ViewGuide

Created Feb 27, 2016 11:53PM PST • Edited Jun 13, 2020 05:33PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   “Jesse Owens, American Hero” are four words that were imprinted in my mind from an early age. Jackie Robinson stands with him as an icon of African-American greatness, and therefore of American greatness, but Jesse Owens came first, by a lot. Plus he won not just one but four Gold Medals and did so in front of Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Fact: His was the first American victory over the Nazi regime.

   Jesse Owens is therefore an American hero of the first order. His important story and those entwined with his get well and movingly told in Race. Yet, this diligent and evocative biopic is exceedingly reverential, with a hero who’s a gosh-darnit goody-twoshoes. Nor is the acting always up to the story, which has an end that’s never in doubt. Those are the burdens any heroic biopic must overcome. Race does so by keeping its eye on the prize: a moving, historic and awesome story. It deserves induction as a Mount Rushmore Movie.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Stephan James is more handsome and athletic-looking than the real Jesse Owens. James invests Owens with an attractive openness that humanizes this icon of manhood. This impressive actor earlier proved his ability to add acting to athletic action as the real-life T.K. Brown in When the Game Stands Tall.

   Jeremy Irons stands out as Avery Brundage, Major Domo of the US Olympic Committee. Irons should be required to do at least four movies a year. It’s not too much to ask.

   Jason Sudeikis plays straight as Ohio State track coach Larry Snyder. Tripod is right in comparing the performance to Jon Lovitz in A League of Their Own. Sudeikis pulls it off but doesn’t add to the movie, apparently having hit his Peter Principle ceiling.

   Others

   • Michèle Lonsdale Smith delivers a powerful cameo as Jesse Owens’ mother Emma Owens.
   • Andrew Moodie likewise is a picture of quiet manhood as his father, Henry Owens.
   • Shanice Banton jumps off screen as Ruth Solomon-Owens, Jesse’s future wife of 56 years.
   • William Hurt as the USOC leader who tried to boycott the 1936 Berlin Games.
   • Carice van Houten as Leni Riefenstahl, perhaps the most famous female filmmaker in history
   • Amanda Crew as a hot girl with designs on a famous athlete
   • Jeremy Ferdman as Marty Glickman, a Jewish sprinter on the US Olympic team
   • Barnaby Metschurat delivers a chilling performance as Joseph Goebbels, that sick freak.
   • David Kross as Carl “Luz” Long, the heroic German rival to Jesse Owens: Unfortunately Kross doesn’t look the part of übermensch Olympian.
   • Shamier Anderson as Enlace Peacock, Jesse’s American rival: Anderson gets to deliver an important line and nails it.
   • Adrian Wicker stands in for Adolf Hitler.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Race is a terrific title for Stephen Hopkins’ film, dualistically referring to the 100 yard dash and Aryan foolishness.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5

    This 1930s period piece is exquisitely well done, with the CGI behind the 100,000 seat Berlin Olympic Stadium a particular highlight, especially when the Hindenburg makes a triumphant flyover.

    Only ding: Tripod is right that the running and general athleticism of this athletic movie is wanting.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.0

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Fierce 2.3

19. Rudeness Salty 2.1

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    Race tarts up things here and there, no doubt. I’m guessing its circoreality at 1.5x, which is not much in the scheme of things as big screen biopics go. It’s the underlying reality that make it so powerful and important.

    Layers of irony reveal themselves in this earnestly non-ironic film.

    • Boycotting the 1936 Berlin Olympics was not just a good idea, it was the only right-thinking idea. However, Jesse Owens would not have triumphed in front of Adolph Hitler had it carried the day. Nor would there need to be a movie about him, as he would have died a nobody. Much more importantly, America wouldn’t have proved a beacon to ourselves and to the world.
    • Turns out the Nazis hated Jews even more than they hated blacks, who they considered sub-human. Thus Jesse Owens got his fourth gold medal subbing for a Jewish-American runner that Goebbels blackballed the American Olympic Committee from running. History rarely gets so personal, so immediate, so ennobling. This powerful history and character elevate Race from pedantic paean to transcendent testimony.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0