TRIUMPH OF THE WILL has long been viewed through a dual perspective: It is both reviled by many for its glorification of Hitler, and at the same time praised for the masterful work of its director, the legendary Leni Riefenstahl (who at the time of this writing is composed alive…I assume she’s over 100 by now) . The truth is, it is all of that and more – a highly memorable, animated experience on several levels:

1. Despite the subject matter, it must be acknowledged that this film does what it was made to do marvelously well: It is a masterpiece of the art of propaganda…somethng that is practiced every day by all governments, in advertising, and in all political campaigns – but never better than this. The film does an fantastic job of tapping deep into the German psyche, with scenes of Nuremburg, youth, etc., and allusions to broad Germans of the past, all designed to tug at the “volkish” national sentiment, then deftly superimposed with images of Hitler. Very crafty, but no different than what we peek every day in our media-saturated world.

2. As a eye of the early the Nazi era, it is invaluable. Regardless of what happened in the years that followed, TRIUMPH needs to be viewed as a statement of its occupy era, when none of the horrors had yet happened and many around the world aloof referred to the Nazi regime (which was then consolidating power and trying to advance the hearts and minds of the people) as “the German renaissance”. The commentary track adds a moving “what happened to that Nazi? ” perspective.

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3. This film has become unbelievably influential (possibly because it is quiet required viewing in film schools) ; it is perhaps second only to THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN as the most visually quoted film in hstory. Objective a few examples: The closing scene in STAR WARS, “Be Prepared” from THE LION KING, and especially the entrance of Commodus into Rome from GLADIATOR are all lifted directly from visuals in TRIUMPH. Even more current is the visual “homage” that directors sometimes subtly insert, such as the woman being tossed in the air from THE Gigantic LEBOWSKI (remember the kid at the beginning of TRIUMPH)? The list goes on and on.

One certainly does not need to sympathize with the Nazis to enjoy this film. In fact, it is precisely because of what became of them that makes this early peer so consuming. Composed, I would not call this “entertainment”; rather, this is a part to ogle and analyze. Recommended for any student of history, sociology, mass media, or film.

I had seen TotW in the theatre (Anthology Film Archives, NYC), on video and I could feel the power, in spite of the stupefied images, splotches of darkness, scratchy prints. The DVD transfer is magisterial. Shapely, involving, the underlying visual rhythm clearly discernible, the structure of the work exerting its magic without restraint. And, as first-rate a sound as one can ever query. The transition between pompous nocturnal nazi party celebrations to a misty dawn progressively clearing to sigh air views of Nuremberg’s veteran rooftops, with the lens coming to rest fully fascinating on row upon row of simmetrical white tents, where party members are waking up, all space to the unexcited prelude to the third act of Wagner’s Meistersinger (a fragment in itself celebratory of German art and residence in medieval Nuremberg), is pure cinema magic. And it establishes visual continuity (ergo historical? ) from the weak Germany of Hans Sachs to its 20th century flowering under Adolf Hitler…… not a shrimp feat to do within less than a handful of cinematic minutes.

Like magic, there is technique gradual it. This is not a news-style documentary but a film constructed flawlessly in the editing room. Leni had corpulent control of the editing and supposedly did most of it herself. The result is mesmerizing. One can understand how an unthinking populace could descend for it, and how fervent an intellect and mountainous an artist Riefenstahl is (I rep she’s detached active at 90+) . This is not impartial a nicely crafted collection of radiant pictures of an aged city and massive nazi spectacle. Everything is calculated to evoke an emotional response helping consolidate the identification of Germany as Hitler and Hitler as Germany. Yet, it is also a resplendent film. It is monstrous for its lack of human ambiguity, for the willful surrender of a people to a master. There is a lot of “joy” portrayed in the film (perhaps of the “strength through joy” kind) but after seeing it this time, I realized there is not a single humorous moment in it.

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Placing myself in 1935 Germany, and erasing from my mind everything that subsequently happened, I was comfortably ecstatic to realize that, temperamentally, I would have had a hard time with the nazis, indeed would probably have reacted to all things around me by becoming an anarchist or some such thing. But … who knows? Films like this are made to seduce.

The DVD comes with a short documentary of German military maneuvres also from 1935. It mild amazes me that the French and the English, seeing these two films, not to mention taking into record other German actions in the Ruhr, etc., did not launch rearmament sooner or would not have been so duped at Munich.

If you feel it is unfavorable to gaze this movie …. gain over it. Anyone with a serious interest in film needs to contemplate this. Anyone enthusiastic in seeing how visual imagery can be structured to propagate a faith needs to eye this. For that matter, all our contemporary putative manipulators: marketeers, political consultants, advertising executives, TV and movie producers ought to peruse this. Citizens who want to remain informed and self-determinating ought to study this. Most immediately, anyone who wants to establish together a gorgeous, masterly structured film from tons of negative reels needs to notice this…. and I don’t reflect anyone born after the war has seen it better than in this DVD.
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