Sick Product of a Sick System

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's 1935 in Germany, the year of the Nurenberg Rally, and in his Junkers tri-motor, wile a tuneful Wagnerian melody plays in the background, Hitler descends gracefully through the puffy white clouds like an angel in a Hallmark greeting card, come to tell the earth how the cow ate the cabbage.They really are impressive clouds too. Leni Riefenstahl knew her stuff. And as the Junkers floats across the city skies the melody changes to the more sentimental but still stirring "Ich Hab Mein Herz in Heidelberg Verloren." See? The guy is sentimental and sweet, just like the rest of us, with just as intense a sense of Heimat. Why, the Chancellor is here to bring us all together again.The upshot is that Hitler arrives and gives a rousing speech about the German people at a mass rally in a stadium designed by his chief architect, Albert Speer. It's magnificent. The background of the stage is draped with Nazi banners and the audience seems to consist of thousands of idolaters lined up in formation, who give boisterous cheers and Nazi salutes until Hitler begins his exhilarating pep talk, which I found boring and uninformative.But that's not what the movie is about anyway. The political content is subordinate to the splendor. Men in uniform march in endless columns, in synchrony in a way we never did in boot camp. The band plays, the drums beat, the flags are a symphony of motion, some of the action is filmed in slow motion. It's thrilling. Especially gripping is the sight of such young boys, no more than twelve years old, pounding away so grimly, so earnestly, on their drums, clamping their lips together, frowning with a grim determination to do -- well, something. They're too small to have a good grasp of what's going on, but they have all the ardor of cheerleaders at a high school football game.Those kids beating the drums, you've seen them before, especially one particularly energetic dark-haired boy. You've probably seen the torches and the flags too. "Triumph of the Will" is so evocative, so successful in capturing the atmosphere of NSDP members, and Riefenstahl has done such a superlative job of putting it on film, that clips of it have been lifted willy nilly and inserted into other films -- features as well as documentaries. This is one of the reasons it might seem familiar to us, in a way that it was NOT familiar but rather an astonishing spectacle to the Germans and to the world in 1935. To the world in 1935 it was a fervent and innovative display of nationalism and power.Riefenstahl herself had striking looks, an interpretive dancer and physical fitness buff, the Katarina Witt of 1930s German films, who had earlier starred in stereotypical German movies belonging to the genre called Mountain Movies. You make a dangerous climb to the top of the mountain and return the wiser for having done it. She wasn't very particular in her choice of mountains as it turned out, but this movie and the later "Olympiad", showed flawless physical specimens showing their prowess in slow motion and included such dialog as, "This Negro is dangerous," in reference to Jesse Owens. They brought her deserved world-wide fame. "Deserved" because she was such a damned good director. If, instead of Nazi propaganda, she'd turned out biblical epics like Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," she'd be in the pantheon today.She was arrested after the war and then released because she'd committed no war crimes. She carried on with her photography and her movies and stuck with the subjects that had always held her in their thrall -- power and physical beauty -- among the Nuba tribe of Africa. She was 101 when she died.

As bad as the past had been during the Nazi regime, Triumph of the Will, is an extremely well-made documentary. The outstanding edits that had conveyed the audience to follow the Führer, Adolf Hitler, just show the intensity of propaganda used. The shots almost always showed a full setting, along with what was happening, as if preparing to guide us viewers in the direction to what would happen next. Leni Riefenstahl used great footage to show all the excitement that was exclaimed by the people before Hitler's arrival to each event. The use of it really portrays Hitler as a person who is extremely well respected and praised, giving us an impression that he was the one who deserved it. Because of this documentary being filmed in the 1930's, it fascinates me that something so old can still be so interesting. I found it exciting to be able to hear a speech that was about to be made, because of all the build up of cheer that Riefenstahl showed. One last thing I would like to add, even though this is in the German language, it is very easy to keep up with the subtitles and still get to see the footage without missing much.

Before I get to my assessment of this cinematic work, let me remind you of my bias: I hate Nazism, I hate fascism in all of its forms (and I would hate an American fascism, so it is not a matter of hating fascism because of its ties to some foreign culture), I consider Hitler and all of his associates pure evil. Even if I fit all the criteria for being a perfect Aryan by Nazi 'racial' criteria, I would rather become a Jew than a Nazi. At least as a Jew I would be able to maintain my current moral and cultural values.Yes, it is an infamous piece of propaganda showing how completely and quickly Hitler took complete control of Germany, offering himself as a focus of national unity. Riefenstahl shows some of the best camera work to its time, advancing the great achievement of German cinematography that before Hitler rivaled anything else -- even Hollywood productions. It is worth watching as a depiction of Nazi Germany as the purest despotism that has ever existed. Much of this staging is choreography showing the extreme regimentation already in effect in Germany roughly a year after the Devil Incarnate took power. But such, alas, is now educational -- a study of Nazi propaganda, and that is the cause of my mediocre rating.Hitler already gets treatment that rock stars of our time get even if the lyrics are banal and the music is shallow. Even if Hitler manages to avoid the infamous denunciations of foreign powers and especially the Jews -- even the arch-bigot Julius Streicher is shown calling only for Germans to protect their 'racial purity', which is no nastier than the racist rhetoric in the USA at the time. If Hitler is not responsible for the music, the music (which is the choice of Riefenstahl) is uniformly banal -- unison brass over pounding drums. The great irony is that this bad music comes from the country that gave the world Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn (excuse me -- the Nazis banned his music!), Wagner, Brahms, and Hindemith (oh, he fled!). Needless to say, any value as entertainment is sparse at best.The choreography within the rally site is clearly the doing of the Nazi Party and its subsidiary organizations. It does with people what Hitler's paintings do -- trivialize everything human. It is hard to imagine that Riefenstahl could make any mistakes with that except to use too few camera angles. That, of course, she commands masterfully. Of course some of the regimentation looks ludicrous -- the farmers and construction workers marching with the tools of their work as if they were soldiers. But such is my contemporary bias against military-style discipline where it serves no obvious purpose other than to obliterate individuality. Much is made of ceremonies at night, with fire taking a prominent role... I can think of some American fascists who typically have their rallies at night and heavily use fire to 'illuminate' their ceremonies.This is a Party Congress... and one must admit that it is more impressive in its pageantry than any party convention, Democratic or Republican, in the United States. Of course, in American political conventions, words and policies are not preset pablum. But that is a valid comparison -- something like the Republican National Convention of 1980 or the Democratic National Convention of 2008, both of which had far more wit and wisdom than did speakers at the 1934 Nazi Party Congress. We get a unique insight into Adolf Hitler as a speaker -- and how fit his prose is for infantile, obedient simpletons. We get to see his pious lies about the Night of the Long Knives, a series of murders against rivals and old enemies. Hitler is not John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, or Barack Obama. If you were looking for something as profound as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address or Churchill's "Finest Hour" speech, you will be terribly disappointed. Heck, the speech of Charlie Chaplin's "Jewish barber" impersonating "Der Phooey" at the end of The Great Dictator (which spoofs Hitler) has richer rhetoric. Hitler has learned nothing from Goethe or Schiller. Hitler is introduced flying into Nuremberg as if a god -- consider that Hitler could exploit the novelty of flight to impress people who thought that fliers were gods. He leaves the venue by automobile. The adulation of the closest person ever to being the Antichrist is genuine enough; people are making the Nazi salute with no obvious prompting or staging. As Rudolf Hess put it, Hitler then is Germany, and Germany is Hitler on the days of the 1934 Party Congress.

Come and see them all, the movers & shakers of Nazi Germany in 1934. Those you know & some you may not. This was peace time Germany & Rally's were the order of the day. There's not a lot of action in this movie but there is a lot of display. The symbols of the NSDAP, in English that's the Nationalist Social German Workers Party, in German it's Nationale Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, are everywhere in multitudes to rival the number of attendees. This is not an easy watch & quite frankly can become boring. Even seeing the faces of the Nazi leaders can grow old though it is a great introduction to their faces. You may have to use the pause button to read the names & offices held by these men.A glimpse of the players which you see & hear speak at the rallies- Adolph Hitler: Fuhrer Rudolph Hess: Deputy Fuhrer Paul Josef Goebbels: Reich Minister of Enlightenment & Propaganda Martin Bormann: Sec. to the Fuhrer & Head of the Party Chancellery (in order to talk to Hitler you talked to this man first) Hermann Goering: Air Marshall then Reichmarschall Werner Von Blomberg: Minister of War Victor Lutze: S. A. Chief of Staff- these are the brown shirts that pacified Germany internally. Alfred Rosenberg: Reichleiter & later Reich Minister Dr. Otto Dietrich: Reichleiter & Propaganda Press Chief Dr. Hans Frank: Reichs Minister of Justice, Gov. Gen. of Occupied Poland Dr. Franz Todt Gen. Inspector Highways & Construction, Minister Armaments & Munitions Fritz Reinhardt: State Secretary Ministry of Finance Richard-Walther Darre: Agriculture Leader & Head of Central Office Race & Resettlement Dr. Robert Ley: Reichleiter & the Head of the German Labor Front Baldur von Schirach: German Youth Leader Konstantin Kierl: Head of the German Labor Service Julius Schaub: SS Adjutant to Hitler Wilhelm Bruckner SA Adjutant to Hitler Adolph Wagner: Gauleiter of MunichThe only way to get through Triumph of the Will is to watch the people & ask, "What are they doing that millions of others haven't?" The show is all Nazi Rally documentations, one after another, the saturation of political symbols exceeds a Democratic or Republican convention. You do get an A-list of the movers & shakers in the Nazi Party & a chance to actually experience Hitler's speeches to his faithful.It's just difficult to believe that from these fires comes the historical Germany of WW-II. The people went for it hook line & sinker having just come out of terrible inflation & what they deemed to be national embarrassment. It's not inspiring or riveting but it is informative & leaves lots of questions about that nation & its people at that time. It brings the question of how far nationalism should be accepted by people up for consideration. They sold their allegiance for a feeling of safety & well-being along with the promise of a brighter future if only they committed themselves faithfully to their leaders.I once lived there in '71 & '72 and I can state that it's extremely difficult to associate the German actions of WW-II to my living experience in the country about 30 years later. This subject should not become an obsession with anyone in my way of thinking but it should be an awareness & a warning, I believe you'll like the directorial touches used by Leni Riefenstahl who perhaps had talent that was wasted after the war due her working for the Nazis.