ADDITION: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray September 2017: Criterion's Thirty-Two Blu-ray Special Edition is so large (6253 minutes) that we will review piece-meal as we are able to view individual discs. Leni Riefenstahl's, two-part, Olympia is one of the most desirable titles in the set. It established the precedent for future films documenting and glorifying the Olympic Games, particularly the Summer Games. It is on Blu-ray # 6 of this package.

Firstly, this dual-layered Blu-ray disc contains both Herbert Brieger and Carl Junghans' 37-minute propaganda film Jugend der Welt. Der Film von den IV. Olympischen Winterspielen in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (aka "Youth of the World" aka "Youth of the World. The Film of the Fourth Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen") - the official film of the 1936 Winter Olympics held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany (see bottom of review) and the BD also has Leni Riefenstahl's, two-part - almost 4-hour, Olympia - documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Olympia is one of the films from the Special Edition that is transferred in a 4K restoration. The title is in the Public Domain and hence many DVDs exist of the film - most truncated from their full-length, cropped, are either the French or English versions of the film and most do not have the tasteful nudity of the beginning of Riefenstahl's Opus, SEE HERE. The Shout! Factory / Timeless Media DVD from 2011 has a disc with Triumph of the Will and a second DVD with Olympia. Both parts run about 1/4 hour each shorter than the Criterion 1080P. The image quality of the SD is fraught with chroma and dramatically hindered by its puny resolution, damage, prevalent artifacts and weak, video-paced, source. It has no subtitle translation the German audio. It's vertically compressed in the 1.48:1 aspect ratio. It borders on being unwatchable. The 4K-restored Blu-ray image is magnificent, filled with grain, impressively layered contrast and degrees of sharpness that most would not have thought possible for this film after almost 80-years. Even saying the new 1080P image is a revelation seems an understatement. Capture samples are below - the rich visuals are hypnotic in-motion. 

Audio gets a linear PCM mono (24-bit) transfer, in the original German language, and sounds authentically flat. Both parts of Olympia have a score credited to Herbert Windt who did the music for Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will  (and uncredited Walter Gronostay - who also did the music for Youth of the World - see below) . We can hear the many anthems played, partially, throughout the film and notable is the use of Richard Strauss' Olympische Hymnne. This is another giant leap from the low-quality DVDs that have floated around for decades. This uncompressed audio adds further to the presentation. There are no drop-outs or other weakness to distract from the film. It has optional English subtitles and the Blu-ray disc is Region 'A'-locked.

Like the other discs from this set that we have reviewed there are no digital extras on this Blu-ray (it is filled with the films!) - although the package has a 216-page hardcover book, featuring notes on the films by cinema historian Peter Cowie; a foreword by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; a short history of the restoration project by restoration producer Adrian Wood; and hundreds of photographs from a century of Olympic Games, but I only have the screener discs at present.  

I think that is easily one of the most important historical cinema artifacts we have. It's almost impossible to watch Olympia without reflecting on the horrors that would follow few short years later. It's fascinating to see the Olympic games; the formality of the opening ceremonies, the lavish displays, the racial and political inferences of the narration, the fashions and hair-styles of the era, the sports etiquette and details of the competition, the culture of 1936 Germany - how so many things have changed and how others remain very similar. Leni Riefenstahl's, two-part, Olympia documents a key part of the story of human history. While I have always felt very strongly about the film and its impact - seeing it in 4K-restored 1080P rises it to a new level or prominence. This is the type of ground-breaking cinema that could be revisited multiple times without diminishing its incredible significance. I can't give a higher recommendation.