My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. The movie is very well made, entertaining and historically important.
When I was a boy growing up in the 1960s I was a rabid track and field fan and, even though it happened in the 1930s I was aware of Jesse Owens and his great times in the dashes, times that are great even today, 80 years later, that is how good he was. But until I saw this movie I never knew his name was "J.C.", for James Cleveland, not Jesse at all, but that is what one teacher though he was saying and the name stuck.
The story here is set between about 1933, when Jesse was almost 20 and going off to college at Ohio State and 1936, the year of his Olympic victories in Germany, much to the distress of Hitler and the Nazi regime. The story overall seems to stick pretty closely to the facts, although many things about Jesse Owens in private time had to be invented.
Stephan James was about 20 during filming, he is Jesse Owens. He had to undergo quite a lot of training to look like a sprinter and to mimic the particular running style of Owens. He does very well in the part.
Usually just a funnyman, Jason Sudeikis is really good as Larry Snyder, the track coach at Ohio State who fine-tuned Owens' running to help him become the world-beater that he was.
The 1936 Olympic games are dramatized well here. Overall a very entertaining and historically significant story, very well presented.
When I was a boy growing up in the 1960s I was a rabid track and field fan and, even though it happened in the 1930s I was aware of Jesse Owens and his great times in the dashes, times that are great even today, 80 years later, that is how good he was. But until I saw this movie I never knew his name was "J.C.", for James Cleveland, not Jesse at all, but that is what one teacher though he was saying and the name stuck.
The story here is set between about 1933, when Jesse was almost 20 and going off to college at Ohio State and 1936, the year of his Olympic victories in Germany, much to the distress of Hitler and the Nazi regime. The story overall seems to stick pretty closely to the facts, although many things about Jesse Owens in private time had to be invented.
Stephan James was about 20 during filming, he is Jesse Owens. He had to undergo quite a lot of training to look like a sprinter and to mimic the particular running style of Owens. He does very well in the part.
Usually just a funnyman, Jason Sudeikis is really good as Larry Snyder, the track coach at Ohio State who fine-tuned Owens' running to help him become the world-beater that he was.
The 1936 Olympic games are dramatized well here. Overall a very entertaining and historically significant story, very well presented.