In the summer of 1936, one man dealt a precursor blow to Nazi domination, giving Hitler and his thousand year Reich its first glimpse of fallacy in its philosophy, although it undoubtedly fell on unrelenting eyes. He picked up four Olympic gold medals in the Berlin games right under the Fuhrer’s nose and it’s taken eighty years for the story to make it’s way to the big screen in the Stephen Hopkins directed biographical sports drama, Race (2016).
While Hitler was pleased with Germany’s haul at the Berlin Olympics having taken the largest number of medals, what athletes like Jesse Owens and Cornelius Johnson did was provide a very public example that there is no such thing as a master race. However, even if you take the politics in Germany out of the equation, Owens’ four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m relay and incredibly the long jump are more than enough for a movie. They’re even more significant when you add the fact that Owens became a hero worldwide, as well as in the US, where racial segregation, discrimination and violence in his home state of Alabama was almost as palpable as the atrocities inflicted upon Jews in Nazi Germany.
Release date
Race will be arriving on the big screen in the UK on Friday the 3rd June, following the earlier release date in the US on the 19th February 2016. It’ll be out in the UK on the same weekend as The Nice Guys, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows and Warcraft: The Beginning, so it won’t be without its big budget competition.
Story
The historical drama takes us back to the interwar period as Jesse Owens battles to become one of the greatest track & field athlete in history, while Nazi Germany sets its course for world domination. In the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, both of these come together in controversial circumstances, which forms the basis of the plot for the film, taking us from Jesse’s college days right the way through to the finishing line at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
Cast
Stephen James (Selma) stars as Jesse Owens, with Jason Sudeikis (Epic) playing his couch Larry Snyder and Jeremy Irons (Assassin’s Creed) taking on the role of Olympic Committee member Avery Brundage. William Hurt (Captain America: Civil War) plays Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, Carice van Houten (Game Of Thrones) plays Leni Riefenstahl and Shanice Banton plays Ruth Solomon-Owens, Jesse’s wife.
Production
Race has been directed by Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2), from a screenplay written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. It features a music score by Rachel Portman (Never Let Me Go) and cinematography from Peter Levy, who has worked with Hopkins on a number of projects in the past, including Predator 2, Lost In Space and The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers.
First impression
Based on the trailer below and the middle-of-the-road reviews it has received following the release in the US, we’re starting to get the impression that the film doesn’t quite give the story of Jesse Owens the big screen outing it deserves. However, there’s a big part of us that wants to see Race as a triumph, so we’re leaving a little room for it to surprise when it arrives in the UK. The period recreation is very impressive and the CGI effects to present the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games look seamless, which could be reason enough to catch the film, along with the real life story that sits behind it.
