Jesse Owens hampered by Nazi propaganda

RACE (2016)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Reprinted with permission by Steel Notes Magazine

80 years ago, Jesse Owens, a track-and-field super athlete, fielded a major upset at the Munich Olympics as he scored historically high scores.  The fact that this was a black athlete who managed to beat all the Aryan athletes with Hitler and Goebbels in attendance was the real upset. That game is at the heart of “Race,” a squeaky-clean, inoffensive biopic that short-shrifts Jesse Owen’s background in favor of Olympic politics. I do not mind an exploration of the racism of a tyrannical group like the Nazi Party that was forced by the U.S. to cater to someone like Jesse Owens, but why leave out major insights into Owens himself?

The film begins rather oddly with dark blues hues covering Owens’ Cleveland home, as if a dark cloud was penetrating his existence. What is this…a horror movie? Still, this section of the film proves most rewarding as we see Owens (Stephan James) readying himself for Ohio State University and though the family is happy for him, his quiet, reserved father is uneasy. His father’s reaction is understandable because Ohio State University does not welcome Jesse with open arms. For the athletes, the white players get to shower first, then the blacks. Everyone on campus (meaning white students) looks at Jesse with disapproval. Remember this is the early 1930’s, yet it is Jesse’s new competitive coach, Larry Snyder (a marvelous Jason Sudeikis) who doesn’t see color in Jesse, he sees a champion in the making especially after Snyder has suffered so many game losses. The coach wants to help Jesse to prepare by playing syncopation jazz LP’s; by tuning out the hateful, racist slurs slung on a daily basis by the white players and, most significantly, by knowing that beating scores isn’t as important as winning medals. That includes winning Olympic medals.

Suffice to say, there is nothing here we haven’t seen before and possibly better, but I am a sucker for inspirational sports dramas where the underdog overcomes hurling obstacles. “Race” is not content, however, with doing just that. We are talking the superhuman runner Jesse Owens here, the man who changed Olympic history and in Munich no less. Unfortunately, the screenwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse decide to take one too many sharp turns towards U.S. politics with regards toa competition in Munich. We are introduced to Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons), President of the United States Olympic Committee, who sees that participating in Munich will prove to the world that the Master Race is wrong in thinking they are superior to Jews and blacks. There is a lot of the backroom intrigue between select members of the committee (including a sleepy-eyed William Hurt as Amateur Athletic Union head Jeremiah Mahoney who wishes for a boycott) and the meetings with Goebbels and infamous filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (who helped to make Owens iconic in her film “Olympia”). I am not saying I did not find this intrigue and political manipulation fascinating but it takes too much time away from Jesse Owens.

We sense a struggle with Jesse who has to work at a service station just to support his future bride-to-be and their daughter. Jesse also tries to win back her love after carrying on an affair. The film bravely doesn’t shy away from showing how the Germans allowed blacks to stay in the same hotels in their country while in America, segregation was still allowed. These moments punctuate the Owens story of surviving against all odds yet, aside from almost breaking his leg during a stupid stunt, Jesse Owens is presented as a reverent idol, a gift from the gods who ran faster than anyone and could beat anyone. But he must have had some strenuous coaching that went beyond mere rhythm to jazz albums. Once he is at Munich, he competes and wins his medals – where’s the training? I am not one for clichéd “Rocky” montages but come on! Jesse’s story is overwhelmed and undercut by all the political machinations behind-the-scenes. Even Sudeikis’ coach Snyder seems to steal the spotlight. For a two hour and 14 minute, I expect a lot of the triumphant human spirit of Jesse Owens and less, well, everything else.

“Race” is a clear-cut entertainment designed to promote Jesse’s wins, and it does that beautifully, but there is an overflow of Nazi propaganda that would’ve better served a Leni Riefenstahl biopic (which has yet to materialize in La La land). “Race” is slightly hampered by second-string subplots that divert from Jesse Owens (a somnambulist William Hurt is not what I call entertainment). The film suffers from similar problems that plagued “42,” a far more penetrating biopic about another legendary sports figure, Jackie Robinson, and the racism and struggles he had to endure just to play ball. There is one shot, however, in “Race” that took my breath away. It is a spectacular long-take where we follow Jesse as he enters the Olympic field and sees the crowd and a German zeppelin above and prepares to run, slowly putting on his shoes. It is all so entrancing and overwhelming, all from Jesse’s point-of-view. “Race” could have used more of that.