"The Party is Hitler, and Hitler is Germany just as Germany is Hitler." There's a will to turn the whole nation into one people, one Reith. This one people is Hitler, this one Reith is Germany. "When you act, the nation act. When you judge, the people judge.” To achieve this common will and reach that ultimate goal, people, especially young people were asked to be loyal and obedient, peace-loving and strong. Just like the ill will of any villain in any film, Nazi Party wanted to be the rule of the earth, but the film portrayed the will beautifully, the will was weaved to something pleasant to the eye, delight to the ear and shake to the soul.
Several imageries impacted me, including the shadow of the moving plane casted on the land, the rally composed of thousands of enthusiastic people, and the firm and merry chorus of the soldiers, to name but a few. In retrospect, the whole idea is like a joke but it's not hard to imagine how many people were manipulated by the film and it's amazing to see how people was mobilized by the Nazi Party.
The film portrayed Hitler as a superman, a God-like leader, he descended to the world from sky, surrounded by faithful people along the way and welcomed by endless applauds and cheers. Every scene of Hitler was shot from an angle of elevation and every scene of crowds was shot from an angle of depression, which attributed a sense of importance for Hitler subconsciously. Also, waves of arms stretched out and point to the sky, plus the deafening shout of “Sieg Heil” and the enchanted expression on everyone's face , the whole scene was just incredibly powerful, overwhelmed you into one of them, made you believe he's the one, and only through him can you be blessed and saved. The more you think about the film, the more you find it religious, but in a brilliant way.
Triumph of the will is a propaganda masterpiece thanks to the Leni Riefenstahl. She was a dancer, actress and film maker and also a Nazi supporter at that time. Her talent was acknowledged by Hitler and was asked to film the upcoming Party rally in Nuremberg. She finally agreed and nothing gave her more fame and reproach than this film ever after.
Though she insisted the film is a documentary, Triumph of the will is widely regarded as propaganda. I tend to agree with the latter. Because propaganda is by nature a kind of communication aims at rallying the public opinion toward a course while a documentary is intended to document some aspect of reality. It's pretty clear that Leni just told part of the truth and hidden some more important parts away from us. As consequence, it eulogized the power of Nazi instead of just recording the reality and crystallized the pro-Nazi opinion among the public. Either by design or accident, the reality was colored and not complete. As a result, the truth value is diminished, thus it can't be called a documentary film.
Despite its misleading effect on the people, we still cannot deny its aesthetic value, its power and its success. Even if we can't learn to love Leni Riefenstahl as Zizek does, we can at least learn from her. Learn the way she tell the story and the way she impact the audience, Leni's skills of selling a nation to Nazi Party could be used in a better way if she chose the right side. That's one of the lessons she taught us.
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