{"id":1717,"date":"2016-02-18T17:35:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T17:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/dev\/?p=1717"},"modified":"2018-09-13T17:36:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T17:36:45","slug":"race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/race\/","title":{"rendered":"Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The title RACE for this film has two meanings. In the past year, racial discrimination remains an issue not unlike it was in Jesse Owens\u2019 day. This is not only a story of athletic achievement of a Black Athlete during the Nazi regime in Germany, but of racial relations in the US and around the world.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of documentary footage showing what Jesse Owens accomplished winning 4 Gold medals under the nose of Hitler at those tension filled games. But this is the first feature dramatizing what he, himself, was up against. Owens\u2019 family was contacted by French filmmakers Jean-Charles Levy and Luc Dayan\u00a0<\/span>5 years ago and after all this time, his daughters gave permission to make the film, as long as they had final approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

From a historical standpoint, this film tells a great story. What happened to Jesse Owens has all the drama and emotion you could ever want. But it doesn\u2019t deliver the emotional punch of a \u201cRocky.\u201d Even though this real life story edges out Stallone\u2019s fictional character, Owen\u2019s also shows how racism in America at that time was as prevalent as it was in Germany. Even Owens\u2019 family and friends in Cleveland tried to have him boycott the games to make a statement about race in the States and against the Jews in Europe.<\/p>\n

Stephan James, the British actor who played John Lewis so well in SELMA, told us at a Chicago screening with Owens\u2019 family that he found out just how well Owens is remembered and revered in Berlin. Much of the film was shot in the Berlin Olympic venue.<\/p>\n

James works hard in the film. He trained for months to learn Owens\u2019 running style which was unorthodox and technically wrong. That, he says, was exhausting, with 16 hours days learning lines and running his tail off. He also learned a lot about Jesse Owens, the man, and found him to be an inspiration. Click on\u00a0Interview<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for more about this<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jason Sudeikis plays Owens\u2019 coach at Ohio State, the other pivotal character in this film. Coach Larry Snyder recognized the young black athlete\u2019s raw talent and urged him to take the shot Snyder missed himself due to his own mistakes. Sudeikis, known for his comedic turns in\u00a0SNL, We\u2019re the Millers<\/span>\u00a0and more, is thoroughly convincing as Coach Snyder, a man who truly cares about Owens. He almost treats Owens like a younger brother. Sudeikis displays range and good timing delivering lines which make his relationship with James work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film covers Owen\u2019s life, from enrolling at Ohio State until winning gold and coming back to the States. Director Stephen Hopkins (House of Lies, Californication, The Unusuals<\/span>) set the stage for some very exciting events and poignant moments, but it jumps around too much. Writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse sometimes dwell on long scenes with family drama which slows the pace down. And the director seems to have put a lid on his actors. Their performances feel underplayed and seem to fall kind of flat.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are opposing sides fighting over the possibility of USA not even going to the Berlin Games because of Hitler. William Hurt plays Jeremiah Mahoney, head of the Olympic Committee who was at odds with Avery Brundage, played by Jeremy Irons. They went head-to-head whether or not to boycott the Nazi Olympics and their verbal sparring reveals the opinions of the time. We actually see Jews rounded up while preparations are being made for the Games. This could have been played out more to show the blatant\u00a0\u00a0and horrible discrimination. Plus, Owens himself was getting pressure from the Black community at home to boycott the games in light of the problems in America with racism.<\/p>\n

The highpoint of the movie for us was the competition between the athletes. Owens\u2019 biggest rival is German broad jumper, Luz Long, played by David Kross, (The War Horse, The Reader<\/span>) . The part where Owens almost fouls out of the finals and is saved by his rival, is one of the few times the movie delivers an emotional punch. Owens has been quoted as saying, \u201cIt took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler. You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn\u2019t be a plating on the 24 -Karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace.\u201d The film is worth seeing just for these scenes between James and Kross. The definition of sportsmanship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another distraction in the film that makes it feel like you\u2019re jumping around, is about the woman filmmaker who convinced Hitler she needed to document the Games. Lena Riefenstahl is played by Caprice Van Houtem (Game of Thrones). She gets Hitler to buy into the importance of filming the games to show Hitler\u2019s power and the Aryan superiority of his athletes. Riefenstahl\u00a0\u00a0is made out to be kind of a heroic character in this film making demands on for freedom of expression. Little did they know, it might backfire. But we benefit being able to see films showing what really happened.<\/p>\n

Shanice Banton (Degrassi:The Next Generation<\/span>) plays Ruth Solomon, the childhood sweetheart who eventually becomes Owens\u2019 wife. She\u2019s very pretty, but so soft-spoken, we sometimes lost her lines. And the emotion of their relationship doesn\u2019t always come through.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this worth your bucks? We think this film is particularly worth it for young people. It deals with race, competition, history and more. It\u2019s too long at well over 2 hours and could have been tightened up a lot. But it\u2019s good for people, young and old, to know about Jesse Owens and what he achieved, even though it took many years for him to get the recognition he deserved, even from the White House. Also good to know that the Owens family set up a foundation for in Owens’ name to help and support kids with scholarships for education. This film should and probably will be seen in classrooms around the country. You don\u2019t have to run as fast as Jesse, but you might want to hustle to the theater to see this film. And take the kids.<\/p>\n

Focus Features \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02 hours and 14 minutes \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0PG-13\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reviewed February 18, 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title RACE for this film has two meanings. In the past year, racial discrimination remains an issue not unlike it was in Jesse Owens\u2019 day. This is not only a story of athletic achievement of a Black Athlete during the Nazi regime in Germany, but of racial relations in the US and around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1719,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions\/1719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}