Despite being far different from what I expected, overall Race was a good movie. I was late in getting around to seeing it, but I am glad I went to see it before the conclusion of Black History Month. It embodied the meaning of Black History Month for me. Like Black History Month, Race honors the accomplishments of an African-American legend who triumphantly overcame several obstacles through the sharing of his story, in this case, the story of Jesse Owens (played by Stephan James). I continue to be appreciative of films like this, as they introduce important people from American history (Jesse Owens is much more than Black history, he is American history, if not world history) to those who have never heard these stories, and expand on the story that those like me grew up learning about. I knew he was a gold medalist, world record setting track and field Olympian, but I did not know he broke records while injured and he broke a record at the Olympics in an event he never planned on participating in! I was truly in awe of him, despite knowing and expecting him to win almost all of the races in the film.
When the film began with him saying his good byes in Cleveland and heading to Ohio State University, I still did not realize it was heading down a different direction than I was expecting. It was not until a significant time had passed and Jesse was not yet in Berlin, that I realized the film was not going to center around Jesse's experience in Berlin. Rather, the film was telling two stories that would eventually merge about three-quarters into the film. The film followed the story of Jesse Owens as he navigated becoming a track star while at OSU and prepared for the Olympics. This included encounters with a racist OSU football team and nearly losing his future wife, and mother of his child, when newspapers reported his new relationship with a well-off young woman he met after a competition. The film also spent a significant amount of time on the United States Olympic Committee and American Olympic Committee's decision on whether or not the United States would boycott the Olympics in Berlin due to what the Nazis were doing in Germany. As a history buff, I was not completely thrown off by how much time was spent covering the USOC and AOC meetings, Avery Brundage's (played by Jeremy Irons) trip to Berlin to tell Germany to get their act together if they wanted the U.S. to come to the Olympics, and the creation of the propaganda Nazi film on the Olympics, which included some tension between the filmmaker, Leni Riefenstanhl (played by Carice van Houten) and the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels (played by Barnaby Metschurat). But, as someone expecting to see a film about Jesse Owens' experience at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, I found the extraordinary amount of time dedicated to the Nazis, before introducing Jesse Owens into that story line, took away from the film. It became its own film in a way. Perhaps if the time spent on Jesse Owens was centered on his time in Berlin, and not so much on his time in Ohio, it would have made more sense to go into the amount of detail the film went into regarding the Nazis. But, because the film attempts to tell a significant amount of Jesse's pre-Berlin story (though still around the same time frame), the story line in Germany seemed detached from Jesse's story line for most of the film. Despite loving history, I would have preferred a film that still followed pre-Berlin Jesse's story, but just without the Nazi story incorporated at the extent that it was.
Once Jesse arrived in Berlin almost everything that touched on the Nazis was fitting. Though there was again a detached emphasis on the Nazis when Carl "Luz" Long (David Kross) shared with Jesse his experience a few nights earlier where he believed a woman was sent to sleep with him to become pregnant. While it was a reference to some of the extreme actions taken by Nazis, it was too much about the Nazi story and not enough about Jesse or even the Olympics. Otherwise, the scenes where we learn Hitler is refusing to meet Jesse after he won his first gold medal, the Nazis attempt to stop the propaganda filmmaker from recording one of Jesse's later races realizing he would likely win again, and the Nazis trapping the U.S. into removing two Jewish runners in the relay and in turn leading to Jesse running in the relay for the first time in his career (and winning with a world record), all fit into the Jesse Owens and 1936 Olympics story.
Also, I have a qualm with the way the film portrayed Jesse's father, Henry Owens (Andrew Moodie). Throughout the film it was suggested that Henry Owens was depressed and down and out in an extreme way. When Jesse left for college he was not sure if his father was going to come down and see him off. Henry Owens really didn't speak much, but it was always clear something happened to him. The film alluded to it being possibly related to him being without work, as it was the 1930's, and also whatever had happened might have been related to discrimination of some sort. The latter part becoming a bit more clear when he spoke up when the NAACP tried to tell Jesse not to go to Berlin. Henry told Jesse to do what he wants, because they will hate him either way. And then at the end of the film, in writing, it says Henry was later given a janitor position at OSU. But despite the film alluding to the reason why they portrayed Henry Owens as so disengaged and almost without hope, I think the extreme manner in which he portrayed this really called for the film to tell us what happened to him. I just don't find it acceptable. I think if the film was not going to tell us what happened to him, they could have made his character less extreme and more like his mother's character. And I say this because he was so disengaged it was clear the film wanted you to feel it, and you did, but then it left you just wondering why. Why make us feel his disengagement if you are not going to share the full story of his disengagement? Why bring that into the film? I think the film could have done what they did with Jesse's coach, Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis), where they continually told us he was supposed to be a star Olympian but did not end up going, and late in the film the story behind why he did not end up going was revealed.
I also would have liked the film to dig a bit more into the idea of the United States questioning its participation in the Olympics in Berlin, given how the United States treated African-Americans at the time. This came up throughout the film, but I do not feel justice was done to exploring the topic, and there were so many great opportunities to do so. It came up during a meeting of the USOC and the AOC, and the film could have attempted to explore why Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt) felt it was wrong that the Nazis might not allow Jewish and African-Americans to compete in the Olympics but did not find it wrong that African-Americans could not golf with him at his country club. It came up when the NAACP asked Jesse Owens not to compete in the Olympics as a way to show African-Americans were standing in solidarity with other oppressed people, in this case Jewish people in Germany. But the scene kind of put it on the table and then let Henry Owens tell Jesse to do whatever he would like to do. I think not fully exploring this subject was a huge faux pas by the film. When the film decided Jesse Owens was not the only story being told, and there would be a great amount of attention diverted to Nazi Germany, it should have then decided it had to explore this idea of United States hypocrisy when it came to how it viewed Nazi Germany and how it treated African-Americans in its own country.
On a lighter note, while I understand the races are less than 10 seconds for the most part, I would have liked the slow motion filming used in the OSU races to have been used more in the Olympics races.
While I enjoyed the film and the history it shared, I think it could have done more justice to its attention on the Jesse Owens story, instead of trying to make a 2 for 1 film. But I'm happy it told the story and am glad I watched it.