Race tells the touching story of Jesse Owens when the American sprinter and long jumper won four golds under the noses of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi hierarchy in Berlin

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In our monochrome memories of the 20th century, surely few are more enduring and uplifting than those of Jesse Owens at the Berlin Games of 1936.

Those pictures of the American sprinter and long jumper winning four golds under the noses of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi hierarchy, who saw these Olympics as a showcase for their Aryan master plan, were created by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (played with zest by Carice Van Houten). 

And the battle with her boss, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels (a glowering, brooding Barnaby Metschurat), to include Owens in her film of the Games is one of the many conflicts that we see played out in the brilliant new biopic of Jesse Owens' life, 'Race'.

Jesse Owens pictured during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936 as he won four gold medals

This photograph from 1936 shows America's Owens saluting while Lutz Long (right) performs a Nazi salute

The film takes place from 1934 to 1936, beginning with Owens' arrival, on a track and field scholarship, at Ohio State University. Where he is coached by former athlete Larry Snyder, who goes on to pay his own passage so that he could carry on working with his protege at the Olympics.

Their relationship is central to the story. Played with real warmth by Stephan James and Jason Sudeikis, we see how both men, after initially locking horns somewhat, form a genuine bond. While Sudeikis' character also gets to see up close the kind of bigotry Owens had to cope with on a daily basis. 

From not only within his own University, but also even the Olympic coaching team. This point is made most poignantly at the end of the film when both men and their wives attend a dinner being held in Owens' honour. And the Owens are forced to enter the hotel via the tradesman's entrance.

Owens also has to face his own crises of conscience as the story unfolds as he is put under pressure not to compete. Something that is also played out on a grander scale by the American Olympic Committee, who had their own moral dilemma to deal with as the Games approached. 

At the centre of this are two powerful committee members at odds with each other's stance, Avery Brundage and Jeremiah Mahoney. 

And these characters get the actors they deserve in the shape of heavyweights Jeremy Irons and William Hurt. They deliver two men who are by no means perfect, but are most certainly real people.

Owens, played by Stephan James (pictured here in our clip), won four golds under the nose of Adolf Hitler

Owens' story is one of genuine triumph in the face of remarkable adversity set in the 1930s

Race is a 2016 biographical sports drama film about Owens, who won four gold medals in Berlin in 1936

Of course, the other place where we see plenty of competition is in the sporting arena. Which is the place where you can often see a film about sport fall at the first hurdle. Well, 'Race' certainly doesn't have that problem.

In the hands of director Stephen Hopkins, the action sequences are packed with a real sense of excitement and drama. With his set piece being a brilliant, flowing sequence in which we see Owens make his way into the cauldron of Berlin's Olympic stadium for the first time, strip down to his race gear and take to the track to win his first gold medal in the 100m.

Jesse Owens' story is one of genuine triumph in the face of incredible adversity. 

And it is clearly one that not only required him to be an exceptional athlete, but also a person with exceptional grace and dignity. 'Race' conveys all of this with real integrity and not a little style, and in the end reminds us perfectly of that great sporting axiom, cometh the hour, cometh the man.

This is one of the most iconic moments in the film as it depicts how Owens stood in the face of adversity