Did you know how close we were to a boycott of the Hitlerlympics? I didn’t. I don’t know my history backwards and forwards, but I believe Hitler was the first to understand the Olympic Games as a political tool. After discovering anti-Jew literature emanating from Hateland, the United States got very close to a boycott and even sent officials to negotiate terms of United States inclusion in the 1936 Olympic Games — to paraphrase: “let’s cut down on the whole Nazi shit while we’re there, ok?”—The United States, of course, boycotted the Moscow Games 44 years later to send a political message. How effective was that? Did the Soviet Union pull out of Afghanistan faster (“Hey! Give somebody else a chance!”)? Would Hitler and the Nazis have been properly shamed into not invading Czechoslovakia in 1939?
Jesse Owens (Stephan James) is arguably the greatest Olympian in history, not necessarily for his athletic accomplishments –which admittedly were very impressive—but for collecting his four golds in the lion’s den while under the watchful eye of Der Fuhrer himself. And all of this occurring at a time when blacks in our own country were hardly enjoying equal citizenship. Now, that said, I was kinda hoping Race would hit a little harder; this movie feels like an honest, but fairly watered-down accounting of events; or perhaps the life of Jesse Owens really wasn’t as over-the-top as we imagine. The twice aptly titled Race picks up Jesse packing for his freshman year at Ohio State, leaving behind his doting family, a girlfriend (Shanice Banton) and a 2-year-old daughter. Well, you knew he was fast, right?
The primary relationship in Race is between Jesse and his Ohio State track and field coach, Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis). Larry is white, of course. If you tuned in to check out how Jesse deals with black folks, you might just be SOL. Much as Race is about defiance and reeducation of cultural stereotypes, I actually found it, well, white heavy. Jesse Owens is the focus, yes, but after him, the most important folks in the film are not his girlfriend/wife, mistress, parents, daughter or local friends. The key non-Owens cast are his Ohio State coach, the pragmatic and perhaps dirty U.S. Olympics promoter (Jeremy Irons), the German long jumper he befriends at the games, Luz Long (David Kross), and the Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten) who –in fairness- went out of her way to document the most important athlete in the 1936 Olympics.
The big villain in Race is not a home grown one – although I’m quite certain Jesse didn’t lack for American critics – but instead the cold and stoic
Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat). I’m not sure this tack does Race any favors. And in looking at that list above, I realize we know a fair about the people Jesse reacted to and with, but I’m left not knowing a great deal about the man himself. I think it’s fair to say he had a weakness for women. Get this scene – he starts breaking world records and gets his picture is in the paper with a traveling floosy, but he has to come back to his Ohio girlfriend and beg her forgiveness in the hair salon where she works in front of a horde of angry eyes. To be frank, I’d rather be racing in Nazi Germany with global peace on the line than face that particular mob. What I don’t know is how Jesse felt about discrimination or how he dealt with not peripheral race-baiting, but front-and-center ugliness; the movie always bails him out before we see a one-to-one reaction. I’d love to know if any bit of his four gold effort was aimed directly at bigots.
Like contemporary Eddie the Eagle, Race suffers from a timing disaster. With all due respect, black history month was not the right release date; these movies should have coincided with actual Olympic Games. Ideally, you want Race (and I imagine this will happen with the DVD release) to come out exactly before the Olympics as a hype or exactly after, for those of us suffering withdrawal. Putting it in February implies the film is primarily about the demographic interpretation of its title. That sells this particular piece of art, and I daresay the man himself, way short.
♪Jesse is a star
Yeah, I know his talent’s leaving me blind
But lately got some news
A very rare find
He’s coming into our house, so let’s be unkind
Cuz he’s faster than our guys
And he’s outjumpin’ our best, I just know it!
And he’s earning that gold all day and night
You know I wish that I was Jesse’s foil
Wish I could create Yank turmoil
How can I beat a sprinter like that?♫
Rated PG-13, 134 Minutes
D: Stephen Hopkins
W: Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse
Genre: More Nazi fun!
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Americans
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Racists
♪ Parody inspired by “Jessie’s Girl”
