With a clever play on words Race is a sports biography based around the achievements of the African American athlete Jesse Owens (Stephan James) in winning four gold medals at the Nazi propaganda driven 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Dealing with both the Aryan superiority stance from Germany and the racism of the time in America this film starts with his college years in Ohio State University where he meets coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudekis) who hones his talent and sets him on the road to eventual glory.

There are a number of subplots such as the filming of the games by German director Leni Riefenstahl and the battle between Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt) and Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) around the potential boycotting of the games by American athletes which, while having a valid place in the tale only succeed in diverting away from the central tale and could have seen a little less screen time. on the other side some of the best moments in the movie which come towards the end of the movie particularly when Owens meets his eventual friend Carl Long (David Kross), a German long jump athlete who broke several ‘rules’ by treating Owens like he would any fellow competitor and even went so far as to celebrate with Owens afterwards, and it would have been nice to have seen additional focus put on this theme.

Overall Race does a good job of showing use the remarkable achievements of Owens but with the odd exception it doesn’t give us a good look at who Owens really was and what the man behind the success was really like, I already knew about his achievements before I watched this film and afterwards I still don’t think it has taught me an awful lot new so while the story and the acting are good it just feels a little flat for a movie that should invoke emotions like a really good sports movie should especially in the wake of the achievements of a legend of the track.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10