RACE

This has been so long overdue that many of us even forgot that the great J C Owens' (Jesse Owens) life was worth a biopic. Set in the troubled pre-WW II world Race traces the rather swift journey of Jesse Owens from the lanes of Cleveland to the monster stadium at Berlin.

What should Jesse Owens' biopic be about? Should it be about his genius, his prowess, his work, his struggles or should it be about the political backdrop against which he made history? Does the context of his achievements mean more than the actual achievements themselves? These are the questions Race leaves in your mind.

Germany is hosting the Olympics and the United States is not sure whether it wants to be seen

participating. Germany is at the heights of its discrimination policies and the USA does not want to be perceived as a pacifist of such policies, in spite of its own chequered discrimination policies. Germany makes all efforts to make sure it holds a grand games, even camouflaging their discriminating tendencies for a while and USA nod to participate.

Back home, the ' black people' of America look at this as an opportunity to tell the world that their hearts are with the downtrodden people of Germany. They do not want one of their people going to the games. There is politics, there is power, there are egos, there is a bit of business, and in the midst of all this is a bit of athletics. Race somehow contrives to lose its focus from its protagonist and spread it all over the socio-political state of USA and Germany without giving a complete picture of any of these.

While it has a sincere performance by its lead man Stephen James, and is ably supported by an energetic Jason Sudeikis, the movie never really rests its weight on its two central characters; it is too busy flirting with greater things. The most important factor behind the making of the world's greatest athlete(arguably) - the miles and hours he had to put into the track go missing. The movie makes it seem as if he just had to turn up and run to get the gold, as if the competition was insignificant! The only time he is ever pushed is in the long jump final where his adversary (a matured David Kross, if you remember him from The Reader) shows some rare sportsmanship. Otherwise, the competition is invisible. The only time Jesse loses anything is when his mind is not in the right place; otherwise he is invincible. It is this seeming inevitability of his victories that make Race a not too exciting experience. The only thing that can make it exciting is the context of what was achieved, something greater than the sport itself. The political statement that was made in the face of Adolf Hitler.

But Race does the same thing with Hitler that many movies have done before - treat him like

Voldemort. His name must not be said, his face must not be shown. He is just a passing mirage shown at obtuse angles and referred to as Fuhrer. We really don't understand what was achieved in terms of a political statement. We only get a stone faced general trying to run the games with an iron fist and speaking in German monotone.

It is this strewn focus of the film that hurts Race the most. Of course, you can enjoy the quite well made Olympic portions, even though the huge crowds look obviously as products of CGI.

One wonders whether a generation who never heard about Owens before will watch this film and think that he was this incredibly gifted guy who just happened to be at the right place at the right time and was lucky enough to be part of history. Ask any athlete and his greatest pride will be the amount of hours he put in to get to where he was, and never about how naturally good he was. Race doesn't show the sweat and hours behind the 4 gold medals, and for that reason remains an underwhelming biopic of one of the greatest ever athletes.

A story of the circumstances more than the man himself!

2.5/5