Rating: 
Summary: Tacky Style
Review: The first time I saw this film, I felt the typical awe for its beautiful and hypnotic construction. The Nazis, say what you will, had style to spare-- who can help but like those shiny boots and bouncy marches? When I watched it again, however, I was struck by the extreme vulgarity of the Nazi movement-- there is a shot of "Heil Hitler" spell out in lightbulbs. The endless rows of Nazi banners with cheaply gilded metal spelling out the names of regions, the people holding up paper to spell "Saar" (a la football game), the soldiers carrying shovels (! )-- it was cheap, silly spectacle. Just what the great unwashed goes for. Hitler's speeches reveal his charisma, sure, but it's also clear that he has nothing to say except "The kids are good, Germany is great, kudos to the Aryans!" All this is accompanied by painfully over-rehearsed gestures so crude that they'd be ridiculed by the coarsest amatuer theatre company. But they got style, glitzy and tacky though it is. The two best shots make the whole thing worth while: early on, when you see an indifferent cat pearched under a Nazi flag; and, during one of der Fuhrer's speeches, when, as the crowd riotously applauds him, he gives a little self-satisfied smirk.
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Summary: A Film Most Terrifying
Review: I first saw Leni Riefenstahl's, Triumph of the Will, when I was a college freshman in a history of film course. This version also included footage of the 1934 Olympics. Though it was a well made piece of propaganda, it was also the terrifying piece of film I've ever seen. This had to do with her presentaion to the public of how Adolf Hitler's charisma could draw you in and hold your attention, even if you didn't understand a single word he said. This and this alone makes this piece of film a prelude to the most horrifying piece of history the people of the 20th century will ever know.
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Summary: Leni Riefenstahl--Ubermensch and Filmmaker
Review: When one watches Triumph des Willens, it is not difficult to find the genius that Leni Riefenstahl displays in the film. Note how she always associates Hitler with height--first when in the plane floating through the clouds (landing in Nurnberg like a God from Heaven) and later as he is giving speeches on the platform. Her camera angle when Hitler is on the platform is always from below and showing Hitler with the sky in the background--associating Hitler with the Heavens once again. Riefenstahl also utilized moving cameras (as on side-cars driving, and on flagpoles behind the speech platform). These are just a few of many quialities that make Triumph des Willens a film for the ages.
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Summary: hypnotic and awe-inspiring
Review: I use excerpts from this film to show in my high school World History class. The video captures Hitler's oratory magic and one can see why the German people fell under his spell. The pictures of the Party rallies are simply amazing as Hitler walks between 200,000 of his followers. This scene is definitely a jaw dropper for my students. I must agree with my fellow reviewer that the film seems to spend a little bit too much time in some areas. For example, when the Party members are marching in formation by Hitler with him saluting them...well, this takes forever and is too long for the attention span of a teenager. Overall, excellent film.
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Summary: Beautiful, iconic, terrifying
Review: When I first saw Triumph of the Will in the late 80's, it struck me deeply both as a film student and as a Jew. I still struggle, as have many others, to understand how Germans were so utterly swept away by Nazi fervor. You can read endless books trying to climb inside what seems like an alien psychology from musty decades past, and then there is the electrifying power imprisoned in Triumph of the Will. In an inverted way the film reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark: an ancient relic that contains a dormant, still-vital force. This one is reawakened by the simple act of running it through a projector. To feel and not merely see that reflected glory, even decades later in a different society, is Riefenstahl's genius. Damn it, it IS beautiful. And terrible.
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Summary: From a great filmmaker - the Connoisseur VHS Version
Review: I respect the filmmaking of Leni Riefenstahl. I bought two versions, one cheaply made and one wondefully presented by Connoisseur Video Collection, which I reccomend. Although the Nazi era is a shameful period of history, Riefenstahl's art is unique. I watched this film over and over.
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Summary: Parteitag
Review: This is a chronicle of the 1934 party rally in Nurnberg. It opens with footage of Hitler arriving in Nurnberg by airplane, and has excellent footage of the ancient buildings and monuments of the city. Then, it proceeds to show some good campground activities of the SA prior to the rally. The rally itself has speaches, song, and marching. The Night of Long Knives had occured shortly before the rally, and Hitler takes this opportunity to discuss the future of the SA. The men carry shovels instead of rifles, because of the Versailles Treaty. Rudolph Hess impressed me with his extreme articulateness and precise enunciation; he was the only speaker whom I understood flawlessly without looking at the subtitles. Look for the 1918 helmets with ear cut outs! The only real shortcoming of the film is the dreadfully long and tedious footage of the troops marching out of town after the rally. This part could stand to be cut down to about 1/4 of its current length. Other than that, it is an excellent and historically significant film.
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Summary: A stunning, visual masterpiece
Review: I first heard of this film in G. Gordon Liddy's autobiography: "Will". He describes showing it to some of his co-workers who were planning a Republican convention as an example of what a rally really can look like. The majority of today's youth, who have been brought up to see Hitler as the devil incarnate, cannot understand how he was able to lead Germany into WWII. This film shows what the real sentiments of the times were, unencumbered by PC folderol. How a single man was able to lead a bankrupt, war-torn nation from Third-world status to being a major world super-power. It displays the jobs programs, the pride he instilled in his people, and their approval of him for that. And, the shots of the speeches and the rally itself are breathtaking. A definite must for anyone interested in history or political science.
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Summary: Superb, but how could really it happen?
Review: As a work of pure fiction and fantasy, only believers that "Elvis is alive" would find it credible. History inescapably proves that it was, however, not fiction; the looks of ecstasy on the faces of the particpants in the rallys could have been staged or faked, but no claims of this have ever been made. How could a man who was a bum incite the frenzy that the film (and impartial observations published therafter) have shown he did? This film adds to fuel to the fire on the greatest enigma of the 20th Century, but provides no illumination on its causes, but then again, it was not made to illuminate, but to persuade, and that it does, all too well. A while back, business publicatons advocated old military writings, such as "Go Rin No Sho", and "Vom Krieg", as guides to modern business strategy; while morally repugnant, this film is the "how to do it" on winning by intimidation through acclamation.
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Summary: Beautiful B&W depicting Nazi annual in Nuremberg in 1934
Review: Long banned here, this artistically done film by the beautiful, very gifted, elusive Hitler intimate has exciting documentation of the crowds, the old city, the party leaders' speeches, their linkage between national accomplishment and the party, the fervor and camaraderie of the participants, and indications of the basis for the resentment out of which much of the energy and appeal of the party sprung. It includes the actual words of Hess, Goebbels, Hitler, etc., here presented without the usual intended derogation, audilble in their own voices. The oblique and dramatic camera angles are stunning, and the nocturnal footage almost mystical in its eerie imagery. This film could be dangerous for the undereducated prone to bias or for the true believer; chillingly evocative for history buffs and senior folk who can remember; and, for the philosophical and analytic, both a sober reminder of the prologue and aftermath of this 1934 "enchanted" time and a stimul! us to try again to "apply the 'lessons' of history" when we must, whatever the prospects for thoughtful treatment. Riefenstahl's camera work is astounding: one of the truly beautiful accomplishment in B&W ever, with a gothicly romantic, near spiritual effect, and, now, a chilling, historic, diary-page foreshadowing of where that German "renaissance" would forcefully march. And, in the end, for the knowledgeable and objective a truly sad and pensive-making film experience. END
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