Review – Triumph of the Will

After recently watching a string of documentaries about racism, genocide and the like, I started to seriously wonder exactly why Nazism ever seemed attractive to the Germans. After watching this documentary by legendary propaganda artist Leni Riefenstahl – the Nazis’ best ever sales pitch – I don’t consider myself much the wiser. Some of the big party rally sequences are impressively choreographed. But then a lot of the movie is given over to what I like to think of as Fuhreryakkenblabben sequences, extended shots of nothing but Hitler and his henchmen rattling on about their stupid nonsense. That and parades. Oh my lord the endless parades. So I found myself searching the backgrounds for any possible distraction from the sad spectacle upon which the picture focuses. Occasionally one gets a particularly Manson-google-eyed follower or an army general struggling to stifle a yawn. But for the most part this is just relentlessly dull. Oh, and fair warning: if you do decide to take this on, prepare to have the Horst Wessel Song stuck in your head for a day or two. See if desperate