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Triumph of the Will

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Films

            Triumph of the Will
     Directed by   Leni Riefenstahl
     Produced by   Leni Riefenstahl
                   Adolf Hitler
     Written by    Leni Riefenstahl
                   Walter Ruttmann
      Starring     Adolf Hitler
                   Hermann Göring
                   Other Nazi Leaders
      Music by     Herbert Windt
                   Richard Wagner
   Distributed by  Reichsparteitagsfilm
   Release date(s) 28 March 1935 (Berlin)
    Running time   114 minutes
      Language     German
       Budget      Unknown
          All Movie Guide profile
               IMDb profile

   Triumph of the Will (German: Triumph des Willens) is a documentary and
   propaganda film by the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl that
   chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. It features
   footage of uniformed party members (though relatively few German
   soldiers), who are marching and drilling to classical melodies. The
   film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at
   the Congress, including portions of speeches by Adolf Hitler. Hitler
   commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer;
   his name appears in the opening credits. The overriding theme of the
   film is the return of Germany as a great power, with Hitler as a German
   Messiah who will bring glory to the nation.

   Triumph of the Will was released in 1935 and rapidly became one of the
   best-known examples of propaganda in film history. Riefenstahl's
   techniques, such as moving cameras, the use of telephoto lenses to
   create a distorted perspective, aerial photography, and revolutionary
   approach to the use of music and cinematography, have earned Triumph
   recognition as one of the greatest propaganda films in history.
   Riefenstahl won several awards, not only in Germany but also in the
   United States, France, Sweden, and in other countries. The film was
   popular in the Third Reich and elsewhere, and has continued to
   influence movies, documentaries, and commercials to this day, even as
   it raises the question over the dividing line between art and morality.

Plot

   Triumph of the Will has been described as "by Nazis, for Nazis, and
   about Nazis". The film begins with a prologue, the only commentary in
   the film. On a stone wall, the following text appears: On September 5,
   1934, … 20 years after the outbreak of the World War … 16 years after
   the beginning of our suffering … 19 months after the beginning of the
   German renaissance … Adolf Hitler flew again to Nuremberg to review the
   columns of his faithful followers…

   'Day 1': The film opens with shots of the clouds above the city, and
   then moves through the clouds to float above the assembling masses
   below, with the intention of portraying beauty and majesty of the
   scene. The shadow of Hitler's plane is visible as it passes over the
   tiny figures marching below, accompanied by music from Richard Wagner's
   Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which slowly turns into the
   Horst-Wessel-Lied. Upon arriving at the Nürnberg airport, Hitler
   emerges from his plane to thunderous applause and a cheering crowd. He
   is then driven into Nürnberg, through equally enthusiastic people, to
   his hotel where a night rally is later held.

   'Day 2': The second day begins with a montage of the attendees getting
   ready for the opening of the Reich Party Congress, and then footage of
   the top Nazi officials arriving at the Luitpold Arena. The film then
   cuts to the opening ceremony, where Rudolf Hess announces the start of
   the Congress. The camera then introduces much of the Nazi hierarchy and
   covers their opening speeches, including Joseph Goebbels, Alfred
   Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Fritz Todt, Robert Ley, and Julius Streicher.
   Then the film cuts to an outdoor rally for the Reichsarbeitdienst
   (Labor Service), which is primarily a series of pseudo-military drills
   by men carrying shovels. This is also where Hitler gives his first
   speech on the merits of the Labor Service and praising them for their
   work in rebuilding Germany. The day then ends with a torchlight SA
   parade.
   Members of the Labor Service raise their flags following a memorial
   service.
   Enlarge
   Members of the Labor Service raise their flags following a memorial
   service.

   'Day 3': The third day starts with a Hitler Youth rally on the parade
   ground. Again the camera covers the Nazi dignitaries arriving and the
   introduction of Hitler by Baldur von Schirach. Hitler then addresses
   the Youth, describing in militaristic terms how they must harden
   themselves and prepare for sacrifice. Everyone present then assembles
   for a military pass and review, featuring Wehrmacht cavalry and various
   armored vehicles. That night Hitler delivers another speech to
   low-ranking party officials by torchlight, commemorating the first year
   since the Nazis took power and declaring that the party and state are
   one entity.

   'Day 4': The fourth day is the climax of the film, where the most
   memorable of the imagery is presented. Hitler, flanked by Heinrich
   Himmler and Viktor Lutze, walks through a long wide expanse with over
   150,000 SA and SS troops standing at attention, to lay a wreath at a
   World War I Memorial. Hitler then reviews the parading SA and SS men,
   following which Hitler and Lutze deliver a speech where they discuss
   the Night of the Long Knives purge of the SA several months prior.
   Lutze reaffirms the SA's loyalty to the regime, and Hitler absolves the
   SA of any crimes committed by Ernst Röhm. New party flags are
   consecrated by touching them to the " blood banner" (the same cloth
   flag carried by the fallen Nazis during the Beer Hall Putsch) and,
   following a final parade in front of the Nürnberg Frauenkirche, Hitler
   delivers his closing speech. In it he reaffirms the primacy of the Nazi
   Party in Germany, declaring, "All loyal Germans will become National
   Socialists. Only the best National Socialists are party comrades!" Hess
   then leads the assembled crowd in a final Sieg Heil salute for Hitler,
   marking the close of the party congress. The film fades to black as the
   entire crowd sings the " Horst-Wessel-Lied".

Origins

     "Shortly after he came to power Hitler called me to see him and
     explained that he wanted a film about a Party Congress, and wanted
     me to make it. My first reaction was to say that I did not know
     anything about the way such a thing worked or the organization of
     the Party, so that I would obviously photograph all the wrong things
     and please nobody — even supposing that I could make a documentary,
     which I had never yet done. Hitler said that this was exactly why he
     wanted me to do it: because anyone who knew all about the relative
     importance of the various people and groups and so on might make a
     film that would be pedantically accurate, but this was not what he
     wanted. He wanted a film showing the Congress through a non-expert
     eye, selecting just what was most artistically satisfying — in terms
     of spectacle, I suppose you might say. He wanted a film which would
     move, appeal to, impress an audience which was not necessarily
     interested in politics." -- Leni Riefenstahl

   Riefenstahl, a popular German actress, had directed her first movie
   called Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light) in 1932. Around the same time
   she first heard Hitler speak at a Nazi rally and, by her own admission,
   was impressed. She later began a correspondence with him that would
   last for years. Hitler, by turn, was equally impressed with Das Blaue
   Licht, and in 1933 asked her to direct a film about the Nazi's annual
   rally in Nürenberg. The Nazis had only recently taken power amid a
   period of political instability (Hitler was the fourth Chancellor of
   Germany in less than a year) and were considered an unknown quantity by
   many Germans, to say nothing of the world.

   Riefenstahl was initially reluctant, not because of any moral qualms,
   but because she wanted to continue making feature films. Hitler
   persisted and Riefenstahl eventually agreed to make a film at the 1933
   Nürnberg Rally called Der Sieg des Glaubens. However the film had
   numerous technical problems, including a lack of preparation
   (Riefenstahl reported having just a few days) and Hitler's apparent
   unease at being filmed. To make matters worse, Riefenstahl had to deal
   with infighting by party officials, in particular Joseph Goebbels who
   tried to have the film released by the Propaganda Ministry. Though Sieg
   apparently did well at the box office, it later became a serious
   embarrassment to the Nazis after SA Leader Ernst Röhm, who had a
   prominent role in the film, was executed during the Night of the Long
   Knives.

   In 1934, Riefenstahl had no wish to repeat the fiasco of Sieg and
   initially recommended fellow director Walter Ruttmann. Ruttmann's film,
   which would have covered the rise of the Nazi Party from 1923 to 1934
   and been more overtly propagandistic (the opening text of Triumph was
   his), did not appeal to Hitler. He again asked Riefenstahl, who finally
   relented (there is still debate over how willing she was) after Hitler
   guaranteed his personal support and promised to keep other Nazi
   organizations, specifically the Propaganda Ministry, from meddling with
   her film.

Filmmaking

   Unlike Der Sieg des Glaubens (German: victory of faith), Riefenstahl
   shot Triumph of the Will with a large budget, extensive preparations,
   and vital help from high-ranking Nazis like Goebbels. As Susan Sontag
   observed, "The Rally was planned not only as a spectacular mass
   meeting, but as a spectacular propaganda film." Albert Speer, Hitler's
   personal architect designed the set in Nürnberg and did most of the
   coordination for the event. Riefenstahl also used a film crew that was
   extravagant by the standards of the day. Her crew consisted of 172
   people, including ten technical staff, thirty-six cameramen and
   assistants (operating in 16 teams with 30 cameras), nine aerial
   photographers, 17 newsreel men, 12 newsreel crew, 17 lighting men, two
   photographers, 26 drivers, 37 security personnel, four labor service
   workers, and two office assistants. Many of her cameramen also dressed
   in SA uniforms so they could blend into the crowds.

   Triumph included innovative filmmaking techniques such as moving
   cameras, including one on an elevator attached to the mammoth flagpoles
   behind the speaker's podium, as well as another on Hitler's personal
   Mercedes (the latter requiring numerous takes so that the cameraman
   would not be filmed.) It also featured the use of telephoto lenses to
   create a distorted perspective. To capture other angles, Riefenstahl
   had pits dug below the speakers' podiums, tracks laid for moving shots,
   and aerial photography taken from several planes and a blimp. There
   were frequent close-ups of crowds watching and listening to Hitler, and
   poses of Hitler shot from well below eye-level to make him appear
   heroic. Aside from the prologue, Riefenstahl used no verbal editorial
   commentary in Triumph, preferring to make her points through rapid
   editing cuts, montages, and music. She also used "real sound"
   throughout the film. The film score was Wagnerian in scope (much of it
   was lifted directly from Wagner's operas), and tended to flow with
   Riefenstahl's edits, creating an atmosphere that was passionate and
   exuberant, frequently building up to a climactic frenzy whenever Hitler
   was about to speak.

   The New York Times has said it took almost two years to edit the final
   version from 250 miles of raw footage. However, this time frame is
   obviously incorrect, as there were only 200 days between the rally in
   September 1934 and the premiere in March 1935. The New York Times is
   most likely referring to "Olympia," Riefenstahl's documentary about the
   1936 Berlin Olympic games. In the documentary "The Wonderful, Horrible
   Life of Leni Riefenstahl," the 400,000 meters (250 miles) of footage
   and the two years of editing are mentioned. In Triumph of the Will,
   however, Riefenstahl did have the difficult task of condensing an
   estimated 61 hours of film into two hours. She labored to complete the
   film as fast as she could, going so far as to sleep in the editing room
   filled with hundreds of thousands of feet of film footage.

Themes

   "[Triumph of the Will is] the supreme visualisation in cinematic form
   of the Nazi political religion. Its artistry, reinforced by the
   grandeur and power of the Nürnberg decor, is designed to sweep us into
   empathetic identification with Hitler as a kind of human deity. The
   massive spectacle of regimentation, unity and loyalty to the Führer
   powerfully conveys the message that the Nazi movement was the living
   symbol of the reborn German nation." -- Professor Robert Wistrich
     * Religion: This morning's opening meeting…was more than a gorgeous
       show, it also had something of the mysticism and religious fervor
       of an Easter or Christmas Mass in a great Gothic cathedral." --
       Reporter William Shirer

   Religion is a major theme in Triumph. The film opens with a Point Of
   View coming godlike out of the skies to alight on twin cathedral
   spires. It contains many scenes of church bells ringing, and
   individuals in a state of near-religious fervor, as well as a prominent
   shot of Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller standing in his vestments among
   high-ranking Nazis. A scene where the camera pans over rows and rows of
   tents set up for the rally is reminiscent of religious pilgrimages such
   as the Hajj. It is probably not a coincidence that the final parade of
   the film was held in front of the Nürnberg Frauenkirche. In his final
   speech in the film, Hitler also directly compares the Nazi party to a
   holy order, and the consecration of new party flags by having Hitler
   touch them to the "blood banner" has obvious religious overtones.
   Hitler himself is portrayed in a messianic manner, from the opening
   where he descends like Odin from the clouds, to his drive through
   Nürnberg where even a cat stops what it is doing to watch him, to the
   many scenes where — standing on his podium — he will issue a command to
   hundreds of thousands of followers and the audience will comply in
   unison. Frank Tomasulo comments that in Triumph, "Hitler is cast as a
   veritable German Messiah who will save the nation, if only the
   citizenry will put its destiny in his hands."
     * Power: "It is our will that this state shall endure for a thousand
       years." -- Hitler

   Germany had not seen images of military power and strength since the
   end of World War I, and the huge formations of men would remind the
   audience that Germany was becoming a great power once again. Though the
   men carried shovels, they handled them as if they were rifles. The
   Eagles and Swastikas could be seen as a reference to the Roman Legions
   of antiquity. The large mass of well-drilled party members could be
   seen in a more ominous light, as a warning to anyone thinking of
   challenging the regime. Hitler's arrival in an airplane should also be
   viewed in this context. According to Kenneth Poferl, "Flying in an
   airplane was a luxury known only to a select few in the 1930s, but
   Hitler had made himself widely associated with the practice, having
   been the first politician to campaign via air travel. Victory
   reinforced this image and defined him as the top man in the movement,
   by showing him as the only one to arrive in a plane and receive an
   individual welcome from the crowd. "Hitler's speech to the SA also
   contained an implied threat: if he could have Röhm -- the commander of
   the hundreds of thousands of troops on the screen -- shot, it was only
   logical to assume that Hitler could get away with having anyone
   executed.
     * Unity: "The Party is Hitler - and Hitler is Germany just as Germany
       is Hitler!" -- Hess

   Triumph has many scenes that blur the distinction between the Nazi
   Party, the German State, and the German People. There are scenes where
   Germans in peasant farmers’ costumes and other traditional clothing
   greet Hitler. The torchlight processions, though now associated by many
   with the Nazis, would remind the viewer of the medieval Karneval
   celebration. The old flag of Imperial Germany is also shown several
   times flying alongside the Swastika, and there is a ceremony where
   Hitler pays his respects to soldiers who died in World War I (as well
   as President Paul von Hindenburg who had died a month before the
   convention). There is also a scene where the Labor Servicemen
   individually call out which town or area in Germany they are from,
   reminding the viewers that the Nazi Party had expanded from its
   stronghold in Bavaria to become a pan-Germanic movement.

Response

   The premiere of Triumph of the Will at the Ufa Palace Theater in
   Berlin.
   Enlarge
   The premiere of Triumph of the Will at the Ufa Palace Theatre in
   Berlin.

   Triumph of the Will premiered on March 28, 1935 at the Berlin Ufa
   Palace Theatre and was an instant success. Within two months the film
   had earned 815,000 Reichsmark, and the Ufa considered it one of the
   three most profitable films of that year. Hitler praised the film as
   being an "incomparable glorification of the power and beauty of our
   Movement." For her efforts, Riefenstahl was rewarded with the German
   Film Prize (Deutscher Filmpreis), a gold medal at the 1935 Venice
   Biennale, and the Grand Prix at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.
   However, there were few claims that the film would result in a mass
   influx of ' converts' to fascism and the Nazis apparently did not make
   a serious effort to promote the film outside of Germany. Film historian
   Richard Taylor also said that Triumph was not generally used for
   propaganda purposes inside the Third Reich, although Roy Frumkes argued
   that, on the contrary, it was shown each year in every German theatre
   until 1945.

   The reception in other countries was not as enthusiastic. British
   documentarian Paul Rotha called it tedious, while others were repelled
   by its pro-Nazi sentiments. During World War II, Frank Capra made a
   direct response called Why We Fight, a series of newsreels commissioned
   by the United States government that spliced in footage from Triumph of
   the Will, but recontextualized it so that it promoted the cause of the
   Allies instead. Capra later remarked that Triumph, "fired no gun,
   dropped no bombs. But as a psychological weapon aimed at destroying the
   will to resist, it was just as lethal." Clips from Triumph were also
   used in an Allied propaganda short called General Adolph Takes Over,
   set to the British dance tune " The Lambeth Walk." The legions of
   marching soldiers, as well as Hitler giving his Nazi salute, were made
   to look like wind-up dolls, dancing to the music. Also during WWII, the
   poet Dylan Thomas wrote the screenplay and narrated "These Are The
   Men," a propaganda piece using "Triumph" footage to discredit Nazi
   leadership.

   One of the best ways to gauge the response to Triumph was the instant
   and lasting international fame it gave Riefenstahl. The Economist said
   it "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th
   century." For a director who made eight films, only two of which
   received significant coverage outside of Germany, Riefenstahl had
   unusually high name recognition for the remainder of her life, most of
   it stemming from Triumph. However, her career was also permanently
   damaged by this association. After the war, Riefenstahl was imprisoned
   by the Allies for four years for allegedly being a Nazi sympathizer and
   was permanently blacklisted by the film industry. When she died in
   2003, 68 years after its premiere, her obituary received significant
   coverage in many major publications -- including the Associated Press,
   Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Guardian -- most of which
   reaffirmed the importance of Triumph.

Controversy

   Like American filmmaker D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, Triumph
   of the Will has been criticized as a use of spectacular filmmaking to
   promote a system that, to many in modern times, is seen as both evil
   and unjust. In Germany, this movie is classified as National Socialist
   propaganda and its showing is restricted under post-war denazification
   laws, but it may be shown in an educational context. In her defense,
   Riefenstahl claimed that she was naïve about the Nazis when she made it
   and had no knowledge of Hitler's genocidal policies. She also pointed
   out that Triumph contains "not one single anti-Semitic word," although
   it does contain a veiled comment by Julius Streicher that "A people
   that does not protect its racial purity will perish." However, Roger
   Ebert has observed that for some, "the very absence of anti-Semitism in
   Triumph of the Will looks like a calculation; excluding the central
   motif of almost all of Hitler's public speeches must have been a
   deliberate decision to make the film more efficient as propaganda."

   Riefenstahl also repeatedly defended herself against the charge that
   she was a Nazi propagandist, saying that Triumph focuses on images over
   ideas, and should therefore be viewed as a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work
   of art). In 1964, she returned to this topic, saying:

          "If you see this film again today you ascertain that it doesn't
          contain a single reconstructed scene. Everything in it is true.
          And it contains no tendentious commentary at all. It is history.
          A pure historical film… it is film-vérité. It reflects the truth
          that was then in 1934, history. It is therefore a documentary.
          Not a propaganda film. Oh! I know very well what propaganda is.
          That consists of recreating events in order to illustrate a
          thesis, or, in the face of certain events, to let one thing go
          in order to accentuate another. I found myself, me, at the heart
          of an event which was the reality of a certain time and a
          certain place. My film is composed of what stemmed from that."

   However, Riefenstahl was an active participant in the rally, though in
   later years she downplayed her influence significantly, claiming, "I
   just observed and tried to film it well. The idea that I helped to plan
   it is downright absurd." Film critic Roy Frumkes has called Triumph
   "the antithesis of an objective work" and suggested that because of the
   special accommodations Riefenstahl received (one scene featured aerial
   searchlights requisitioned from the Luftwaffe) and because "the film
   was altered by practically every in-the-camera and laboratory special
   effect then known" the film can be labeled anything except a
   documentary. Ebert also disagrees, saying that Triumph is "by general
   consent [one] of the best documentaries ever made," but added that
   because it reflects the ideology of a movement regarded by many as
   evil, "[it poses] a classic question of the contest between art and
   morality: Is there such a thing as pure art, or does all art make a
   political statement?"

   Susan Sontag considered Triumph of the Will the best made documentary
   of all time. Brian Winston's essay on the film in The Movies as History
   : Visions of the Twentieth Century, an anthology edited by David
   Ellwood (published by the International Association for Media and
   History), is largely a critique of Sontag's analysis, which he finds
   faulty. His ultimate point is that any filmmaker could have made the
   film look impressive because the Nazi's mise en scène was impressive,
   particularly when they were offering it for camera re-stagings. In
   form, the film alternates repetitively between marches and speeches.
   Winston asks the viewers to consider if such a film should be seen as
   anything more than a pedestrian effort. Like Rotha, he finds the film
   tedious, and believes anyone who takes the time to analyze its
   structure will quickly agree.

Wehrmacht objections

   The first controversy over Triumph occurred even before its release,
   when several generals in the Wehrmacht protested over the minimal army
   presence in the film. Only one scene, the review of the German cavalry,
   actually involved the German military. The other formations were party
   organizations that were not part of the military. Hitler proposed his
   own "artistic" compromise where Triumph would open with a camera slowly
   tracking down a row of all the "overlooked" generals (and placate each
   general's ego). According to her own testimony, Riefenstahl refused his
   suggestion and insisted on keeping artistic control over Triumph of the
   Will. She did agree to return to the 1935 rally and make a film
   exclusively about the Wehrmacht, which became Tag der Freiheit.

Influences and legacy

   According to historian Philip Gavin, "The legacy of Triumph of the Will
   lives on today in the numerous TV documentaries concerning the Nazi era
   which replay portions of the film… [Its] most enduring and dangerous
   illusion is that Nazi Germany was a super-organized state, that,
   although evil in nature, was impressive nonetheless." Gavin believes
   that the reality of Nazism as a disorganized and bureaucratic mess was
   obscured by Triumph of the Will's powerful images of a united Fascist
   movement. Nicholas Reeves concurs, adding that "many of the most
   enduring images of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler derive from
   Riefenstahl’s film."

   Triumph of the Will has also been studied by many contemporary artists
   (at his wedding, Mick Jagger told Riefenstahl that he had seen it at
   least fifteen times), including film directors Peter Jackson, George
   Lucas, and Ridley Scott. The first known movie to use Triumph imagery
   is Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, which ironically was a parody
   of Nazism. Scenes from the film have also been imitated in later
   movies, most famously Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (as well as the
   other Star Wars films). Other films to use either Triumph–like imagery
   or scenes from the film are Citizen Kane, A Clockwork Orange,
   Gladiator, Hero, Lord of the Rings, The Lion King, Richard III, Red
   Dawn, Spartacus, The Wall, and Starship Troopers. The movie The Empty
   Mirror even shows several scenes from Triumph, with Hitler (played by
   Norman Rodway) giving his analysis of them. Some see the musical
   Springtime for Hitler in the Mel Brooks comedy The Producers as a spoof
   of Triumph, though Brooks has denied this.

   The film's fame (or infamy) has even turned the phrase "Triumph of the
   Will" into a gag line, because so many people understand the reference.
   For example, in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when Dr. Frank N. Furter
   shows his creation to his retainers, his maid exclaims in a strong
   German accent that it is "a triumph of your vill." In addition, the
   Boomtown Rats song "(I Never Loved) Eva Braun" also includes the line
   "Eva Braun…never really fitted in the scheme of things/She was a
   triumph of my will." The title was also referenced in the Dead Kennedys
   song "Triumph of the Swill" as well as the 1979 Devo song "Triumph of
   the Will." In the DVD of " Venue Songs" from They Might Be Giants, the
   Anaheim House of Blues was described as having a "Triumph-of-the-Will
   management style."

   The film has also influenced American politics. The director of a
   political ad for Nelson Rockefeller's 1968 presidential campaign
   admitted he used Triumph as a reference. Some American political
   commentators have also compared both the Republican and Democratic
   Party Conventions to Triumph of the Will, although these criticisms are
   usually partisan in nature.

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