A classic

To be honest, before watching this movie, I had some mixed feelings towards the damned thing but since it has such a strong reputation, I still wanted to check it out. Well, fortunately, it turned out to be much easier to swallow than ‘Triumph des Willens’ which was a very interesting but also really despicable and nauseating movie. Sure, it was still some Nazi propaganda but it was also more than that. Indeed, it is a neat record of some vintage Olympic games as well and you can say whatever you want about Leni Riefenstahl but she definitely knew how to shoot a movie. For example, during many of the competitions displayed in this movie, she used some slow-motion which might seem like an obvious choice but I never saw sports being shot this way and I thought it was just so efficient and even quite beautiful to look at. To be honest, I’m not so sure about the introduction with these Greek statues. Sure, it was quite artistic but it felt also rather pretentious (on the other hand, what else should you expect from such a propaganda piece?). However, I have to admit that the transition to the discus thrower was pretty neat. The opening ceremony was also an interesting part. It’s in fact pretty much the same that we have nowadays, except for the fact that some delegations were giving the Nazi salute towards Hitler which was expected from Germany’s allies. However, I was rather appalled that the French athletes who do it as well but I guess these morons didn’t know that Germany would invade their country only a few years later. It was also something quite fascinating with this movie, the fact that while you had all these countries involved in some friendly sports competition, only a few years later, most of them would be eventually involved in one of the largest world conflicts we ever had. And, of course, it was just awesome to see Jesse Owens kicking their Nazi butts time and time again. Anyway, to conclude, this film definitely deserves its stellar reputation and it is absolutely worth a look, especially if you are interested in such historical features.