Review of Triumph of the Will (1935) by Hannah B — 05 Mar 2010

This film gets top marks for visuals, but it is hampered both by the subject (toward which most decent folk these days feel the same sentiments as for a cockroach) and an overweening obsession with pomp and circumstance. They may make for an impressive visual display and provide an excellent palette for the director to work with, but eventually the phalanxes of men assembled for the unending Appells get to be a dollop of paint too far.

A good deal of these "reviews" could have been cut and the film would have been much the stronger for it. I was quite impressed with the beginning and the ending, and the snippets of political figures was fascinating if not also disturbing; but the ham in the middle was so stultifying I ended up skipping most of it altogether.

As a propaganda film, it has a lot to recommend it at both ends, but I can't imagine even dyed-in-the-wool National Socialist enjoying the middle. If you can get past the subject matter (near impossible, to be sure) you might spot some well-filmed shots in between scene after scene of men standing around and saluting.