Rent Triumph of the Will (1935)

A Classic and brilliantly filmed documentary on 1934 Nazi convention - Triumph of the Will review by PV

Directed by Leni Riefenstahl who died in 2003 aged 101, this is master film-making. It does its job - it shows Hitler as a messiah come to save Germany at the 1934 Nuremburg rallies. It is hypnotic, mesmerising and the audiences at=re transfixed by their messiah and new Nazi god.

We all know what came later. BUT this was a year (19 months) after Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933. These rallies in 1933,34,35,36,37,38 ended when war came. Watch this to see the brilliance of Nazi propaganda courtesy of Goebbels who more or less created modern propaganda and advertising too.

NO political leader had toured a country by plane before Hitler or even car - this was the modern image that Germany wanted to portray, even though the army was reliant on horses and had much less modern equipment than the French army, say. The Germans marched into France in 1940 mostly on foot, horse and bicycle!

Of interest now s the various Nazi govt ministers giving little speeches - the one in charge or workers boasts about how many trees they have planted and how many farmers' fields and forests too - which shows how Nazis appropriated the very German culture of communing with Nature for spiritual and physical renewal. They were the proto-Greens - why German Green party is so strong and that green campaigning has come to the UK too. It has Nazi rootsl like it or not.

Classic clips of Adolf, introduced by Hess who was always mentally special, shall we say.

if you know about the history of the Nazis and WWII then you will get this all and appreciate its educational vaalue.

5 stars.

a family movie of daddy Hitler and his dim but vicious children on a day out in the country - Triumph of the Will review by tm

this was a disappointing movie. I had hoped for high art, breakthrough imagery, brilliant and subtle editing that made Nazism look disturbingly attractive and fascinating. A sort of "birth of a nation for Nazis" ; now that was a brilliant movie. After all, Capra and so many other contemporaries were so enamoured of the Leni Riefenstahl' s product that they didn't think they could match her peerless work.

what I got was a pretty hum drum home movie; a sort of "the crude family next door go on holiday" to their holiday villa to visit their equally unpleasant cousins.

there were some intriguing closeups of the sinister legends of the holocaust looking, well like sinister legends, but in all honesty, unless you were a fan already, how could you possibly sit through this without yawning and wondering if you had enough crisps to get you through it?

it is intriguing as a historical document for example the SA were credited strongly even though a few weeks earlier, the Fuhrer had agreed to have them decapitated. and so on but as art; no. if you want to see effective subtle and powerful racist propaganda, then go to WD Griffiths' much earlier masterpiece.