodwinked her and media targeted her. We are told that she didn't really need steroids to win, and that even without them, she would have still won two gold medals in Sydney instead of three. (This is just included without any possible retort.) These sorts of ridiculous statements which the documentary is more than happy to promote may make her fans feel warm and fuzzy, but really they just demonstrate the type of whitewashing it is trying to do. Unlike the rest of the 30 for 30 series, this one does not go deeply into the topic and frankly does not sit well alongside most of the other (excellent) films in this series.

In the Athens Olympics, Marion Jones won five medals and became a HUGE celebrity as a result. However, some time later, it was revealed that she's been using performance-enhancing drugs AND she's lied while under oath about her drug use. As a result, her medals were stripped and she served six months in jail."Marion Jones: Press Pause" begins with Marion Jones addressing the world at a press conference. At this conference, she admitted openly and took full responsibility for her use of these performance- enhancing drugs. This was a wonderful thing. While I hate the notion of anyone using such drugs, I love folks openly admitting it and not making excuses--which, unfortunately, is something I saw a lot of in another "30 for 30" film, "9.79". In "9.79", many athletes who were caught made TONS of excuses (especially the old 'everybody's doing it' excuse)--and fortunately Jones does not do this.HOWEVER, the film was not well made because although she was pretty open about her use of these drugs and how she lied and cheated, some of the folks in the documentary DID go there--making many excuses for using drugs to win the Olympics. One blamed Jones' coaches--who might deserve SOME of the blame but she made the choice to use them and lie about this when she was under oath. The worst of these folks threw out the race card--saying she was being persecuted because she was black. Well, in the Olympics, EVERYONE is tested...everyone...black, white, green, whatever. Even if you argued that many other professional athletes (black and white baseball players are a good example) got away with lying under oath and Jones didn't, this still doesn't excuse anyone from lying or taking the drugs in the first place. Cheating is wrong--especially when you consider that these folks doing great means that other deserving folks DIDN'T get the multi- million dollar endorsement deals and public adulation. So, while Jones went to jail, boiling it all down to race (as ONE person did in the film) really is not appropriate and distracted the viewers from Jones' story. Plus, it minimizes and cheats folks who really have been hurt due to race. If she'd just given her story and the camera had shown her in her attempt to redeem herself and establish a post-prison life, it would have been very compelling. I liked this portion of the film--the rest I could have done without.By the way, I did some additional reading about Marion Jones and her sentencing. It seems that her lying under oath about the use of the drugs was a PART of the reason she was sent to jail--the rest apparently was due to her also lying about some check cashing scheme. This wasn't mentioned in the "30 for 30" film.

30 for 30: Marion Jones Press Pause (2010) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Singleton's entry in the ESPN series takes a look at Marion Jones, the woman who quickly rose to fame with her speed but it all came crashing down after serving six months in prison for lying to the government about taking steroids. There are many ways you can look at this documentary. For me, I think the media's hypocrisy on who uses steroids and in what sport is a major joke. In the NFL you get four games off but in MLB you are looked down upon and each night the news is covering how evil you are. Many will say that Jones didn't deserve prison time for steroids and lying about them but it is what it is. The documentary struck me as strange because I was never really sure where the talented director wanted to take it. He's shown on screen interviewing Jones so you can't expecting too many hard hitting questions from him to her. At the same time you have other people interviewed and really coming down hard on her. Some blame her for this or that while others say her being prosecuted was due to race. What really threw me is that we open up with her tearful confession and we learn that she was a cheater and a liar. This is followed up with us seeing the great talent that she was and see her winning all the Olympic medals. This is a problem because you can't say she's cheating one second and then tell us to look at how talented she is because the majority of this talent could have been due to the cheating. The entire documentary just never really seems to know where it wants to go and in the end it really keeps it from being hard hitting like many other entries in this series. This certainly isn't a bad movie but considering the director you have to think there should have been more to it.