Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786300149298
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6300149293
Label: Embassy/Nelson Ent. - O.B.
Manufacturer: Embassy/Nelson Ent. - O.B.
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Embassy/Nelson Ent. - O.B.
Release Date: 1992-07-01
Running Time: 111
Studio: Embassy/Nelson Ent. - O.B.
Theatrical Release Date: 1940-03-08

There is no other filmmaker remotely like Leni Riefenstahl, which is probably a good thing. The prodigiously gifted Riefenstahl, at Hitler's behest, transformed the 1934 Nuremberg rally into the stunning, terrifying documentary Triumph of the Will. Her next challenge was the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a task she undertook with technical innovations and an unfailing aesthetic eye. The games are of historical interest; Berlin was where the black American runner Jesse Owens dominated his sport, much to Hitler's chagrin. But Riefenstahl's long film (it's often shown in two parts) is more than just a document. Olympia is also a delirious paean to movement, competition, and the human body. The diving meet becomes less a battle for medals and more a dreamlike series of shapes in mesmerizing motion. While Olympia has often been described as Riefenstahl's hymn to beauty, it is also her hymn to the possibilities of cinema, of the sheer magic of camera angle and rhythm and light. After two years of exhausting editing, the film premiered on April 20, 1938--Hitler's birthday. If only Riefenstahl had turned her back on her Führer, she might be remembered as one of the mightiest directors in film history, instead of the most notorious. As it is, Pauline Kael once described Riefenstahl's Triumph and Olympia as "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman." --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: The photography lures you, action holds you.
Comment: 1936 Olympics brought to life and made immortal. Leni uses every trick in the book and then invents a few to get just the right angle and lighting for each shot and then integrates them into a whole that make you feel that you are there.

The film opens up with a film tribute to the history of Greece and the games. We get to see the names of the nations at the time that the torch passes through as it reached Berlin. A much more realistic torch than today's is ran into the stadium with a few pauses to let everyone see just before the final dash to the Olympic torch at the stadium. It would be great to recapture this in the present day. Some of the tribute leads me to believe that our athletes are overly clothed for the sports.

It may be unique reasons that brought you to this point such as Leni or photography, or interest in history, or, or, or. But once the action starts you feel that you are there and get lost in the "who will win what and how." Even being aware of the outcome does not prepare you to "not bite your nails" as you watch each athlete barley besting the next until it is over too soon. I noticed that instead of placing medals over the winners, they used laurel wreaths.

Any way you cut it, this movie is worth watching.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Little Known Facts
Comment: This film as Triumph of the Will was ahead of its time. At any rate, I find it interesting that it seems everytime this film
comes up people almost invariably love to talk about how Jesse
Owens "proved" Hitler wrong by winning Gold several times.
However, They almost never mention the Fact that Germany won
more Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals that Any other Nation in the 1936 Olympics!! Second point, Armchair historians who really
know Hitler not very well, misquote his views and real ideas
about race. Hitler never said or claimed that the Germans(or Germanic peoples) were Always superior, All the time. He believed they were "Generally" superior; their great contibutions
to culture, science, art, music, technology and the modern world in general. Moreover, How many people would have said "Hitler was right!" if Owens had lost??? The old cliche is Right > "People tend to only See what they want to See" and ignore or forget what does suit their preconceived notions....

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Comment: If schools (and much else besides) throughout the South can be named after people like Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest, then people can at least try to open up their minds and see this obvious masterpiece of twentieth century art. Riefenstahl's work on this thing is simply awesome. You're left weak and breathless in spots, watching this simultaneously powerful, sensual, artistic, ridiculous, and somehow weird paen to the human body and biokinetic aesthetics. It's all here: art deco, bauhaus, Hitler, Owens, and much else besides.

Yes, Riefensthal's questionable association with the Nazis has colored her career; justifiably so. As have her "quasi-racist" African safaris (can anybody find fault with her late-career underwater photography?) But dammit, look at the stuff honestly and try to open your mind. Can you honestly say that you're not looking at genius (however flawed) here?

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Leni does it again
Comment: This actually a review of the PAL DVD that I purchased from Amazon-DE.

Leni Riefenstahl did a triumph with this series: slow motion photography mixed with standard speed shots to blend into a rich mixture for the eyes. Her editing is topnotch, scene after scene blend into the next.

Adolph is there. Jesse Owens is there. The Olympians are great. There is the hammer throw, discus, shotput. Where are ping pong and beach volley ball? This is classic Olympics, the real games are played.

OK, so this PAL DVD is in German with no subtitles, no English dubbing. It is not necessary for English dialogue, as the spectacle speaks for itself.

I had been using my computer for watching this Region 2 DVD, but found a firmware hack for my CyberHome DVD player. Very simple to perform, and I now can watch DVD's from any region!

Larry

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Really Amazing!! Good for whole family , but note caution...
Comment: I just watched this video with my family and we were truly amazed by its cinematic artristy and beauty. It was very interesting and educational as well. I have always enjoyed classic film, and wanted to see Riefenstahl's work. I have always been interested in WW2 as well, and for this reason was also interested in Riefenstahl's films. I was finally able to get copies of Triumph of the Will and Olympia thru interlibrary loan. We watched Triumph first, for it arrived first. We liked it well enough...a very effective propaganda piece, but it was tiring after a while to just keep seeing scene after scene of the German people worshiping Hitler as their god. So we hoped Olympia would be a bit better, and we weren't disappointed...it was GREAT!! Riefenstahl's film genius shines throughout the film. Its photography is amazing. She began each part in a very artistic way. One note of caution: if you have children please note their is both male and female nudity in these beginning sequences that are not part of the actual Olympic games. You definately should allow your children to see the game part for its beauty in filming and for educational/historical reasons. But we chose to not have the children see the nudity in the beginning. Once the actual games begin, all is okay. Yes, this is a long film but we watched both parts in the same day and totally enjoyed it all. Especially funny was watching the horse riding events, where many horses just refused to go thru with the jumps, and in the water jump we were quite entertained with how many participants fell in the water!! It was of interest that the Germans had no problems with either of these...wonder if they got to practice on this very course over a long period of time before the games, and so their horses thus knew it very well and were not afraid like the others? The diving finale was amazing and beautiful (my husband likened it to the grand finale of a fireworks display),as was the closing with the stadium surrounded by search lights shining up into the sky. I have enjoyed sports in my life, esp. when I was in school, but I am not a sport nut or anything. Still, to watch the Olympics is always exciting, to see the amazing skills and talents some people have with their physical bodies. It was interesting to see how things were done in the Olympics way back then, to see Hitler and his top men spectating, to see the crowds all dressed so nicely in good dress clothes! (Oh, I wish I lived back then when people wore nice clothes! To see something besides t-shirts and sweatpants would be so refreshing!) It also made you think as you watched the people there, what happened to them in a few short years when war began. What happened to those German athletes, esp. the men...did they all end up in the army and did many die in battle? It is sort of sad as you see everyone smiling and happy at the games, knowing they were not aware of the grim future that was soon to arrive in Europe and upset the whole world.On a different note: the sports commentator speaking in English throughout was very nice to listen to as well, for people seemed to have more intelligent and creative vocabularies back then, and he didn't just jabber on about nothing. All in all, this is a film we enjoyed so much we plan to add it to our personal film collection. And I recommend it much more than Triumph of the Will, in beauty and enjoyment. Try and see this important work of cinema, I think you will be glad that you did.

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