Review of Race (2016) by Kevin A — 23 Feb 2016

Just as Chadwick Boseman was terrific as Jackie Robinson in last year's "42", so too is Stephan James as Jesse Owens in this wonderful recreation of the the early story of one of America's greatest Olympians, winner of four Gold Medals at the 1936 Nazi hosted Olympic games in Berlin.

Jason Sudeikis surprises as a dramatic actor playing Owens' college track coach at Ohio State in the early 30's. The racism of those days was flagrant and in your face and its ugly aspects are on full display here, yet Owens endured with silent dignity.

It's fun to learn that the name Jesse was a phonetic mistake when his grade school teacher shortened his birth name, James Cleveland Owens to "JC" and the elongated pronunciation of JC became Jesse.

The first two arcs of the film concern Jesse and his evolution as a track star under the guidance of his color blind coach, Lary Snyder, very well played by Sudeikis. In the states the undisputed coach of college and Olympic track and field is the late, real life Dean Cromwell who was the track and field coach of the Univ.

of Southern California which dominated the college competition which also led to his selection to coach the USA team for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The nastiness of the Nazis is not glossed over and the then nascent President of the Olympic Organizing Committee, Avery Brundage, is well played by Jeremy Irons.

William Hurt, another Oscar winner along with Irons, plays a conscience driven executive concerned about whether to send Americans to compete in Hitler's games on the world stage. Curiously, much is made of Leni Reifenstahl who was the maker of Hiltler's greatest documentary supposedly to support the superiority of the Aryan "race".

She is capably played by Carice van Houten delivering lines in both English and German to great effect. The Nazi nastiness drips from every pore and word spoken by Josef Goebbels superbly played by German speaking actor Barnaby Metschurat-yep with a first name of Barnaby and his last name, it must have been a very confusing choice of names for his parents.

He is creepy and detached. The depicition of Hiltler is lousy though. The few scenes in which he is presented do not include any dialogue and the actor chosen to play Hitler, given the visage we know all too well is feeble, plus the actor doesn't even really look like the real deal; his moustache is not right and he looks too young.

But this is a gem of a tear jerker patriotic tribute to all that is good in a race blind Olympics and a testament to the stoic, enduring and graceful ways in which one of our greatest athletes made us all proud.