Knowing the power of cinema to spread the gospel of Nazism far and wide, Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels handpicked Riefenstahl to start the cadence of assimilation and blind obedience to the National Socialist German Workers Party. And Riefenstahl pulled it off brilliantly, as shown in Synapse Films' new DVD release of Triumph of the Will - Special Edition.
The DVD boasts corrected translations of the various fiery speeches by Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and countless other Nazi officials. Detailed liner notes give a succinct history behind the making of the film as well as its understandably controversial legacy. The running audio commentary by historian Dr. Anthony R. Santuro is well done, offering jovial and enlightening insight behind the film on the city of Nuremberg, the Nazi party's hierarchy, customs, paraphernalia, their rise to power, and most usefully, a succinct summation of what the Nazis' totalitarian state meant to Germans: Nazis wanted your thoughts as well as your actions. Of special interest on the DVD is the 15-minute short film Day of Freedom (1934), Riefenstahl's war exercise film that is meant to show the professionalism and invincibility of the Nazi's military industrial complex. The short film opens as soldiers wake up and get ready for the day's events, while a crowd of observers gather in the grandstands to watch the enactment of what would be the real thing four years later in Czechoslovakia, followed by Poland, France and the rest of Europe. But Riefenstahl doesn't quite inspire awe at German firepower by virtue of the fact that the weapons are all necessarily shooting blanks. Not even the evil Nazi Party would subject themselves to stray gunfire while sitting in the observation grandstands just a few hundred yards away from the "fighting." But the film's final image, that of planes flying in the formation of a swastika, suggests that Riefenstahl's early show of mastery over form and technique would later find its zenith in Triumph of the Will.
Indeed, Triumph of the Will is an admirable and monumentally important film, both as a work of art and as a historical document. While there's nothing beautiful or artistic about the Nazis' barbaric and genocidal ideology, the film should be studied for the way in which Riefenstahl presents the Nazi aesthetic on screen. Akira Kurosawa and George Lucas might have been taking notes on how to block thousands of marching minions and make their movement look stunningly beautiful. Many have compared the final scene in Lucas' Star Wars (1977) with Hitler's entrance into a grandiose arena of SA and SS storm troopers, a comparison that still stands up today. Because much of Germany had suffered under a crushing economic depression, many of her citizens had not enough money to buy food, let alone the newest fashions. Pride in the nation and culture was at low ebb. In this Hitler took the fullest advantage of selling the power of the Nazis, to restore pride in Germany. Thus, Riefenstahl spent much of her film caressing the shiny and sharp Nazi image. Fetishized close ups of handsome men with boots, medals, uniforms, carefully cropped hair, and the abundant banners emblazoned with the swastika turn the German peoples' embarrassment of their poverty into the idolatry of Nazi chic.
Riefenstahl is most successful in using groundbreaking camera movement to capture the panoramic sweep of Nuremberg and the weight and breadth of Hitler's presence in the city. Her mastery of orchestrating the camera and bodies in geometric precision recalls the work of her contemporary, Busby Berkeley. During one rally, three gargantuan swastika banners cloak one camera that moves up and down the length of the banners, capturing truly breathtaking shots of the perfectly aligned Nazis standing and marching in formation.
Riefenstahl uses multi-camera shots for Hitler's Wagnerian flight over the beautiful city of Nuremberg. Indeed, the film acts as a wonderful travelogue of Nuremberg, as much as it does a love song to the god-like Hitler. The sights and sounds of Nuremberg were seen for the first time by most of the Germans who saw Triumph of the Will in the movie houses. The fair city was also seen for the first time by Allied bombers who obliterated the city during World War II. (According to historian Anthony R. Santuro, much of Nuremberg was rebuilt after the war to the specifications of the city's original design, so the city looks much as it does in this film.)
As history, it should be remembered that Triumph of the Will is the greatest piece of propaganda filmmaking ever made. The film's official title includes this qualifier: "The historical document of the 1934 Congress of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Party Day of Victory, September 4-10, Nuremberg." Due to its propagandistic and artificial nature, in no way could this film stand as a historical document of fact. The astute observer will note that there are obvious ways in which Riefenstahl manipulated the proceedings to make a much more powerful film. For example, we see Hitler in close up riding in an open car down a long boulevard of adoring throngs. But in long shot, we see Hitler, supposedly in the same car, only there is no camera to be seen. The obvious conclusion is Riefenstahl filmed the Fuhrer in close up separately, and spliced his visage back into the long shot footage of his parade. Riefenstahl reportedly filmed Hitler separately for some of his speeches as well.
But aside from the dissolves, cuts, jumpcuts and wipes, editing techniques which are by their very nature manipulative, the film is an important historical summation of the power of the Nazi state to manipulate and control its own image. And as history, Triumph of the Will stands as a reminder of the scourge of fascism and how it seduced the minds of millions of Germans, resulting in the obscene deaths of millions, untold suffering, billions of dollars in damage, and geopolitical repercussions that will echo for decades.
For more information about Triumph of the Will - Special Edition or to purchase a copy, visit Synapse Films.
by Scott McGee
