Triumph Of The Will

Created just after Hitler came to power, it's powerful stuff, indeed. Understandably, modern viewers may be less impressed than Germans of the 1930s with some of the rather long, dull speeches (remember, it was just a party congress, five years before the war started) but it's the skill of her film-making that takes Triumph Of The Will far beyond Nazism.

Riefenstahl is a true artist, capturing many stunning visuals, all of which emphasize the central point that Nazism...and in particular, Hitler, was bringing about the revitalization of Germany after the humiliations of losing World War 1:

• farmers (the spiritual bedrock of Germany) brought their produce for Hitler
• stormtroopers, who had formerly been regarded as marauding thugs were now pledging allegiance to Hitler (and therefore Germany)
• young people now looked happy and healthy...      

Hitler's entrance to the rally

Triumph Of The Will

...and throughout the film, there's marching, marching and more marching (tweaking Germany's love of order),

Marching!

Triumph Of The Will

...building up to a quasi-religious finale with Hitler as the Christ-like savior and (German composer) Wagner's pompous music underpinning the whole film. Not only is this a film about Nazi Germany, it's the most important propoganda film ever made. Seeing it, one can de-code propoganda and then apply that knowledge to be able to make sense of what's happening in our own society, whether it's:

• believing that the Health industry is working for our Health or is, in fact, a trillion dollar global business that needs us to be ill to make profits or
• understanding why the media makes the messy personal lives of fairly untalented stars (usually female) somehow our business

Propoganda is now all around us, at all times. Triumph Of The Will is its first great piece of Art. 

see also:

• wikipedia Triumph Of The Will