Race (2016)

Jesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy.

Director:

Stephen Hopkins

Writers:

Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse

Stars:

Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree

6 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Stephan James	...	Jesse Owens
Jason Sudeikis	...	Larry Snyder
Eli Goree	...	Dave Albritton
Shanice Banton	...	Ruth Solomon
Carice van Houten	...	Leni Riefenstahl
Jeremy Irons	...	Avery Brundage
William Hurt	...	Jeremiah Mahoney
David Kross	...	Carl 'Luz' Long
Jonathan Higgins	...	Dean Cromwell
Tony Curran	...	Lawson Robertson
Amanda Crew	...	Peggy
Barnaby Metschurat	...	Joseph Goebbels
Chantel Riley	...	Quincella
Vlasta Vrana	...	St-John
Shamier Anderson	...	Eulace Peacock

Storyline

In the 1930s, Jesse Owens is a young man who is the first in his family to go to college. Going to Ohio State to train under its track and field coach, Larry Snyder, the young African American athlete quickly impresses with his tremendous potential that suggests Olympic material. However, as Owens struggles both with the obligations of his life and the virulent racism against him, the question of whether America would compete at all at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany is being debated vigorously. When the American envoy finds a compromise persuasive with the Third Reich to avert a boycott, Owens has his own moral struggle about going. Upon resolving that issue, Owens and his coach travel to Berlin to participate in a competition that would mark Owens as the greatest of America's Olympians even as the German film director, Leni Riefenstahl, locks horns with her country's Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, to film the politically embarrassing fact for posterity.

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Plot Keywords:

track and field | 1930s | olympics | 1936 olympics | athlete | 

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Taglines:

The incredible true story of gold medal legend, Jesse Owens.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shamier Anderson and Chantel Riley also appeared in Wynonna Earp (2016).

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Goofs

When Luz takes his second jump in the long jump at the Games, his right foot clearly exceeds the white jump strip, which would have rendered the jump illegal.

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Quotes

Jesse Owens: In those ten second, there's no black or white, only fast or slow.

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Connections

Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Jason Sudeikis/Kelly Rohrbach/Matthew Heineman (2016)

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Soundtracks

Andante Appassionato
Written by Antonín Dvorák (as Antonin Dvorak)
Performed by Quatuor Panocha Quartet (as Panocha Quartet)
Courtesy of APM Music

User Reviews

Tries to include too much

Race, a film about the legendary Olympian Jesse Owens, is a story that deserves a good biopic. Owens means more to me for what his achievement meant to politics than as an athlete; "Race" is an obviously perfect title for concisely referring to both. The film itself is competently done in many of its technical aspects, although the way the names of places are paraded on screen when the story switches settings is tacky, at best. James gives a good performance; much of the film's handling of his story is well done.

The problem is that the film attempts to include too much. There's not much reason why this needed to go above the two-hour mark. We see a lot of scenes where Owens isn't present, and many of these don't need to be here. He don't need a story about the general history of Nazi Germany; we don't need to see the conflicts between Goebbels and his film director; we don't even need to see as much as what we saw about the debate as to whether the US should boycott the Olympics. Immaterial, and trimming can heighten impact. I was half- expecting we'd get a scene depicting Hitler committing suicide in his bunker. Still, on the whole, Race, as a story about Owens, makes a nice statement.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Canada Germany France

Language:

English German

Release Date:

19 February 2016 (Canada)

Also Known As:

10 secondes de liberté

Filming Locations:

Olympiastadion, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,353,922, 21 February 2016

Gross USA:

$19,206,207

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,070,261

Company Credits

Production Co:

Forecast Pictures, ID+, Jesse Race Productions Quebec

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1