Triumph des Willens (1935)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Leni Riefenstahl

Writers:

Leni Riefenstahl (writer)
Walter Ruttmann (writer)

Release Date:

28 March 1935 (Germany)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Plot:

The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.

Plot Keywords:

Hitler | Nuremberg | Third Reich | Nazi | Rally

Cast

Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (lauded by Hess, Physical Labour speech to RAD, Behind Us Comes Germany speech to HJ, We Created Our State speech, Black Shadow speech to SA, reviews parade, Two Principles speech to Party)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Max Amann	...	Himself (views parade of SA in long pants, no banners)
Martin Bormann	...	Himself (sits on Hitler's left, at HJ rally, enters hall behind Hess, sits behind Streicher)
Walter Buch	...	Himself (views parade of SA in long pants, no banners, views SS parade)
Walter Darré	...	Himself (Health of Our Farmers speech)
Otto Dietrich	...	Himself (Truth About Germany speech)
Sepp Dietrich	...	Himself (Commander of the SS-Leibstandarten)
Hans Frank	...	Himself (speech)
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (arrives by plane with Hitler, Bright Flame speech, at HJ rally, views RAD parade, listens to Hitler)
Hermann Göring	...	Himself (listens to Hess, reviews Army, parades in SA uniform then joins Hitler, listens to Hitler, stands and nods agreement)
Jakob Grimminger	...	Blood Flag Bearer
Rudolf Hess	...	Himself (opens Congress, You Are Germany speech, at HJ rally, reviews parade, sits on Hitler's right, introduces Hitler, listens to Hitler, Hitler Is Germany speech)
Reinhard Heydrich	...	Himself (views SS parade with other officers by Hitler's car)
Konstantin Hierl	...	Himself (National Labour Service speech, presents RAD to Hitler, leads RAD parade then joins Hitler)
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (walks to flame with Hitler and Lutze, leads SS at SA rally, leads SS parade then joins Hitler, sits beside Lutze, listens to Hitler)
Robert Ley	...	Himself (reviews DAF with Hitler, Single Thought speech, salutes SA parade, listens to Hitler with Schwarz)
Viktor Lutze	...	Himself (speech as new SA leader, walks to flame with Hitler, Faithful to Führer speech, leads SA parade then joins Hitler, sits between Himmler and Hess, listens to Hitler)
Erich Raeder	...	Himself (listens to Hess, salutes SA parade when Göring sighted)
Fritz Reinhardt	...	Himself (Improvements speech)
Alfred Rosenberg	...	Himself (Unshakeable Belief speech)
Hjalmar Schacht	...	Himself
Franz Xaver Schwarz	...	Himself (sits between Wagner and Himmler, listens to Hitler with Ley)
Julius Streicher	...	Himself (stands with Hitler, Purity Of Race speech, sits on Hitler's left near podium, nods in agreement with Hitler)
Fritz Todt	...	Himself (Autobahn speech)
Werner von Blomberg	...	Himself (reviews Army units with Hitler and Göring)
Hans Georg von Friedeburg	...	Himself (salutes SA parade when Göring sighted)
Gerd von Rundstedt	...	Himself (behind Raeder as he salutes, views Army parade with officers) (unconfirmed)
Baldur von Schirach	...	Himself (in car, arrives at stadium with Hitler, Selfless Youth speech to HJ, views SS parade, listens to Hitler)
Adolf Wagner	...	Himself (reads Hitler's proclamation, views parade of SA in short pants, sits beside Schwarz, listens to Hitler)

Also Known As:

Das Dokument vom Reichsparteitag 1934 (Germany) (subtitle)
Triumph of the Will (USA)

Runtime:

114 min | USA:110 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Australia:G | West Germany:(Banned) | Germany:(Banned) | Sweden:Btl | UK:E | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Leni Riefenstahl-Produktion

Trivia:

Leni Riefenstahl directed an earlier film for the NSDAP entitled Der Sieg des Glaubens (1933), which was of an earlier rally, but all known copies of the film were destroyed after Ernst Röhm, who was featured in that film, was suspected of participating in a plot against Hitler and was executed. Rohm was head of the Nazi "brownshirts" and all published references to Rohm were ordered destroyed in an attempt to erase him from history. This film was produced to replace "Der Sieg des Glaubens", and only one complete second-generation copy of that earlier film has ever been found.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Opening crawl: On September 5, 1934, 20 years after the outbreak of the World War, 16 years after Germany's Suffering, 19 months after the beginning of the German Rebirth, Adolf Hitler again flew to Nuremberg to review the assembly of his faithful followers.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Day of the Locust (1975)

Soundtrack:

Die Grosse Zapfenstreich (The Great Tattoo)

An oxymoron of a film: A masterpiece about Nazis

This movie has driven cinephiles and artsy folks crazy for years. Taken objectively, the film is a masterpiece of images, technically flawless, and really quite a stunning achievement. The real problem is that it's a masterpiece about the master race -- it glorifies Nazis. In fact it unquestionably rises above simple "propaganda" and succeeds in being a film about ideas and society. That's the next problem, the ideas and society it idealizes and promotes are quite compelling. There's no death here, no gashouses, no corpses, no pure evil, nothing like that. And it's also not just inane images of noble people doing noble things, etc., like run of the mill propaganda produced by every political party.

Ultimately, this is not a film to be seen in a vacuum; were this the only thing a person knew about Nazis, one would get a very, very incomplete view. But strangely, it provides insights as well, once one knows about the evil that the Nazis did--the movie shows the attraction, the compelling nature of some ideas. And that evil, no matter how clear and vicious in nature, is still attached to a human being, and hence is ultimately enormously complex.

This is a great film that any serious film student or lover should see. If only to understand how funny it is to see the artistes of the world trying to describe it without saying anything nice about Nazis. Evil is never pure, that's what makes it so compelling and this film helps to explain that.