RACE 2016

Race 2016
By
Stephen Hopkins

This film focusses not only on the record breaking feats of J.C.Owens (mistakenly recorded as Jessie) and the 1936 Berlin Olympics,but also on the policies of racial discrimination followed in US as well as Nazy Germany in the 1930s.
The whole world knows  how at a track meet in Michigan in 1935,Jesse broke three(long jump,220 yd dash,220 yd hurdles) and equaled one (100 yd dash) world record in a short period of 45 minutes.This broad (now called long) jump of 8.13 m was to stay unbroken till 1960.
How Jesse dealt a blow to the theory of Aryan supremacy in the NAzy  den at Berlin ,before Hitler’s very eyes , represents one of the most glorious moments of the Olympic games.His four golds in 100m,200m,long jump and 4*100 m events are considered one of the finest achievements on the track and field.Carl Lewis managed to win four golds in the same events in 1984 LA Olympics which were  plagued by Soviet pullout.
Leni Riefenstahl,who filmed the Berlin Games on camera for her docufilm,Olympus,covered the famous long jump competition between Jesse and the German Lutz  Long .Jesse had fouled his first two out of the three qualifying jumps,when some technical help (unverified) by Long helped him qualify in the final leap.The rest is history.JC and Long became good friends,and athough Lutz died in the war,the former always spoke highly of him and continued to have good relations with his family.
A decent film,although slow paced,but lovers of sports films would do well to watch this one.Afterall,Jesse Owens was the greatest athlete of the 21^st century.