El Triunfo del Espíritu

Review: I really enjoyed this Jesse Owens biopic, which shows how he won his many Gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, under heavy racial tension from the Germans but I was hoping to see more about the man himself, who was truly an amazing athlete. Jesse Owens is played by Stephan James, who leaves the streets of Cleveland Ohio, and goes Ohio State to pursue his dreams to become a track and field star, with his close friend Dave Albritton (Eli Goree). Meanwhile Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis) is having problems as the coach at Ohio State, because he hasn't had an national win since he has arrived, so his job is on the line and he isn't impressed with the daily candidates, who lead to nothing. After watching Owens train, and being very impressed with his times, he decides to take Owen under his wing and he shows him the ropes of becoming a star. Behind the scenes, Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) is fighting to allow Black and Jewish competitors at the Olympics but with the racist political views from Hitler and his assistants, it takes some time for Avery to convince the Germans that it would make a better games if they are allowed to compete. Anyway, once the games eventually get going, Jesse Owens smashes loads of records and wins numerous gold medals for his country. Its a truly great achievement for a black man, in that day and age, and the relationship between Owens and Snyder was quite emotional. I would have liked to have seen some more depth to the characters but apart from that, it's an entertaining movie which portrays a time in sports, which changed the game forever. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: Personally, I think that this movie needed a top director to bring the intense emotion across to the big screen but Jamaican born Stephen Hopkins done a decent job. His previous titles include A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, Predator 2, which wasn't close to the first movie, Judgement Night, Blown Away, The Ghost in the Darkness, Lost In Space, Tube Tales, Under Suspicion, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and The Reaping in 2007, starring Hilary Swank. He has also worked on numerous TV series like, 24, House of Lies, Californication, Shameless and the Unusuals, so he has quite a decent portfolio to date. With so much information available about Jesse Owens achievements, this movie seemed a bit safe, but with that aside, it's great that he brought this amazing story to light. I would have liked to have seen a top actor play the main role, like Will Smith did with Ali but that's not to say that Stephan James didn't do a good job. Although this film made a decent profit, it would be good to see a BIG budget version of Jesse Owens life, because it's truly an inspiring story that a lot of people can learn from.

Budget: $5million Worldwide Gross: $25million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/history/dramas, starring Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt, Carice van Houten, David Kross, Shanice Banton, Tim McInnerny and Glynn Turman. 5/10

You don't want to throw around the word epic and overuse it, but when you make a movie about the Olympics, it's usually a movie about one athlete taking on the world (sport depending). For Jesse Owens this concept is met with more difficulty. A black man barely welcomed in his own backyard gets the chance to run in the greatest competition of all time, in another country that does not accept him as well, and he does it and helps change the face of the world forever.

Stephen James did a fantastic job playing Jesse Owens. He gave a lot a heart to it, which was important. It's a great reflection of who Owens was.

Becoming a huge fan of the work of Jason Sudeikis who plays Jesse's Coach, Larry Snyder. The well known funny man takes the same position as Sylvester Stallone did in Creed with this dramatic supporting role, and it was a decent turn to see him do something a little different.

Also want to give credit to Jeremy Irons who plays Avery Brundage of the U.S Olympic committee. Race mostly focus on the life of Owens up to the 1936 games, but also has a great side story about America dealing with the Nazi Regime with the Olympics being held in their hometown. Irons is the center of this sub plot and does a good job making it interesting.

For what it is, I'm also fairly impressed with the CGI being used to built the 1930s in this movie. Race is a big movie and the visual effects help make it look better. I wish the budget was bigger so that the effects could be better, but it's very impressive for a 5 million dollar film.

The only odd thing that was distracting is that it looks like they used visual effects to replace stunt men in the movie. Instead of getting a stunt double who looked fast enough to play Owens, they have parts in Race that just look like the took footage of Stephen James and speed it up to make his running faster. Not sure about this method, and others were they used digital images for high jumps, or a least that's what it looks like.

But overall, Race impressed me. It's a good tear jerker that puts a a smile on your face. Truly an epic movie about overcoming the biggest obstacles to be the very best.

'Race' is an overall entertaining movie hampered by some fairly predictable flaws. It features pretty standard sports movie clichés, e.g., hard-ass coach with heart of gold, rival who becomes best friend, etc. The personal (melo)drama seems pretty mundane, and, as to be expected in historical dramas, certain liberties are taken with the facts for dramatic purposes. But there is interesting dramatic tension in the scenes in which the US Olympics commission debates boycotting the '36 games, and in Owens' personal struggle over whether to compete in the face of certain factions of the black community entreating him not to. The actual scenes of competition are presented in an exciting fashion. My favorite scene captures Owens' P.O.V. as he enters Berlin Stadium at the height of pre-War Nazi pageantry, Hindenburg flying overhead, Hitler waving in the stands to a thunderous chorus of "Sieg Heils." It must have been overwhelming. Carice van Houten plays Leni Refienstahl as a sympathetic character, defying Goebbel's orders to tell the true story of the 1936 Olympics, and Stephan James as Owens provides an enjoyable leading performance.

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.

Attention younger generations:

Avery Brundage was an unapologetic and unbending racist Nazi sympathizer. To portray him as this farcical film does, as a hero fighting for Jesse Owens so perverts history that it should be a crime. And, Leni Reifenstal WAS a Nazi and supported Hitler and his actions throughout the war and its buildup without reservation.

The main underlying objective of this movie seems to be that Avery Brundage wasn't the renowned corrupt amoral Nazi sympathizer and racist anti-semite that history knows him to have been. For me, one of the most compelling stories in our history was totally ruined by the complete re-writing of history to vindicate the American racist anti-semitic Brundage, one of the most vile, despicable, destructive forces in the history of sport, not just for America but the world. Brundage was absolutely explicit in his contempt for Owens, Jews, and African-Americans, and never made ANY protests over the treatment of Owens or any other American.

Additionally, Leni Reifenstal supported the Nazis and Hitler without reservation throughout the regime, and if she indeed prevailed to film Owens, it was for the sake of the film, not because she rejected Hitler's racism and anti-semitism.

Why the history lesson and very little about the film? Because films like this which pervert history distort this and future generation's understanding of the times and the people. Everything but the fictional propaganda of a script, full of more lies than Trump and Clinton told all year, and ending with a totally fabricated meeting between Owens and Reifenstal, one last attempt to rescue her reputation and bastardize history.

This is appalling piece of film making. Beautifully told lies are still lies, and this film is one gigantic lie.