Triumph of the Will (Special Edition)

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Summary: Seth Franzman is a religious fanatic indenial
Review: To a reviewer called Seth Franzman, get over it! If this edition is specially for people who enjoy the movie, leave them alone. Those events belong to the past and you should get over them! F%&/ing baby!

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Summary: springtime for hitler
Review: riefenstahl was the cinematic fashion designer for adolf hitler. uninterested in politics, primarily shallow, and seduced by power and fame, she lent her talent in making what is widely considered the greatest propaganda film ever.
riefenstahl's talent was narrow but genuine. she had an eye for pageantry, an obsessive fascination with beauty, and instinct for visual orchestration.
she was not a thinker or a storyteller. her images lack poetry but convey a sense of might and grandeur, which in lesser artists of the nazi period succumbed to heavy dimwitted teutonism. riefenstahl's great talent was to convey a sense of movement, rhythm, even a certain fluidity with forms that were intrinsically forbidding, ominous, and immobile.
at her best, she could make us believe mountains were flowing like rivers, that the fuhrer was savior from heaven, that the towering nazi momuments could reach toward the sky and steal fire from the gods.
but, much of the credit must also go to albert speer and hitler, for riefenstahl's talent was only as good as in coordination with the mad, hypnotic, and overwhelming architectural and theatrical sense envisioned by hitler and speer. for example, one wonders if riefenstahl could have made a worthy documentary on american politics or woodstock. the greatness of triumph of the will lies in how three artistic sensibilities with similar and complementary talents came together and created politics as a grand mythic spectacle.

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Summary: Live and Before Your Eyes
Review: An absolute master piece. Whether you love the Third Reich or hate it, you can't help but be an awe of this movie. Leni Riefenstahl does a great job of capturing the image that Hitler was trying to get across. That of a rebirth of Germany and the German people. You get a good look at how much the people loved Hitler, and realize that they were going to follow him to hell if he asked them to.
The only complaint I have is with the translation in this edition. It seems that the first version of T of W on DVD did a better job of translating German to English. Some things lost in the translation in the Special Edition. But still a great documentary.

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Summary: Historically significant, but it gave me the chills.
Review: The Nazi regime is over now, but this 1934 film remains and is available on DVD. It was commissioned by Adolph Hitler himself and written and directed by Leni Riefenstal, then only 32 years old. It's a full two-hours and celebrates and glorifies the Third Reich. The film techniques are excellent, given the technology of the time. I understand she used 30 cameras, more than a hundred crewmembers and 61 hours of film. There are shots obviously taken from a helicopter with great views of the clouds. There are distant shots that take in more than 200,000 people. And close-ups that show the love and adoration that the populace felt for Hitler, who had just become the dictator the year before. I

Mostly, there are crowd scenes and speeches by Hitler himself as well as Goebbels, Goring, Hess, Himmler and other villains of the Nazi era which was then a rising political movement. It was several years before the war machine was fully in place as the Nazis didn't march into Poland until 1939. So, at the time the film was made, there was nothing but joy, especially since just a few years prior to that Germany was immersed in a depression that was so bad that people were paid twice a day because the value of money changed from hour to hour that the price of a loaf of bread could double from morning to afternoon.

It's an eerie feeling to sit in the comfort of my rocking chair and travel seven decades back in time. The young people in the Hitler Youth movement reminded me of boy scouts as I watched them horse around and splash water on each other like any other high-spirited teenagers. The small children are all smiling as their parents hold them up to catch a glimpse of Hitler. And the adults themselves seems to be in an ecstatic trance as they raise their arms in a "Heil Hitler" salute. I couldn't help but think if any of them are still alive, and how deceived they must be about the early promise of their youth, and how much devastation it caused for everyone.

Then there were the speeches, always with the utmost theatrical fervor. I read the subtitles carefully. What was Hitler and the others really saying? Yes, they spoke of glory. But they also spoke of themselves as being the party of peace and being told by God that this was their destiny. Surprisingly too, they all seemed to believe it. I had also expected to see more anti-Semitism in their speeches. Jews were never mentioned and although there was some reference to racial purity, it didn't seem to be the leading issue in 1934.

Basically, the film was one big show of pageantry and pep rally for what would come later. Looking back on in in 2003, it gives me the chills.

For students of history, this is an important film. Others will be horrified. And many will be bored as there are no actors and no plot except to glorify their leader.

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Summary: A film of significant historical value
Review: Regardless of the theme and propaganda aspect, Triump of the Will is one of the most important movies ever filmed. It documents the 6th Reich Party Congress that was held in Nuremburg in 1934, and subsequently was awarded the Gold Medal in Venice in 1935, and the Gold Medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. The crowning glory for Leni Riefenstahl, with the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, her association with the movie and several other Nazi propaganda films nearly destroyed. Up until her death in September 2003, at the age of 101, she vehemently downplayed her association with the Nazis, and attempted to rebuild her reputation through still photography. The nature of her involvement with the Nazis will never be fully known, so it can never be known for certain whether this film was, as Riefenstahl claims, a compromise so that she could continue to exercise her creativity. Whatever the case, Triump of the Will is an important movie, both in terms of its influence on cinematography, and as a historical document. It is a definite must-see for anyone who wants to understand the Nazis, as it epitomizes the regime's skilled use of propaganda to gain and maintain power.

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Summary: Don't mix up the DVD versions
Review: I object to the placing of the reviews under different/wrong DVD releases! Now you are looking at the Moonstone release. It does not contain a booklet. It is a PAL version. It is poor quality picture, only slightly better than VHS. It also contains the short film Tag der Freiheit. The sound, however, is quite good!
It is hard to choose, sometimes, but not with Triumph des Willens; nothing beats the Synapse special edition with commentary track! The picture and sound is probably better than you'll ever see.

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Summary: FYI for S.A. Thompson of Brady, TX
Review: The "narration" which you claim "ruins" the DVD Special Edition of Triumph of the Will is, in fact, an OPTIONAL audio commentary by historian Dr. Anthony R. Santoro, and guess what? YOU CAN CHOOSE NOT TO LISTEN TO IT IF YOU PREFER. Please check your DVD player's instructions on the various audio options available to you. The movie's standard audio format does not have Dr. Santoro's commentary track on it.

So, you need not worry -- this DVD edition will not be ruined for anyone. I suspect you simply are not familiar with DVD audio commentaries and your player's audio setup.

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Summary: Masterpiece
Review: To start off, I did not enjoy Triumph of the Will. That said, you'll notice I gave it 5 stars. That is because it deserves nothing less. While not exciting or invigorating, for propaganda, it is perfection.

While boring, it cannot help but leave the viewer in awe while watching Hitler walk calmly through 250,000 assembled soldiers. Even when watching him speak to 100,000 laborers, one cannot help but be ensnared by the sheer greatness of this majestic work of filmmaking.

Triumph of the Will is not a good movie, yet at the same time it is a great movie, worthy of respect, a film that everyone should see at least once, boring or not, lest we forget the past and are doomed to repeat it. With this film as evidence, there can be no doubt that we were warned that war was coming, and did nothing. For that we suffered the consequences. This film should stand as evidence that we should never again be so blind as to assume that such a display could be considered anything less than a precursor to combat.

While I did not enjoy this film, I still must highly recommend it to anyone with any interest whatsoever in history, politics, or the simple truth. It might be called offensive, and it might be called grand. In truth, it is both and at the same time far, far more. Watch, and be amazed.

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Summary: A [MESSED] UP VERSION OF AN OTHERWISE IMPORTANT FILM
Review: This is one of the most difficult reviews I have written because of my ambivalent feelings. Note that this review applies to the DVD version only, narrated by Anthony R. Santoro.

Having two previous versions, one on Betamax and the other on VHS, I was looking forward to the ultimate purity of DVD as the final "keeper" version. Wow!...was I disappointed. The original film itself would rate a solid five stars for its impact, even today. Rifenstahl was (is) a cinematic genius. This film explains forcefully the charisma of Adolpk Hitler and the mesmerizing effect he had on all who were in his presence. Like all good actors, he practiced gestures and words in front of a mirror, and the results can be seen in this film. In returning the Nazi salute, note the way he holds his hand, not straight forward with unbent hand and fingers, but with arm and hand up and backward as if carruing a tray of food.

The viewer must not expect to be entertained by this film in the usual manner. This film is a real treat for those with some cinematic knowledge and the revolutionary camera techniques it introduced. Other reviewers have covered its merits better and more eloquently than I. My problem is totally with the narration, which ruins it for me.

Anthony Santoro needs a few graduate courses in German before attempting anything like this again. More at fault are the producers who thought narration would improve it. As pointed out by another reviewer, Santoro can't even pronounce NAZI correctly. After a few repititions I wanted to switch the sound off altogether. And who decided this serious film would be a good venue for attempts at unfunny jokes?

This could have been a solid five star version but I cut it to three because of the inappropriate narration. Fortunately the film itself was still strong enough to rate three stars in spite of the narration.

My advice is to get a good quality unnarrated VHS and wait for a DVD that is done properly. Sorry folks, but these are my feelings about this DVD edition. The film is great but the narration ruins it,....at least for me. I was disappointed.

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Summary: Good Look into the Nazi mind
Review: Because of my personal beleifs against what this film stands for (as is the case with Birth of a Nation), I cannot give it more stars than this.

However, one cannot deny that this is brilliant propaganda. One can see how Germans of the 30s and others who were ignorant of what Hitler really stood for could be suckered by this film. There are no anti-semetic messages (or any mention of Jews for that matter), no scenes of violence, no concentration camps, etc. anywhere in sight. Basically, just an orderly nation at work who happily greets it's "leader." The basic message that the unthinking mind gets from this film is "Say It Loud, I'm German and Proud."

This film is a prime example of why people need to cross-reference what they see. Those who are ignorant of true history and accepts this as the sole point of view will continue the disease of facism.