This true story of an American hero is written by Joel Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse and directed by Stephen Hopkins – a team that has managed to place before the public one of the finer biographies of a sports superstar as well as a powerful statement about racism in this country and abroad on the screen today. It is filled with excellent and sensitive performances in major and minor roles and the fact that it is not being considered for awards seems oddly uninformed.
The title of the film – RACE - is most appropriately chosen as it asks the audience to transpose concepts of sportsmanship to considerations of racial bigotry both of the past and the present. And that works very well indeed. Using the extremes of Nazi Germany extermination of Jews, Blacks, gypsies, gays etc in the name of Aryan supremacy is shudderingly demonstrated, but equally difficult is the manner in which the film places a mirror to America, both in the more blatant era of the 1930s (in schools, restaurants, and African American families) of the hurtful racism that still exists is so important for us to see enacted on the big screen.
Briefly, Jesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. But more specifically, in the 1930s, Jesse Owens (Stephan James in an Oscar worthy performance) is a young man who is the first in his family to go to college. Going to Ohio State to train under its track and field coach, Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis, proving that he is a fine actor in a fine film instead of just another silly goofus as in his usual films), the young African American athlete quickly impresses with his tremendous potential that suggests Olympic material. However, as Owens struggles both with the obligations of his life and the virulent racism against him, the question of whether America would compete at all at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany is being debated vigorously. When the American envoy (Jeremy Irons) finds a compromise persuasive with the Third Reich to avert a boycott, Owens has his own moral struggle about going – not only the race issues but leaving behind his girlfriend (Shannon Banton) and their child. Upon resolving that issue, Owens and his coach travel to Berlin to participate in a competition that would mark Owens as the greatest of America's Olympians even as the German film director, Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten), locks horns with her country's Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat), to film the politically embarrassing fact for posterity.
There are many significant minor roles portrayed by William Hurt, Eli Goree, Jonathan Higgins, Shamier Anderson, and especially David Kross who plays Carl 'Luz' Long – Jesse's German rival with whom Jesse finds support and understanding in a very moving scene.
There are many reasons to see this film, or better yet town it to share with others. It is an outstanding achievement with a very important message.
The title of the film – RACE - is most appropriately chosen as it asks the audience to transpose concepts of sportsmanship to considerations of racial bigotry both of the past and the present. And that works very well indeed. Using the extremes of Nazi Germany extermination of Jews, Blacks, gypsies, gays etc in the name of Aryan supremacy is shudderingly demonstrated, but equally difficult is the manner in which the film places a mirror to America, both in the more blatant era of the 1930s (in schools, restaurants, and African American families) of the hurtful racism that still exists is so important for us to see enacted on the big screen.
Briefly, Jesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. But more specifically, in the 1930s, Jesse Owens (Stephan James in an Oscar worthy performance) is a young man who is the first in his family to go to college. Going to Ohio State to train under its track and field coach, Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis, proving that he is a fine actor in a fine film instead of just another silly goofus as in his usual films), the young African American athlete quickly impresses with his tremendous potential that suggests Olympic material. However, as Owens struggles both with the obligations of his life and the virulent racism against him, the question of whether America would compete at all at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany is being debated vigorously. When the American envoy (Jeremy Irons) finds a compromise persuasive with the Third Reich to avert a boycott, Owens has his own moral struggle about going – not only the race issues but leaving behind his girlfriend (Shannon Banton) and their child. Upon resolving that issue, Owens and his coach travel to Berlin to participate in a competition that would mark Owens as the greatest of America's Olympians even as the German film director, Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten), locks horns with her country's Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat), to film the politically embarrassing fact for posterity.
There are many significant minor roles portrayed by William Hurt, Eli Goree, Jonathan Higgins, Shamier Anderson, and especially David Kross who plays Carl 'Luz' Long – Jesse's German rival with whom Jesse finds support and understanding in a very moving scene.
There are many reasons to see this film, or better yet town it to share with others. It is an outstanding achievement with a very important message.