Triumph of the Will (1935)
Described as a propaganda film, Triumph of the Will chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, Germany, which was attended by over 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film features excerpts from speeches delivered by Nazi leaders at the Congress, including Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and Julius Streicher, which were interspersed with footage of massed Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel troops and public reaction.
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will was criticized for using spectacular filmmaking to promote a profoundly unethical system. Though the movie was commissioned by Hitler himself, the film earned recognition for remarkably capturing an event of enormous scale. In fact, Riefenstahl’s technique of filming from low angles to make the small-framed Hitler look imposing and majestic is often copied by other movies.
