Episode 14: Race, a Jesse Owens Biopic, Starring Stephan James

All it took for a feature film about American hero, sports pioneer, and Third Reich-bitch-slapper Jesse Owens were French, Canadian, and German film producers to team up to get it off the ground. The results are mostly magical, with a compelling and winsome lead performance from Stephan James and a budget stretched to the max to bring the cringe-inducing Hitler Olympics to life. 

Sara and Rena go in deep talking about the corruption of the IOC, the pointlessness of boycotting the Olympics, and the profoundly crappy way Jesse Owens was treated on his return to America after hurting Himmler’s fee-fees and ruining Leni Riefenstahl’s film. As important: lengthy appreciation for director Stephen Hopkins and a brief celebration of the sanity and bravery of German athlete Luz Long and the skills of Eulace Peacock. 

Race stars Stephan James as Jesse Owens, Jason Sudakis as Larry Snyder, Shanice Banton as Ruth Solomon, Carice van Houten as Leni Riefenstahl, Jeremy Irons as Avery Brundage, William Hurt as Jeremiah Mahoney, Shamier Anderson as Eulace Peacock, and David Kross as Luz Long. 

Sources:

Triumph : The Untold Sto7.75ry of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics

By Jeremy Schaap

Berlin 1936 : Sixteen Days in August

By Oliver Hilmes   

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

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