Screen Savor: Athletic supporters

Early winter 2016 has brought movie lovers not one but two Olympics-themed movies based on real people. Where the intentionally campy Eddie The Eagle is a somewhat wacky affair with a heart of gold (medal), the equally uplifting Race (Focus) takes a more serious approach to its storytelling. It also has the bonus of being a biopic full of hot, sweaty and muscular bodies.

Beginning in the fall of 1933 when Ohio State University college student Jesse Owens (Stephan James) caught the attention of track and field coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis), it follows the pair on their journey from Columbus, Ohio to Berlin, Germany for the 1936 Olympics, at which Owens won a groundbreaking four gold medals.

Race keeps a lot of balls in the air over the course of two hours. In addition to relating Owens' inspirational story (including his parents as well as Ruth, the mother of his daughter and his future wife, played by Shanice Banton), and Snyder's return to form, Race deals with the role of the Nazis at the Olympics. Famous names such as high ranking Nazi official Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) and filmmaking propagandist Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten), in addition to German athlete Luz Long (David Kross), and American architect and Olympic committee member Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons), are also essential components of the story.

The kind of inspirational movie that causes audiences to cheer and applaud throughout, the timing of the release of Race is significant for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the 80^th anniversary of the 1936 Olympics is approaching and it's a golden opportunity to celebrate Owens' legacy. Given the current political climate, and the ongoing racial tensions, Race functions as a message movie and offers a lesson about overcoming prejudice and destructive political adversaries. Although, you can be sure that Donald Trump would give Race four swastikas.

Eddie The Eagle (20^th Century Fox), the feel-bruised movie of the year, is an uplifting Brit-com in the tradition of Billy Elliott, The Full Monty and Brassed Off, in which characters beat insurmountable odds to become triumphant. Based on the true story of English Olympian Eddie Edwards, who ever since he was a lad in a leg brace due to "dodgy knees," dreamed of being an Olympian.

Beginning in England in 1973 and ending at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Canada, Eddie The Eagle traces the uphill battle of undaunted Eddie (Taron Egerton), determined to bring his questionable athletic skills to the slopes. After not making the 1984 British ski team, Eddie becomes increasingly obsessed with leaving his mark in the snow. His plasterer father would prefer that Eddie follows in his footsteps, while his mother encourages him in her own way.

Somehow, Eddie makes his way to Germany, in spite of discouragement from the British Olympic committee and begins his training in earnest. While there he encounters fictional former Olympian Bronson (Hugh Jackman in form fitting jeans), who has made a career of being a grounds caretaker and drinking himself into oblivion. Predictably, the unlikely duo teams up for the most heartwarming of underdog, or maybe under-eagle, stories. Eddie The Eagle is funny and sweet and hard to take seriously; it's a tale as tall as a mountain.