The new Jesse Owens biopic RACE is not quite gold medal-worthy -- the two hour, 14 minute run time feels too long, the timeline seems off and the romantic drama is overwrought. But strong performances by Stephan James as Owens and Jason Sudeikis as the Ohio State coach, Larry Snyder, are enough for any self-respecting track fan to see it at least once, if only to witness and reappreciate the legend of Owens' extraordinary athletic prowess.
For the uninitiated, Jesse Owens is one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time -- both for his legendary athletic feats and the tumultuous period of history in which he accomplished them. His 1935 performance at the Big Ten Conference Championships is widely regarded as the "greatest 45 minutes in sport" as it yielded three World Records in the long jump, 220-yard dash and 220-yard hurdles, and a tie for the World Record in a fourth event, the 100-yard dash.
The dramatization of the conference meet is one of the highlights of the film. It is the first time we witness Owens in competition mode and though anyone familiar with his story knows the impending result, the way he does it is still enthralling. The story goes that Owens competed in the meet while suffering from debilitating back pain and Director Stephen Hopkins plays up the theatrics so even a knowledgeable viewer can't be sure what happens next.
From here, the film's timeline makes it own rules and started to lose this viewer's interest.
The team gets on a bus. Coach Snyder shows Owens newspaper clippings of his competition -- Eulace Peacock of Temple, for one -- as they presumably head to the National Championships, though it's never explicitly stated which.
Handy captions pop up during other parts of the film to indicate, "oh hey, this is the U.S. Olympic Committee Meeting of 1935," or "oh, by the way, we're in Germany right now!"
I can't speak for the general public, but this track and field reporter would have appreciated a more thorough notation of which meets we're at and when.
Owens seems to win something -- again, we don't know explicitly know which race or meet this is -- and goes out to a bar afterward to celebrate with his teammates. He meets a girl -- quickly remembers, then even more quickly forgets, his betrothed and his baby girl back home -- and things go a little bit too far, he's getting married to the wrong girl, loses a race, leaves wrong girl, apologizes to his childhood sweetheart, she denies him, he tries again, they get married.
What year is this again?
The film cleans up the timeline soon enough and it's 1936.
This is the year that made Jesse Owens into THE JESSE OWENS, the man who stood down Adolph Hitler, who -- as a young black man -- became the first American to win four Olympic gold medals and prove Hitler's Aryan dominance theories wrong, just as the United States has yet to discard its own deep-seated segregation.
Every time the track meet scenes get a little long (as track meets themselves often do... though the meets in this movie were impressively attended to crowd capacity), the relationship between James' genuine, cherubic Owens and Sudeikis' alcoholic, charming Snyder carry the film's often heavy weight.
The film is mostly inspiring stuff. There's a scene where Coach Snyder uses a record of a drumline to teach his athletes to practice short strides and high knee drills that's pure gold of the "I'm going to do that at home!" variety.
But one uncomfortable feeling I'm left with -- as a 21st century viewer and a track fan -- is a little bit of disgust.
[Spoiler Alert...]
The final scene shows Jesse and Coach Larry Snyder accompanied by their wives in full formal evening wear regalia for a banquet dinner in honor of Owens.
The doorman stops Coach Snyder -- "I'm sorry, but your friends can't come in this way. They will have to go through the service entrance."
Despite protestations from Snyder, Owens and his wife quietly take the back door.
The movie follows with several factoid closing captions, including this not-so-fun fact: Owens was NEVER recognized by the White House for his achievements at the 1936 Games. It wasn't until 1976 that he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and 1990 that he became the posthumous recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.
1990? Really?
Which made me think... it's 2016.
Why did it take so long to make this movie?
RACE (2 hours, 14 minutes) is rated PG-13.
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