Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Film Ever Made
Review: For anyone interested in the National Socialist period in Germany, this film is a must. It captures all of the splendor and wonder of the Third Reich, as well as providing a tantalizing, though incomplete, glimpse into the National Socialist ideology. Aside from the astounding film techniques, the content is riveting, the speeches are hypnotic (Hitler's, at least,) and the rallies are overwhelming.While I understand that most people who watch this film will go into it with many pre-conceived notions, it is best viewed with an open mind. Rather than seeing it as a propaganda film, which it was not, by the way, view it as you would a documentary. Regardless, whether your believe in the National Socialist ideology or not, this film is a masterpiece, as is shown by the numerous 5 star reviews it has been given. Watch it!
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Summary: A devil to you, may be viewed by others as their salvation
Review: Commissioned by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Triumph of the Will is a film documentary of the Nazi Party rally of September 5, 1934. Director Leni Riefenstahl (born 1902) used many innovative techniques to achieve perfect camera angles, including a moving platform which could be adjusted up and down. Images of the rally are starkly beautiful and sometimes awesome to behold. Speeches by Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Rudolph Hess are among those featured in the film. Director Riefenstahl showed the rally for what it was - a virtual religious ceremony . 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. 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 that was Nazi Germany. It's great to finally have this on the DVD format - It's clean and clear. By all means, pick it up.
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Summary: Triumph of the Weak
Review: The first thing you will notice after Triumph of the Will is that there is no narration, only the sound of the speeches or the rallies, not all of them electrifying, some scenes just mundane marches through the altstadt. Hitler, of course, is strangely fascinating (there is no other word) and effete. It is said that he studied and mimicked the expressions of opera singers, the expressions of pain--he wanted you to feel his pain--and not triumph, which is why the title is so ironic. There is also a strong homoerotic ambience, especially when Hitler exhorts a stadium of young men to "hardness" and struggle. There is not a far leap from the Wandervogel to the Hitler youth (consider also Albert Speer's love for Hitler). Erik Erikson, in an essay that was the first to use the now common notion of "identity" in its contemporary meaning, interpreted Hitler as a kind of leader of an adolescent gang in a society of paterfamilias. The Hitler of the "Triumph of the Will" is that gang leader.
Rating: 
Summary: Still terrifying after 60 years!
Review: Connoisseur Video Collection has put out yet another brilliant film, this time on DVD. There is not much that can be said of Hitler that hasn't been said or speculated over the last century. The production of this DVD is quite superb with a state of the art Menu Page and Scene Selection page, but what i find intriguing about this DVD is that the integrity of the film was kept in tact...still hauntingly dark with it's natural light source which was used throught the film (there were few shots that actually used electric lighting). Accompaning this DVD is a beautiful package which includes a 6 page booklet with wonderful photos and a text focusing on Leni Riefenstal, the director, detailing her ups and downs before and after the war both personally and professionally. A very insightful source of info on Leni Riefenstahl, who's life is more spectacular than Hitler's I came to find out after reading this booklet. Great learning! thanks Connoisseur!
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Summary: Hypnotic - powerful - the early days - springtime for Hitler
Review: I`m writing from Germany, where the film is forbidden. Don`t blame Leni Riefenstahl too much for this. According to her biography she was forced to produce it by the Propagandaministerium. The film won silver and gold medals in Italy and France even in 1937. The speeches of Goebbels, Hitler and the others are about freedom, a free-press, work, the truth, a new mysicism and a new future. Not one sentence about war, hate or racism. If Hitler had this already in mind, really cynical and untrue. The guests from other countries are treated with respect and are mentioned in the speeches. One of the favorite films of Mick Jagger, for example. 300.000 people in the night with torches shaping a Hakenkreuz must be impressive for anyone. The film is welldone by a famous moviemaker of those times (just watch her first big success "The blue light" in 1932. But as far as I know, Leni R. had no political interests and did it just because she had to do it. But well. After the war she was blamed for it. Like "Mein Kampf" this film should be published again in Germany for history lessons, to understand, how a whole nation was manipulated with georgous rituals like that. Fateful is the sequence where Hitler is speaking to his youth, the youngsters faces expressing idealism without bad thoughts and worshipping this man, believing everything what he was saying. Thomas
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Summary: Starring Adolph Hitler?
Review: What could top Triumph Of The Will, the greatest propaganda film ever made? Seeing in the "Amazon" listing that it "stars" Adolph Hitler! Mel Brooks must be laughing out loud.
Rating:
Summary: AN INDISPENSABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT
Review: Leni Riefenstahl's film is an invaluable historical document. Through filming of the Nuremberg Rally and other central moments of the build-up of the Nazi regime, she inadvertently showed how mass hysteria can subvert an entire nation's morality. She also created, no matter what her motive, a cinematic masterpiece, which can be put alongside the films of Eisenstein, Pabst, Lang and Griffith as the bricks and mortar of modern cinema. The Synapse web site suggests they have made a lot of effort in gaining the best print available of this film. They are letterboxing it with a small black border around the entire image so we see everything that Leni framed for the cinema screen. See it, be abhorred by its content, but appreciate its cinematic genius. I hope this is followed by her even greater film 'Olympia', her documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hitler meant the Games to be a celebration of Aryan supremacy. Leni turned it into a paean of admiration for the great black athlete, Jesse Owens. And to counter the nazi-regime image presented in both films, let's hope one enlighted company brings to DVD the early '30s film by Pabst of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Der Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), which, as well as bringing us Lotte Lenya and Mack the Knife, was a key part in the early fight in Germany between Nazism and socialism. Well done, Synapse!
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Summary: The might of Nazi Germany
Review: Power never looked so good. With the outstanding work of Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph Of The Will is a triumph of filmmaking. The images are mesmerizing as they showcase the might of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler proves to be the greatest orator in history. Though the ideology of National Socialism and its contemporary adherents are now routinely ridiculed in most Leftist academic circles, condemned by the Leftist media and denounced by the general population, this great movie is testament to the power this ideology once had and it still strikes fear into the hearts of those viewers who oppose it. By all means, a film worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant movie
Review: Leni Riefenstahl was a genius and this film proves it. Her autobiography shows that her life was ruined after 1945 because she had been a willing pawn to Hitler and had made this dazzling film tribute to him. She never worked in films again until the mid-70's when she once again began to make documentaries. The camera work in "Triumph of the Will" is incomparable and years ahead of its time. Riefenstahl's obvious admiration for Hitler is patently obvious, there is an almost sexual undercurrent in her repeated close-ups of Hitler and the tight head shots she employs throughout the documentary. Unfortunately, if you don't speak German, much of the impact of the film will be lost, even though it remains a riveting and dynamic visual feast. Nothing documents the barbarity of the Nazi regime or its mesmerizing pull upon the German people better than this documentary. This is a sobering monument to depravity and a testament to the brilliance of Leni Riefenstahl. Though the film was made in 1934, before the world grasped the evil nature of Nazism, it is a sobeirng portent of things to come.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent film!
Review: This is the best film made by the last "classic" Empire of the XX century. It is a must have. Anyone trying to write something serious about the Third Reich MUST watch it.
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