Review of Race (2016) by Mahlon M — 21 Feb 2016

Nothing like an excellent biopic on athletics and politics to perk up a weak year so far, although it does go wanting for better direction in some spots. It gets most of the history right, including the politics, although Owens carried a picture of him shaking hands with Hitler. He even told a Republican political rally for blacks later that year, "Hitler didn't snub me - it was our president (FDR) who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram", nor was he invited to the White House.** As the movie shows, he did have to take a freight elevator to his own reception at the Waldorf-Astoria after the ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes in NYC. 8/10.

**Owens, like a majority of blacks, including MLK and his father, were members of the Party of Lincoln until Nixon's faux pas in 1960. FDR couldn't be seen commiserating in any way with blacks, what with the KKK and Jim Crow states being a large contingent of his Democrat constituency. FDR was re-elected 3 times after that. Funny how we remember things i'nit.