Review: Race

Often nuanced but generally too measured in execution to be anything more than moderately uplifting, Race chronicles a key period in the life of the legendary track and field athlete, Jesse Owens, who is played with remarkable physicality, empathy and dignity by Stephan James.

The film begins during the fall of 1933 as Owens prepares to leave home to attend Ohio State University (OSU). Screenwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse provide quick sketches of his home life in the opening scenes: numerous brothers and sisters, an emotionally inexpressive father (Andrew Moodie), a proud and caring mother (Michèle Lonsdale Smith) who believes that he was born for great things, his childhood sweetheart Ruth (Shanice Banton) and their daughter, who was born out of wedlock; he's determined to make good in order to support them, assure their faith has not been misplaced, and prove that his legs can overcome the barrier of his race.

The power of those legs catches the eye of coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis), himself a former track and field athlete whose tenure at OSU has produced nothing but losses. He's intent on getting Owens to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, partly to prove his own naysayers wrong but mostly because he recognises the depths of Owens' talent, a talent which can transcend - though not entirely eliminate - the racism that was part and parcel of the time. Owens' impressive performance at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan - setting three records and tying another - earns him a place in the public spotlight along with a bit of temptation in the form of the slinky Quincella (Chantel Riley).

Owens' achievements are duly delineated as is his growing bond with Snyder, but the narrative intrigues more when focused on the increasing debate over whether the United States should boycott the upcoming Berlin Olympics to show their disapproval of Hitler's regime. On one side is Judge Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt), who points out that Germany is not only pushing to exclude the Jews but also trying to keep Negroes from participating in the Olympics. He believes a vote for the boycott would be a vote against tyranny. Industrialist and future IOC president Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons, silkily cynical) begs to differ - the American people need heroes, he argues, and why should athletes who have worked for years for this opportunity be deprived of it?

It's no surprise that Owens decides to attend even after the NAACP attempts to compel him otherwise. Nor is it a surprise that he goes on to win four Olympic gold medals. Yet if this section of the film lacks any genuine narrative tension, it makes up for it in its nuanced depiction of race, gender, and the arguably overriding elements of art, history and sportsmanship. His friendship with German long-jumper Carl "Lutz" Long (David Kross) is particularly affecting and their conversations on how race relations are no different in Germany than they are in America hit home without being too pointed or didactic. The fact that Owens was snubbed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who never congratulated the man who won four gold medals for the United States, further underscores their observations.

Meanwhile, it is no small irony that Owens was celebrated on film by Hitler's favourite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten), who clashed with Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) over control of the footage she was capturing of the Games. [The subsequent film, Olympia, is one of the most technically and aesthetically breathtaking works ever made.] Some may argue that Riefenstahl is given a sympathetic treatment here, but there is no denying the fact that she, as a fellow minority in terms of her gender, but more importantly as a German filmmaker, was able immortalise Owens in a way no American filmmaker ever did is something to be commended.

"A man has to present an image to the world," Jesse's mother says at the start, and while Race doesn't quite expand upon or shed further insight into Owens' character, it does provide a thoughtful view of the racial and political atmosphere that surrounded a man who helped pave the way for future black athletes.

Race

Directed by: Stephen Hopkins

Written by: Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse

Starring: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, Carice van Houten, William Hurt, Shanice Banton, David Kross, Barnaby Metschurat, Chantel Riley, Tony Curran, Eli Goree, Shamier Anderson, Jonathan Higgins