“Race” – win some, lose some [MOVIE REVIEW]
Stephan James stars as Jesse Owens in Stephen Hopkins’ RACE, a Focus Features release.
Credit : Thibault Grabherr / Focus Features
The story of Jesse Owens is compelling. Only slightly older than Jackie Robinson, he faced the same race-based hurdles, derision and hardships. That Jesse Owens’ remarkable story and achievements might be unknown is inconceivable but probable. It is this awe-inspiring history that director Stephen Hopkins and writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse try to recount. Their success in telling this story, however, is mixed.
Jesse Owens, arguably the greatest track and field athlete of all time, was a share cropper’s son who was admitted to Ohio State University in 1934. As an African American, he was there without a scholarship and was housed and, for the most part, fed separately from white students. He and fellow athlete and Olympian Dave Albritton had to take part time jobs in order to support their studies. But Jesse was bigger than the obstacles placed in his way. It was clear he was a star and a real catch for struggling OSU coach and former star runner Larry Snyder. Owens had tied the world record in the 100 yard dash while still in high school. More was yet to come. Although the Big Ten track and field meet at Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1935 was covered only briefly in the film, and that, primarily because Snyder timed Owens at a new world record for the 100 but the officials had him tied, Owens’ triumph at this event was considered one of the greatest athletic feats in the history of the sport. On that afternoon, in the span of only 45 minutes, Owens broke 3 world records (the 220 yard sprint, the 220 yard low hurdles and the long jump, which record stood for 25 years) and tied a fourth (the 100 yard dash).
The Olympics, for which Snyder had been preparing him since his entrance at OSU, loomed on the horizon. Owens, however, was under pressure not to participate. Visited at home by Harry David, representing the viewpoint of the NAACP, Owens was exhorted not to attend the games in protest, not only of the discrimination practiced by the Nazis against Jews, minority ethnic groups and people of color, but also as a statement against the exclusionary policies of the United States. The pressure on Owens, the preeminent athlete of the day, to make a political statement by refusing to run was enormous. In the end, and this would be a position he took when he lobbied against the American boycott of the Moscow games in 1980, he felt that politics had no place in athleticism.
Stephan James stars as Jesse Owens in Stephen Hopkins’ RACE, a Focus Features release.
Credit : Focus Features
As everyone knows, or should know, Owens triumphed at the Olympics winning 4 gold medals, the last in the 440 yard relay where he was not scheduled to compete. He and teammate Ralph Metcalf were last minute substitutions for the only two Jewish athletes on the American team. Much has been made of their exclusion and the film makes the case that the Nazis demanded Brundage remove them or they would reveal a sweetheart deal he had made with them prior to the games. This may or may not have been the reason they were excluded as Owens and Metcalf had faster times. Other Jews, very very few, including a German woman, did compete.
Owens returned in triumph, albeit a short-lived one. As Owens once stated, “Hitler didn’t snub me – it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.” At a reception in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel he was required to use the service entrance. Jesse Owens served us well. In return we shoved him to the back of the bus.
The filmmakers emphasized that they didn’t want to make a film that covered Owens’ bio from cradle to grave, and instead tried to focus primarily on his early years as a student at Ohio State University through to his momentous competition at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Had they applied a laser focus on Owens, and Owens alone especially since there was more than ample material, they might have succeeded in producing a very good film. The excellent “42” about Jackie Robinson should have been their targeted example. “42” tracked its subject, putting him in the context of the history of the sport and the politics of the day while riveting the audience with the pressures and the unrealistic yet fulfilled expectations of the protagonist.
Perhaps it was the inexperience of the writers and the kinds of films Hopkins had directed in the past that led them down inconsequential and uneven paths. Their side track into the debate and vote that pitted the AAU against the USOC is handled perfunctorily and diminishes rather than underscores the film’s primary focus – Jesse Owens. The AAU, led by Jeremiah Mahoney, played by a bland, affectless William Hurt, favored a boycott because of the ominous events transpiring in Nazi Germany. The USOC, led by millionaire Avery Brundage, acted aristocratically and unconvincingly by Jeremy Irons, felt that the games should not be politicized and that a strong American showing would better counteract Hitler’s philosophy than a boycott. He traveled to Germany to get assurances from Goebbels that the Nazis would rein it in, at least until the games were over. Brundage’s side won… narrowly.
Adding to the distractions is the story arc involving Leni Riefenstahl filming “Olympiad” at the games and running up against Goebbels’s agenda. In keeping with Hopkins’ apparent bent, more is never enough.
There is no doubt that Owens faced almost insurmountable racism, and his treatment after the games, not covered by the film, was atrocious. Still, the heavy-handed approach Hopkins took in having seemingly genteel spectators at track meets hurl racial epithets one minute and stand applauding the next is a bit of a stretch even in a telescoped scenario. Racism takes many forms and it would have been preferable and considerably more sophisticated for the filmmakers to have found other ways besides repeated use of the “n” word to illustrate them.
If, however, you are not well acquainted with the story of Jesse Owens, and it is a story that can withstand even a mediocre telling, you should see this film. The role of Jesse is played by the wonderful Stephen James, whose portrayal of John Lewis in “Selma” was marvelous. James’ portrayal of Owens shows depth, warmth, confusion and pressure far beyond what was on the page. Shanice Banton as his wife Ruth was also noteworthy. Noteworthy in the minuscule role of an NAACP representative asking Owens not to participate in the games was Glynn Turman, an actor always worth watching and always able to find depth even when it’s not on the page.
Not so fortunate, however, is Jason Suduikis as Coach Larry Snyder. It is possible that comedic actor Suduikis might have the chops to play drama given better direction and a script to work with. Speaking loudly or yelling conveys anger more effectively when the facial expression matches the volume. Barnaby Metschurat effectively channeled Goebbels threatening menace but Carice van Houten did not convey the sex appeal that comes through in archival film footage of Leni Riefenstahl.
One of these days, someone will do justice to the story of Jesse Owens.
Opening wide on Friday February 19.