Race Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Race Blu-ray Movie Review

Gold medal for heart, silver medal for effort, and bronze medal for execution.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 14, 2016

If there was an Academy Award given for a movie title that makes the best use of the double entendre, Race would win it running away. In the film, Director Stephen Hopkins, working his biggest picture since 1998's Lost in Space, tells the story of American Olympic hero Jesse Owens, a four-time gold medalist at the 1936 Summer games in Berlin. At home and particularly abroad in Germany, Owens faced tremendous scrutiny and prejudice based on the color of his skin, but his skill on the track as both a runner and a jumper, as well as his persistence to succeed and the support of his coach and an unlikely ally, made him a champion and a hero. The film efforts to intersect the larger political sphere as it was in the mid-1930s with an intimate tale of Owens' rise to stardom and runs not against the odds on the track, but rather the world around him. The film is a success on the macro level, even as it doesn't quite find its own identity on the micro level against a growing number of comparable films that tackle similar basic subject material, only in different arenas and different faces standing tall against prejudice.

Ready, set...

Jesse Owens (Stephan James) is the fastest man alive. He enrolls at Ohio State to run for Coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis) who is impressed with Owens' raw gifts but challenges him to get a better start off the line and prove that he can work for glory, not simply run his way to it. Owens is asked to commit to excellence, which he must accomplish in the face of incessant bigotry from white schoolmates. His skill on the track earns him a shot at immortality in the 1936 Olympic games, taking place in less-than-friendly territory in Berlin, Germany, right in the heart of the Nazi movement and all the racial prejudices therein. The games are overseen by Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) himself. Owens must prove his worth on the track and carry himself with dignity, even as the world around him tries to tear him down.

Race compares favorably to, and in some ways surpasses, Prefontaine, a 1997 film about American athlete Steve Prefontaine, a popular figure in his own right and the star American runner at the next games held in (West) Germany in 1972. Race certainly boasts significantly higher production values. It also works hard to tell a story greater than a man while still exploring the man in somewhat intimate detail. Race isn't a full-on biopic. It's instead a string of snapshots from a peak time in Owens' life as he finds his stride as one of the world's great athletes first at Ohio State and, later in the film, in Germany. As the film begins, his mother is sending him off to college. He's leaving behind his girlfriend and their daughter, whom he is financially supporting from a distance. This allows Race to find and tell the meatiest moments of Owens' career without delving into deeper backstory. His life isn't so much pre-established as it is simply filled in and implied as necessary through the first act. And unlike Prefontaine, there's a much larger social and political context to consider, something the filmmakers hope will transition the film away from crude biopic and depiction of athletics into something more globally and socially substantial.

It works, to a point. The movie feels a little unbalanced and overdone in its quest to bring together a larger world of prejudice and the man who found himself in the middle of scorn and glory. The movie never quite finds a real tangible and intimate sense of struggle, even as that's the centerpiece of the story. Race often feels as if it's going through the motions, whether during Owens' time at Ohio State when football players denounce him or later in Germany when the full weight of the Nazi regime stands against him. He finds a friend in both places, in his coach at Ohio State and a German competitor in the long jump at the Olympics, the latter arguably the movie's best opportunity to more deeply explore real human relationships building in the overreaching shadow of prejudice. The movie tries, but it never quite succeeds in really getting to the heart of the relationship and its broader implications. The political machinations come to a head in one of the movie's best scenes when Owens, after winning his first gold medal, is taken to meet Hitler who refuses to shake hands with "that," as Joseph Goebbels calls Owens, dehumanizing him and underscoring the regime's stance against him and others they considered "inferior." Yet even that moment almost feels like any other in the movie, part of a larger well-oiled machine that goes about its business with honest intentions but not much of a real sense of dramatic novelty or greater importance. 42 explored discrimination in sports and focused on the person while still examining the greater world around Jackie Robinson. Race takes the opposite approach, seemingly beginning with the larger world and pushing into the man, which yields a less dramatic, and ultimately less interesting, story, despite much potential to find the same thematic and emotional impact as Writer/Director Brian Helgeland's excellent baseball biopic.

Race Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like many films of its kind, Race takes on a very mild sepia tone that accentuates browns and yellows as the dominant color scheme for the movie. Background greens and other colors tend to blend into a more earthy, reserved palette, with only red Nazi banners really standing apart. The digital source material, however, doesn't necessarily jive with the intended look; it's a bit flat and smooth but works well enough, particularly in the professional manner by which it accentuates fine detail. Broad image clarity is excellent, enough so that sweeping digital vistas stick out like a sore thumb. Real, more tangible backgrounds are impressive, particularly wooden accents around offices and other locales. More intimate details fare very well. Close-up skin textures are supremely revealing, capturing the finest skin imperfections. Heavier period clothing -- sweatshirts, sports coats, hats, neckties -- reveal complex fabric details with ease. Nighttime black levels hold up impressively well with honest depth and shadow detail. Skin tones are impressive, if a little influenced by the movie's mild old-timey tonal push. Light noise spikes in lower light conditions, but other eyesores and compression artifacts are rare. An all-around terrific presentation from Universal.

Race Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Race features a solid all-around DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is frequently open and inviting, doing a good job of capturing a mood and place, particularly the excitement of race time. Crowd noise, whether at Ohio State or at the games in Berlin, is always immersive. A good surrounding din pushes through and immerses the listener in the moment, boasting excellent surround usage. Even without the added back or overhead channels, such moments are incredibly impressive. Heavy planes and even the Hindenburg rumble through the stage with plenty of slow directional movement and deep bass, the most aggressive use of the LFE channel in the movie. Lighter ambient effects impress, particularly locker room banter or basic office space sound elements that flutter through the stage and make a positive impression in sonically defining those areas. Music is smooth and well defined, more up front than immersive but yielding positive clarity throughout the range, whether score or in-movie music at sporting events. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized with a stable front-center positioning.

Race Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Race contains three brief featurettes. A voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy is included with purchase.

• The Making of Race (1080p, 3:59): Cast and crew talk up the core story details, characters, casting and performances, and more.
• Becoming Jesse Owens (1080p, 4:02): A closer look at Stephan James' casting and performance of Jesse Owens, including physical preparations for the role and the intricacies of running a race.
• The Owens Sisters (1080p, 3:10): A quick look at the Owens family's aid in making the movie and a few personal nuggets from their lives.

Race Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Race is a solid movie, but it can't shake the feeling that it's content to go through the motions. Jesse Owens' story is incredible, personally, politically, socially, and globally alike, but the film never quite finds the right balance between all those areas. Not really a biopic, not exactly social or political commentary, not exclusively contextualized history, it prefers a catchall approach that builds and reveals Owens' story but never takes flight with it. Perhaps in a world where movies like 42 didn't exist and the greater "Inspirational Sports" genre wasn't so prevalent it might feel a little more special, but as it is Race accomplishes little more than giving an honest effort and yielding a solid foundational movie. Universal's Blu-ray does offer splendid video, solid audio, and a few throwaway supplements. It's worth watching, but probably only worth buying at a steep discount.