Gary Tooze

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First concerning the Synapse DVD;
This version is mostly likely the best quality you will see short of working directly with Riefenstahl's estate. The old Out of Print Connoisseur DVD version was a bootleg because they only had the VHS rights. Connoisseur's DVD had no opening music and they freeze framed out the copyright notice! The Synapse DVD has more picture info on the sides even when compared to the same scenes used in the Leni Riefenstahl documentary. (The documentary seems to use a video transfer for the Triumph segments.) The image quality is clear given the age of the film and the limited sources available. The audio is more than serviceable, it still has occasional pops, but the music and force of the speeches are very clear. The real gem is the commentary track by Dr. Santoro, a professor of history at Christopher Newport University in Virginia (bio HERE) It is filled with fact and perspective. Watching Triumph without the commentary can be difficult even for the best historians, the names to the faces have faded over the years so Dr. Santoro's even tempered tone helps fill in any gaps a viewer many have. Given the fact that Dr. Santoro and Dr. Gushue (fluent in Spanish & German) are credited with doing the English subtitles, I can only assume they are detailed enough. When compared to subtitle examples in the documentary they appear to hold their own or compared to the English script text HERE. Also included is Leni's short 17 min. film Day of Freedom. The short is in far poorer quality and no commentary or subtitles are provided for the viewer. A short critical essay by Roy Frumkes, editor of Films in Review is printed on the insert.

Now concerning the film;
The only simple thing that can be said is that the film captures some of the events during the Nazi political rally in Nuremberg during September 1934. How much is factual documentary vs. planned propaganda vs. directorial artistic skill has been debated since its release and haunted Leni Riefenstahl the rest of her life. Riefenstahl was a young actress turned director in 1932. Hitler's admiration of her mountain adventure film "The Blue Light" and subsequent commission for her to film the Nazi rallies sealed her fate forever. Her first rally film in 1933 "Victory of the Faith" (Der Sieg des Glaubens) was a short 60+ min. piece. It was hastily filmed during the rally and quickly edited. Riefenstahl maintained that artistic control was limited and that Victory is "it was just a few shots I put together, because Hitler wanted it". The film was not used after Hitler had Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA, and his top assistants killed on June 30, 1934. Rohm was prominently shown in the first rally film along with his SA units. The German Army on April 11, 1934 agreed to back Hitler only if he would subordinate the SA to their command, thus Rohm had to go. Victory was not politically useable, nor artistically notable in Riefenstahl's opinion.

When German President Otto Von Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, Hitler declared himself both President and Chancellor. Hitler needed more than ever a means to demonstrate that the government, the army and the para-military groups were united under his leadership, thus a new rally film was critical. At this point accounts depart concerning Riefenstahl's desire for making another rally film. First she recommended that Walter Ruttmann (director of Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt, 1927) make the film. His artistic skills admired by Leni conflicted with his Communist views rejected by the Nazi Party. Ruttmann's version of Triumph of the Will was definitely going to be a heavily political piece of propaganda. His film would retell and reenact the historical events from 1923 until the rally that lead to the rise of the Nazi party. Ruttmann's idea did not appeal to the Nazi hierarchy, so Hitler demanded that Riefenstahl make the rally film, how much she wanted to make the film is still debated. She used Walter's opening titles text with all its political baggage, but all of the film's imagery and editing was solely under the direction of Leni. How much control she had over the staging of events complicates the debate of how much Riefenstahl wanted the film to be a documentary vs. a movie. Likewise her chooses in editing also pushes the limits in making a documentary. The events in her film are not the true historical order of events during the party rally (see table below) also her limited selection from the hours of speeches dramatically influences the impression a viewer has. If Riefenstahl's was trying to documents the feelings rather than the actual events, her goal was better achieved with Triumph of the Will.

Was Leni trying to make a piece of cinema that would influence the viewing audience or a piece of propaganda that would influence the voting public? As a film Triumph of the Will can be sweeping and grandiose, its influence has reached as far as Star Wars (1977) and Starship Troopers (1997) See HERE. As a tool of the Nazi Party, it was played continuously throughout German occupied Europe. "We are convinced" Goebbels wrote, "that films constitute one of the most modern and scientific means of influencing the mass." The problem is that the film is too successful at both goals. For the rest of Riefenstahl life she was held accountable not only for making the film, but also for its influence over the German public. She is most definitely guilty of style over substance, filmic rhythm over realism. Perhaps the German public should be held more accountable of being lead by images they only wanted to see. During 1935 a German audience would see thousands of unemployed youths organized towards a productive end, any other audience would have seen a labor corps that could instantly exchange their shovels for rifles and become immediately mobilized as a large standing army. The same images beautifully captured and crafted by Riefenstahl supports both perspectives.

The next time you watch a political rally, what would someone see watching you?
An independent observer or a willing participant?
 

 - Enrique B Chamorro