Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese

Amazon.com essential video
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 Reviews

landmark film
This is a landmark in sports documentary films. It is over-long for today's taste (115 mins) - one tires of watching the heats of the decathlon - but this is balanced by many superb moments.

Unfortunately the version available here omits many of the classic sequences mentioned in reviews and monographs. The arrival of the Olympic torch in Berlin and its stunning entrance into the stadium is nowhere to be seen. Neither is the footage of the Hindenburg airship passing over the stadium during the opening ceremony.

It seems to me that the source film print used for this video has been tampered with, and many of the key sequences removed, perhaps by a selfish individual for personal use at some point during the history of the print. These sequences certainly wouldn't have been removed by a competent editor familiar with the full original version.

Bud Greenspan and Reifenstahl
Bud Greenspan, the Olympic documentary-maker, called this movie one of his great inspirations. "Olympia" is in the same vein as Greenspan's films, but far better. The triple jump scene is the greatest treatment of the event I have ever seen.

Greenspan said that when he was in West Germany premeiring his 1964 film "Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin", Owens called Reifenstahl the woman who made him famous, thanked her, and called her up on stage. The audience was dumbfounded and did not know how to respond until Owens' wife began a standing ovation. Such was the attitude towards Reifenstahl: the Germans knew she was a national treasure, yet they were very uncomfortable with some of the things she put on film.

Really Amazing!! Good for whole family , but note caution...
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.