OLYMPIAD
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1995 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ****
Some of the art houses are now having a Leni Riefenstahl festival. OLYMPIAD is Leni's documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It has made several lists as one of the greatest movies of all time. It is easy to see why.
The movie is filmed in a stunning blank and white. The ominous clouds that constantly surround the stadium are made even more menacing by the contrasty black and white images. They are an evil portent of Germany's troubles soon to spread all over Europe and then engulf the world. The movie, on the other hand, could serve as an ad for the United Nations. Every nation is represented, and they all seem to have their moment of glory. I never knew that Finland had so many great long distance runners for example.
The movie starts with images of Greek temples. Leni is an absolute master of cinematography. The angles she shoots the statues and her blending and fading from one scene to the other along with the texture of her prints made me think of the great impressionist painters, especially Renoir. Her extremely effective use of dramatic music is reminiscent of a great Wagner opera. Parsifal immediately came to mind.
After your eyes and ears have feasted in these images of ancient Greece, one of the statues dissolves into a modern athlete, but this and the other athletes are all naked showing the joy and power of the pure physical body. Eventually, they run through a town with people in modern dress cheering them on. This in turn switches to the 1936 Olympics, and it is all pure documentary from there.
Leni spent several years personally editing every second of the film. She only slept a few hours per nights during those years and her health got so bad she almost died, but she was obsessed with creating a masterpiece. She succeeded. See the recent and excellent documentary on her life (THE WONDERFUL, HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL) to learn more fascinating insights on the camerawork that went into OLYMPIAD.
I must admit, that I do not watch nor am I interested at all in sports. Nevertheless, this documentary was mesmerizing. Watching the expressions of people's faces were particularly engrossing. Many small details were of interest like the women athletes all wore lipstick, and the marathon runners would come to a complete stop for a minute or two to drink their water and get toweled off. Jesse Owens was truly a wonderful runner and jumper, and he managed to make his world record setting almost seem simple with his deceptive, easy going smile.
For reasons I can not figure out, it was filmed originally in English and not German and features a British announcer who appears every now and then and gives the running commentary during the Olympics.
The movie runs about 4 hours. I have been told it may be available on video. The print I saw was in pretty good shape for a movie a half century old. It was unrated, but was definitely a G level show - although modern censors would have probably forced Leni to get an R unless she cut out the 3 minutes of nudity. I recommend it to everyone on the planet regardless of age and give it my top rating of ****.
**** = 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 21, 1994
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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