TRIUMPH OF THE WILL
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1995 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ****
He who does not really know the devil, can not
defeat him. Ostrich like ignorance provides no power.
Only those who understand at a deep level the evil
they are dealing have any hope of victory. Remember,
a devil to you, may be viewed by others as their salvation.
-Richard Sinclair
Leni Riefenstahl's most remembered and most vilified film is TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. It is a documentary of the 1935 Nazi party congress. It has been called the most effective propaganda film of all time. It is now playing in revival at some of the art house around the US, and it is available on video.
I found the movie to be a religious film, and, in fact, Hitler himself talks about National Socialism as being the equivalent of a religious order. It has some of the same feel of the movies about religious cults except this time it is a true life cult, and these are not actors. Another difference is that cults usually harm only themselves whereas as this one caused the death of tens of millions of people.
Make no mistake about it, the people in this film were worshipping someone they thought was their messiah. Leni captures this with chilling accuracy. Her fault, if one wants to ascribe fault, is that she was so good at it.
The print I saw was in poor quality. I once saw parts of a video of this movie that was in much worse shape. Nevertheless, you could see the zealotry and feel the intense emotions. It is easy to dismiss all of this with - well, I would never have been a Nazi.
Watching the expressions of the people there, you could see how many of them did believe that National Socialism was their future and Hitler was their salvation. Hitler could really fire up their passions. He made you feel that the government can do everything for you, and socialism is the only answer. Sure there were some bad eggs he said, but he had gotten rid of them. All very scary stuff.
You could easily close you ears and just watch the master of Leni's camerawork. If you are careful you can even see one of her many cameras going up in an elevator. Opening back up your ears, you get the music and sound that evoke the power of the this self-proclaimed "master race". Interestingly, of the many speakers, with the exception of Hitler and a few others, most of the leaders were crude and coarse looking. Leni has them looking like that just finished a big meal at the local beer hall and you are waiting for the big burp into the camera.
If you have any doubts that this is a religious picture, wait for the scene where Hitler goes on a long slow walk through 200,000 party members standing in attention. He and two of his aids walk down a wide road and at the end they pay homage to the party martyrs. It is clearly evocative of Moses parting the Red Sea and leading his people across toward the promised land.
When you leave the theater, you know you have seen the power of true evil, and as the quote at the start said, knowledge of evil is a precondition to its defeat. For this reason and for the brilliance of the film making, I recommend this to everyone old enough to truly understand the difference between good and evil. It has no MPAA rating. It is clearly a **** show. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL runs 1:54, has some spoken German in it along with English subtitles, but it is essentially a montage of extremely effective imagery.
Finally, anyone interest in Leni should be sure to see the recent documentary THE WONDERFUL, HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL about her life and her films. It is absolutely fascinating.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEWED WRITTEN ON: September 23, 1994
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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