Race belongs to the 42 white director school of movies with ostensible historical black protagonists struggling to overcome racism through excellence. Instead of Jackie Robinson, Race focuses on Jesse Owens as he goes to college then to the 1936 Olympic in Hitler’s Germany before WWII. Somehow Stephan James managed to grab a role from Chadwick Boseman’s growing monopoly on black biopics.
Instead of Harrison Ford, Race gives us Saturday Night Live’s Jason Sudeikis in his first dramatic role as the coach who teaches Owens how to deal with racism for the first time in his life. Side note: the juxtaposition of Ford and Sudeikis sounds snarky, but Sudeikis did do a good job, especially considering that he was in a movie with Jeremy Irons, who probably needs castle money, William Hurt, Carice van Houten from Game of Thrones and Barnaby Metschurat, who does an outstanding job as Goebbels.
Unlike 42, Race would make a good TV miniseries as opposed to a CBS Sunday night movie because it ambitiously tries to tackle three subjects: the standard black athlete overcoming racially adverse conditions biopic, the US Olympic committee’s moral dilemma regarding whether or not to boycott the Olympics because of Germany’s racism and the foreboding of World War II and the Holocaust. There was a missed opportunity for the filmmakers to at least casually reference Louis Zamperini of Unbroken fame although he is not in the same athletic league as Owens. Race was already juggling a ton of balls in the air that another one would not have hurt.
Race gains momentum when it addresses the Olympic controversy, but it feels like it is finally hitting its stride in the final scene and then it is over. Race wants to be monumental, but it is mediocre, and is a mild diversion instead of an earth-shattering revelation.