Movie review: Jesse Owens’ story is a ‘Race’ worth running

There are reasons to wish that Race, the story of Jesse Owens’ record-shattering, multimedal track-and-field sweep at Hitler’s 1936 Olympics, offered a broader, deeper portrait of the man. Yet, as a celebration and evocation of a stunning moment in time, it’s an engrossing and occasionally surprising take on an iconic event in sports history, made all the better by two strong leads.

One of those is Stephan James (Selma, When the Game Stands Tall), a relative unknown who plays the African-American sprinter who broke records and racial barriers.

We first meet Owens as he is getting ready for his first day as a student at Ohio State, where he meets and trains under coach Larry Snyder. Former SNL regular and Horrible Bosses goofball Jason Sudeikis plays Snyder, and he turns out to be a convincing dramatic actor.

Snyder, who needs a star to rescue his sagging reputation, immediately sees that Owens is the real deal, the guy who could deliver the Olympic dreams that never materialized in his own career. Never mind the doubts of other coaches or racist taunts of the football team. These feelings are confirmed when Owens breaks three records at a meet in Ann Arbor, Mich.

If director Stephen Hopkins (Under Suspicion), working from a script by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, had kept his focus squarely on Owens, he would have had more than enough to work with.

Meanwhile, in Germany itself, Joseph Goebbels (a scarily icy Barnaby Metschurat) has been tasked by Hitler to stage a grand and glorious Olympics that honors German strength and speed. Recording it all for posterity will be pioneering filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten). For the Nazis, the Olympics are to be a triumphant coming-out party on the global stage.

When these stories cross paths — as when the NAACP tries to pressure Owens to pull out or when Brundage brings Owens to meet Hitler after the race but finds the chancellor has chosen to leave rather than be seen with the athlete — the film crackles with an electricity that has little to do with the usual sports-movie, go-for-gold cliches. (Though, it should be noted, there are those who say that this famous snub never happened.)

What neither the Germans nor the Americans foresee is a budding friendship between Owens and German competitor Carl “Luz” Long (David Kross), who view each other as equals on the field no matter what their respective governments, and their fellow citizens, might have felt about them off the field.

Yet, as rewarding as these moments are, by focusing so much on the Olympic Games themselves, other parts of Owens’ story feel rushed. An affair that nearly derailed the relationship he had with the woman who would become his wife feels shoehorned in. Similarly, a powerful scene at the end is not only a damning indictment of the racism Owens faced in Jim Crow America upon returning home but feels like the starting point for another, equally compelling movie.

Of course, that’s the problem with telescoping a hero’s life into two hours and change. It’s reduced to a series of incidents and episodes.

Still, at its best, Race captures both the rush of competition and the rush of history.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 6:32 AM with the headline "Movie review: Jesse Owens’ story is a ‘Race’ worth running."