This long overdue film bio-pic of the great American athlete Jesse Owens naturally concentrates on the run-up to his golden year of 1936 when he was clearly the fastest man on earth who just happened to grow up in a country where he experienced extreme racism in his daily life and then went into history by winning four gold medals in a country where again his race was considered sub-human. That he did so with such humility and grace on and off the track is to his credit, although as the film makes clear, he was no angel.
In fact so much happened to him in such a short period of time that I freely admit to going in the web to fact-check so much of what is portrayed he and then being surprised to find most of it true, like his breaking three world records and equalling another at a track meet in the States, the cheating on his wife-to-be, with whom he'd already fathered a child, the dropping of two American Jewish runners from the U. S. 4 x 100 m sprint team and the remarkably sporting assistance he received from his main German rival in the long-jump. The only really questionable item I guess was whether Hitler did or didn't actually snub him after his victories although I'm happy to grant the director some dramatic licence here. In fact as Owens himself said, he cared more about the slight he felt at his own country's president not publicly acknowledging his feats
I personally would have preferred if the movie had stayed with the remarkable Owens as it's main focus. Instead it diverts its attention to seek to rehabilitate the reputations of two other controversial figures associated with the Games, American Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage and female German Nazi-sympathiser director Leni Riefenstahl who produced the undoubtedly iconic if imbalanced official film of the games "Olympiad".
The depiction of the period was well-renderef throughout with clever use of CGI to recreate the Olympic stadium itself and the actual competitions themselves. The acting too was good, even if lead Stephan James scarcely resembles Owen and I especially enjoyed film debutant, Bruce Willis lookalike Jason Sudeikis as his super-strict coach Larry Snyder.
Whilst some of the scenes were perhaps too obviously made-over Hollywood-style with attendant noble dialogue to match, this was nevertheless an enlightening and enjoyable retelling of the fantastic achievements of one of the greatest ever Olympians.
In fact so much happened to him in such a short period of time that I freely admit to going in the web to fact-check so much of what is portrayed he and then being surprised to find most of it true, like his breaking three world records and equalling another at a track meet in the States, the cheating on his wife-to-be, with whom he'd already fathered a child, the dropping of two American Jewish runners from the U. S. 4 x 100 m sprint team and the remarkably sporting assistance he received from his main German rival in the long-jump. The only really questionable item I guess was whether Hitler did or didn't actually snub him after his victories although I'm happy to grant the director some dramatic licence here. In fact as Owens himself said, he cared more about the slight he felt at his own country's president not publicly acknowledging his feats
I personally would have preferred if the movie had stayed with the remarkable Owens as it's main focus. Instead it diverts its attention to seek to rehabilitate the reputations of two other controversial figures associated with the Games, American Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage and female German Nazi-sympathiser director Leni Riefenstahl who produced the undoubtedly iconic if imbalanced official film of the games "Olympiad".
The depiction of the period was well-renderef throughout with clever use of CGI to recreate the Olympic stadium itself and the actual competitions themselves. The acting too was good, even if lead Stephan James scarcely resembles Owen and I especially enjoyed film debutant, Bruce Willis lookalike Jason Sudeikis as his super-strict coach Larry Snyder.
Whilst some of the scenes were perhaps too obviously made-over Hollywood-style with attendant noble dialogue to match, this was nevertheless an enlightening and enjoyable retelling of the fantastic achievements of one of the greatest ever Olympians.