Race

SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW

Race is the true story of African-American Olympic sprinter/long-jumper Jesse Owens and the conflicts he faces in the build-up to the 1936 Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany.

From the get-go, I was already pretty impressed with the performances of Stephan James as Jesse Owens and in particular, Jason Sudeikis as Owens' coach, former sprinter Larry Snyder.

I thought Stephan James captured the heart of Owens as well as the struggle of being an African-American during those times of extreme racism really well.

He portrayed the conflict Owens had with himself over whether to boycott the Olympics in order to make a statement to the Nazis, or to compete and make a statement for himself and for his home nation to perfection.

As for Jason Sudeikis, it was a very pleasant surprise.

I love it when comedic actors take up more serious and dramatic roles instead of their usual comedies, and do a fantastic job with it.

Some good examples would be of Jonah Hill and Zach Galifianakis - actors I could never take seriously until they starred in films like The Wolf of Wall Street and Birdman respectively.

Jason Sudeikis managed to convey the parallels that existed between Owens and himself - wherein coach Snyder sees a bit of his former athletic self in Owens and they both journey together.

Mind you, that is no easy task, so credit where credit is due. Well done, Mr. Sudeikis. Hopefully he'll be getting more dramatic roles instead of a role in something like a Horrible Bosses 3.

For the story, I felt that it had a great premise and a wide and large range of topics and themes in which it covered - themes of racism, discrimination, politics and corruption.

The film had a very compelling message too - on the topic of racism.

I perceived it as a never-say-die quest in the journey to a world where we can all live in total racial and religious harmony, regardless of skin tone, upbringing or social class.

I really like the title of the film too - "Race". Not just referencing the event of Olympic sprint racing, but also the different races which were so horribly discriminated back in the olden days.

I did have a few issues with the narrative, however. In particular, the handling of a certain bit in which Jesse Owens gets tempted into making a poor decision.

They could have handled that sub-plot much better, and perhaps make the resolution of the complication a little more difficult for our protagonist to deal with.

Speaking of sub-plots, Race had many, many of them. Some were handled very well, some not so well.

For a movie of not-that-grand-a-scale, perhaps it would have been more appropriate if they had focused less on developing some of those sub-plots and more on the main development of Owens' journey towards the Olympics.

Some of those scenes just took me out of the flow of the film, and some I felt weren't really necessary.

Ultimately, all the sub-plots did equate to a final resolution in the film, and at least that was done well.

For the cast (other than Stephan James and Jason Sudeikis), they did a decent job. None were groundbreaking or outstanding, although the character of German athlete and competitor/friend of Owens' Carl 'Luz' Long (David Kross) was very pleasant.

I didn't agree with some casting choices, especially the casting of Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat).

I studied in-depth on the topic of Nazi Germany back in Upper Secondary, and I know for one fact that Joseph Goebbels is one ugly, rat-faced, bone-skinny coward.

His portrayal in Race was... inaccurate, to say the least.

Even the casting choice of Sylvester Groth as Goebbels in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds was a more accurate depiction (even though Goebbels wasn't tall like Groth).

Nit-picking aside, the only other minor issue I had was with the character of Nazi propaganda film director Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten).

I felt her character was so uninteresting that I thought that she was redundant. Excess baggage.

Also, I was surprisingly happy with the look of the dude who portrayed Adolf Hitler, even though he looked a little youthful from some angles.

At least that character was done alright, unlike in that awful movie Valkyrie. Don't even get me started on that movie.

Anyway, back to Race (sorry about that little rant haha).

The music was fitting, the locations and production design were all pretty fitting and accurate-looking, and the editing was pretty good.

All in all, Race was a decently enjoyable film with a good premise, good action, superb acting and decent pacing.

Sadly, these good points are let down by a few jarring and interruptive sub-plots which weren't all very necessary, as well as a couple of poor characters.

If they had perhaps focused more on developing more of the themes and messages of racism and discrimination, it would have been a much improved film overall.

Still worth a watch though.

7.5/10.