Product Description

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 03/28/2006 Run time: 120 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9262 in DVD
• Brand: Ryko Distribution
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Original recording remastered, Special Edition, NTSC
• Original language: German, English, Spanish, Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
Triumph of the Will is one of the most important films ever made. Not because it documents evil--more watchable examples are being made today. And not as a historical example of blind propaganda--those (much shorter) movies are merely laughable now. No, Riefenstahl's masterpiece--and it is a masterpiece, politics aside--combines the strengths of documentary and propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force.

Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand too clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell. The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!).

Like the fascists it monumentalizes, Triumph of the Will overlooks its own weaknesses--at nearly two hours, the speeches tend to drone on, and the repeated visual motifs are a little over-hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 party members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. --Grant Balfour

Amazon.com
Triumph of the Will is one of the most important films ever made. Not because it documents evil--more watchable examples are being made today. And not as a historical example of blind propaganda--those (much shorter) movies are merely laughable now. No, Riefenstahl's masterpiece--and it is a masterpiece, politics aside--combines the strengths of documentary and propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force. Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand too clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell. The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!). Like the fascists it monumentalizes, Triumph of the Will overlooks its own weaknesses--at nearly two hours, the speeches tend to drone on, and the repeated visual motifs are a little over-hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 party members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. --Grant Balfour

Customer Reviews

Try to remember -- this movie wasn't made for YOU!
After slogging through a number of these reviews it is clear that most cannot see that we Twenty-First Century Americans were not the intended audience for this movie. The movie was intended to be a unifying morale-builder for the National Socialist Party in Germany, which had been in power only about a year when this movie was made.

From its loss of World War I until the NSDAP was elected to power in Germany in 1934, the people had suffered every kind of internecine mob warfare, illegal abuse and theft of whole portions of Germany at the hands of the French, and an economic catastrophe that made our American Depression look like a picnic by comparison.

This movie sought to persuade Germans (GERMANS!) that this dreadful misery was finally over and that the criminal Bolshevik traitors responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I, and all the residual woes, would be defeated once and for all. It must have been a most welcome message because as you watch the film you certainly don't get the impression that anyone had to beg the many thousands of Germans who attended the NSDAP rallies to stand up and cheer their hearts out.

If you speak and understand German, you'll have a much greater likelihood of being able to understand the impact of these rallies, and this film that celebrates them. For many who are not conversant in the German language or who know little about the actual history of the time besides what they were exposed to in American World War II films, the film is actually pretty boring after a while.

You sit there and watch one group of soldiers, police, or workers after another, marching and marching and marching. This is interspersed with speeches by Hitler and the other Party officals. From time to time you'll see interesting-looking people doing everyday things, some in costume, but mostly they're just talking, walking, eating, brushing their teeth, and so on. Be advised -- for those of you who expect the whole thing to be a stirring, gigantic SS parade with weapons bristling, be prepared to be disappointed. The last group of soldiers on parade are indeed the SS Leibstandarte Adolph Hitler, and they're marching to what was reputedly Hitler's favorite piece -- "Der Badenweiler". Remember to notice that they aren't even carrying rifles or bayonets....

Lastly, in my opinon, the commentary by "historian" Dr Anthony Santoro is mostly just another sarcastic, demeaning rant against the people in the film, so typical of those who pronounce judgement on the vanquished after every war. The marching soldiers and other Germans who reverberated such thrills of hope for their poor, beleagured country are all long dead, but Santoro must make fun of them for the amusement (?) of the American audience. Try to remember -- this movie was not made for YOU!

Enter Real History
I fully understand both the reviews of disappointment and approval of this DVD, "The Triumph of the Will." As a WWII fanatic, and one who owns virtually every important, and less important, documentary, I give this film a five-star review for many reasons. Before I share those reasons, once again, I sympathize with those with less favorable responses. The one criticism that I relate to is the marching sequences. The film begins with what appears to be endless marching in 1934 Nuremberg.

What is particularly monotonous is the lack of variety; with so many thousands of soldiers marching with spades (post WWI armistice limited Germany to a 100-thousand army, so they didn't want to appear aggressive at that stage), I was expecting to see tiger tanks with their 88 mm. guns, field artillery, transports, and quite literally "the whole nine yards", but this is not the case. You will see the SA, the SS, soldiers and nazis of every shape and uniform, but no hardware other than shovels and swords, banners, swastikas, and decorum. So the disappointment for me, and from what I gain from other reviews, is that Leni Rienfestahl (hereafter LR) gives us plenty of marching soldiers at tedium. The viewer is treated to about 25 minutes of introductory marching before the first speech.

However, the strengths of the film far outweigh the flaws. Keep in mind, 1930's movie making was far different than it is today. Back then, if a director wanted to "truck" in or out with the camera, he/she had to literally use a truck to do that, giving a zooming effect (that's where the word "truck" came from as per movie directing). In addition, LR had to use existing light sources, large or small, and no added SFX, B-roll editing, and lap dissolves were done by hand. The film reminded me so much of Disney's "Fantasia" with the use of lighting effects, and vignettes consisting of brief fade-in and fade-outs to build viewer expectation and tension.

Now, my list of favorable feature findings:

1. The extended raw footage and splendid directing allows the viewer to appreciate the ambience of the moment. You feel that you are actually there experiencing the moment. My mother attended a number of Hitler Youth rallies, and told me that a combination of music, color, chanting, etc., left the participant feeling almost paralyzed. The SA had their members littered everywhere throughout the audience who would continually incite the audience to react with heated emotion and praise.

2. The speeches by Hitler and others are unedited. When you view other documentaries, such as "The World at War," you will be treated to only a few moments of speech sound bites. In this DVD, you will see Hitler uncut and hear his words, which are as strange as watching the man himself. He reminds me of a sales speaker I once heard, blasting the audience with the qualities of his product, but not explaining why the audience should buy it. The tripe and shallowness of Hitler's words can only really be appreciated as one can both observe, and listen to his presentation uninterrupted. Here again, the vast majority of documentaries out there give only snippets of Hitler's speeches. Suggestion: if you get tired of the marching and want to view the speeches, simply jot down the times from your DVD player.

3. As a propaganda film produced to be exported, we understand what the nazis held to be near and dear: Hitler was in full gear with his war machine and wanted to show German might through intimidation. The well-orchestrated rally demonstrated unity, determination, organization, and most importantly a national "vision" of a German ideal codified in one individual, Adolph Hitler. As Hess declared to the people, "Hitler is Germany; Germany is Hitler." The sheer numbers of the multitudes is awesome; I can only try to imagine what it must have been like to have been a Frenchman, or Hungarian, or a Russian, viewing this film for the first time.

4. As an extended film, the viewer can see how the people dressed and carried out their daily lives at the time. How sad that Nuremberg was such a magnificent city prior to the Allied bombing, and the introductory aerial scenes of the city are breathtaking.

5. This is a digitally remastered DVD from 35mm film. The resolution is excellent to the degree that you can see the follicles in a close-up of Hitler's face. Unlike many similar documentaries of questionable quality, this DVD allow the viewer to appreciate facial expressions, uniform insignia, and other detail.

If you view this film in the historical context in which it was produced, LR was indeed brilliant and "done Hitler proud." If you want Hitler in the context of modern filmmaking, you will probably feel disappointed. An excellent alternative would be the recent feature film about the last ten days of Hitler's life titled, "Downfall", produced in German with English sub-titles. Even still, try to view "Triumph of the Will" in the context of what the Nazis wanted the world to see: behind the pagentry -- power!

Then, be prepared to enter real history: a Nazi night rally, Hitler youth (notice the commitment and determination on their faces!), the farmer's march, the magnificent Congress Hall of the NSDAP, Reich labor review, Reichswehr review, SA and SS review, the Liebstandarte bodyguards, Lutze, Hess, Goebbels, Hitler, and yes, lots of marching. So, fasten your boots, enjoy, and if the marching is a bit much, keep your remote handy.

An ocean of adrenalin
The aim of the rallies and parades described here was to create dramatic impressions that overcame rationality and reached the emotions of participants. The adrenlin that must have been generated among the thousands at these rallies and other Nazi events, probably could have filled an ocean. Wilhelm Reich's _Mass Pyschology of Fascism__ gives a very good analysis of this aspect of the Nazi party and its regime.

The film captures the Sixth Congress of the Nazi party in 1934, the first after Hitler had come to office. What also see is how the Nazis studied what the theater, the cinema, the church, and the pyschologists had learned about the use of pagentry, of light and darkness, of symbol and ceremony to craft their spectacles.


I remember the first time I saw it, I watched it in solemn, silent awe, as impressed by its images as I was disgusted and terrified by what it documented.

Leni Riefenstahl was a genius. The film techniques used, the editing, the absence of any narration, and the way you are struck by the film despite the utterly disgusting spectacle that this film was, are great example of the what both creativity and technical achievement can produce.
It is a massive example of the central concept of dramatic art: SHOW DON'T TELL.

The film was used not only as a propoganda piece around the world where it won many prizes, but as indoctrination in Germany itself. Every school child in Germany was forced to see this film with its marching storm troopers, its shreaking speaches by Hitler, Goebels, and other Nazi leaders, and its display of pagentry.

All of this was not by accident. The congress came after a major crisis in the Nazi movement. The Nazis had always had a radical rhetoric, claiming to defend working people (The party's actual name was the German National Socialist Workers party) against the huge landowners, the bankers, the corporate plutocrats who had in fact bankrolled and managed Hitler's rise to power. A radical wing of the party was concentrated in the SA, the storm troopers--the Nazi's gangs of organized thugs and street brawlers--, their leader, Ernst Roehm. After Hitler came to power in 1933 Roehm demanded a "second revolution" by the Nazis against the plutocrats. Roehm demand a merger of the Army which was the lynch pin of the old Prussian Aristoracy and Germany's new capitalist magnates-- and the storm troopers be combined under the Roehm's leadership. Germany's ruling class threatened to replace Hitler, or, at least not allow him to succeed the ailing President Von Hindenberg, if Roehm and the other adherents of the "second revolution" were not crushed.

In June 1934 Hitler had hundreds of Storm Troopers including Roehm murdered. Roehm was replaced by Viktor Lutze, an insignificant police official and the SA was allowed to whither away. Meanwhile. the SS, Protective Squadron, which had hitherto been Hitler's personal body guard was extended to become a large organization, fielding its own military divisions in the the Second World War.

The Sixth Nazi Congress shown in the _Triumph of the Will_ took place in September 1934, only a few months after the SA purge. Throughout the film you are continually seeing Viktor Lutze, you are continually seeing affirmations of loyalty by the Storm Troops, including a huge cermony in which tens of thousands of Storm Troppers swear allegiance to Hitler (Previously, these thugs swore to obey their unit commanders only). In the speech that concludes the Congress and the film, Hitler 's final point is that the two institutions that are the foundation of the new order in Germany are the Army and its aristocartic leadership and the Nazi party.

The rally ratified loyalty to Hitler, loyalty to the course of serve the capitalists, the landowners, and the army after the Roehm purge.

The splender of the triumph of the will, the marching thousands, the banners, the spotlights, the festivities of women, children, townspeople, and the brown shirted hordes, all was staging to ratify that the same old plutocrats and big landowners that Hitler had claimed to fight for the interest of Germany's people were still in the saddle.