Review: ‘Race’ loses track of the real story behind 1936 Olympian Jesse Owens

Thanks to “Olympia,” filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s two-part documentary fantasia on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the eternal film image of Jesse Owens is that of a calm, then fiercely competitive, then jubilant American dominating the Germans and everyone else in the air (the long jump) and on the track.

Riefenstahl’s mythologizing close-ups also captured an ideal. Here was grace in flight, an African American sprinting and leaping into history. Symbols are important, and for a brief shining moment Owens became America’s, brandished right in der Fuhrer’s face.

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After the Games, Owens’ life was not always easy. The work he did (he was denied access to the Hollywood career he wanted) was thwarted in various directions. That part of the story will have to wait for a biopic other than director Stephen Hopkins’ “Race.”

Once “Race” arrives in Berlin and lays out the dramas unfolding behind the scenes, the film gathers momentum, and its various simplifications and shortcuts matter less. But it’s a frustrating and somewhat dodgy movie, manufactured with the support and close cooperation of the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation and the Jesse Owens Trust.

It’s possible to make a sports biopic with a lot of interested parties making sure the results are reasonably flattering (as they should be, with Owens) as well as inspirational. It’s possible, but it isn’t easy. “Race” gives up on figuring out how to dramatically enliven Owens in his own story before the midpoint.

The problem here, I think, is the same problem that gummed up the works with the Jackie Robinson biopic “42.” The screenplay by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse preoccupies itself with laying out an easy-reader version of historical context for younger audiences and for anyone who is new to Owens and his achievements. Played by Stephan James, Owens is mostly used as a respondent to the events and the times, not a dimensional force in his own story.

Also, why so much screen time for the white guy? Yes, Ohio State University head track coach Larry Snyder was the man who brought Owens up and into the record books. But too often Snyder, as played by Jason Sudeikis with a smug, diffident air, fails to justify the co-starring status.

It’s hard to know what James could’ve done in more compelling circumstances. As is, Owens’ early years in Cleveland; his wife-to-be (Shanice Banton) and baby, sidelined for a while, until Owens commits to home and hearth; these and other parts of the narrative form a two-hour highlights reel. Jeremy Irons hams it up as Avery Brundage, leader of the American Olympic interests and the fiercest opponent to a principled but unsuccessful U.S. boycott. (William Hurt mumbles through the role of Brundage’s chief adversary, the Amateur Athletic Union head Jeremiah Mahoney.)

It’s a tough call, this one. “Race” can’t help but engage when it gets to the Games. But what’s the point of telling Jesse Owens’ story if you don’t get into what made him tick and drove his success as an athlete?

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‘Race’

MPAA rating: PG-13, for thematic elements and language

Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes

Playing: In general release

Phillips is a Tribune Newspapers critic.

mjphillips@tribpub.com

Twitter @phillipstribune