“RACE” (2016): AN EXCELLENT BIOGRAPHICAL SPORTS FILM

It is a film about African-American athlete Jesse Owens, who wo. Directed by Stephen Hopkins and n a record-breaking four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse.

The film stars Stephan James as Owens, and co-stars Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons (he has a post in my blog), William Hurt and Carice van Houten.

It is a co-production of Canada, Germany and France.

Principal photography began on 24 July 2014, in Montreal, Canada. Forecast Pictures, Solofilms, and Trinity Race produced the film, supported by the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, the Jesse Owens Trust and the Luminary Group. 

It won four Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Actor for James.

Jesse Owens, a promising black American runner, attends Ohio State University, despite facing racial discrimination and slurs from the white athletes. He attracts the attention of coach Larry Snyder, who believes Owens has enormous potential but needs work on his form and technique. When Snyder suggests he is good enough to compete at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Owens is interested, but hesitant because of racial propaganda in Nazi Germany. The U.S. Olympic Committee is already considering boycotting the Olympics over Germany's discriminatory policies, only agreeing to participate when Nazi official Joseph Goebbels gives personal assurances they will allow foreign athletes of any race to compete, as well as promising to rein in their propaganda.

As Owens struggles to support his girlfriend Ruth and young daughter, he takes a job at a service station, upsetting Snyder when his job conflicts with his commitment to train. When Snyder learns Owens has a family to support, he gets him a no-show job, allowing him to focus on running. Owens goes on to break several records, including some of Snyder's, and begins a relationship with a woman whose attentions he attracts with his newfound fame. When Ruth threatens him with a lawsuit, Owens becomes distracted and loses a race to runner Eulace Peacock. Owens decides to return to Ruth to reconcile, convincing her to marry him. As the Olympics draw closer, the NAACP asks him not to go to Berlin for political reasons. Owens is conflicted, but Peacock urges him to compete to defy Nazi racial ideology.

In Berlin, Owens wins his first gold medal in the 100 m dash, but when he is brought by International Olympic Committee member Avery Brundage to receive congratulations from Adolf Hitler, he is told the Chancellor has left the stadium early to avoid traffic. (This is actually false, as Hitler indeed shook hands with Owens and congratulated him on his achievement: this happened behind the honour stand, and was only captured in a single photograph that Owens carried around in his wallet: it was never published, and has been lost since).

Brundage warns Goebbels that Hitler must congratulate all winners or no winners, with Goebbels replying Hitler will not appear with "that". (again, this is inaccurate: Owens himself remarked: "Hitler didn't snub me — it was our president F.D. Roosvelt who snubbed me.")

Owens next qualifies for the broad jump after German rival Luz Long unexpectedly gives him tips on his technique. Owens wins another medal, and Luz publicly shakes his hand and joins him for a victory lap, privately expressing concern about national politics. Owens wins his fourth and final medal in the 4 x 100 m relay, filling in for two Jewish Americana athletes cut by Brundage, who is convinced by Goebbels to do so to avoid a scandal over a business arrangement Brundage entered with the Nazis before the games. Director Leni Riefenstahl films the event against Goebbels' orders, then asks Owens to repeat his medal-winning broad jump to get a few more shots for her next film, Olympia.

Box office:

Race grossed $19.2 million in North America and $5.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $25.1 million.^[9]

In the United States and Canada, pre-release tracking suggested the film would gross $4–7 million from 2,369 theaters in its opening weekend, trailing fellow newcomer Risen ($7–12 million projection) but similar to The Witch ($5–7 million projection). It ended up grossing $7.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing in sixth at the box office.

Critical response:

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 61% based on 148 reviews and an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Race is nowhere near as thrillingly fleet or agile as its subject, but the story—and a winning central performance from Stephan James—are enough to carry it over the finish line". Metacritic reports a score of 56 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.