Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938)

This is "Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der Völker", a German film from 80 years ago. The runtime stated here on IMDb is 2 hours 1 minute, but the version I watched was roughly 115 minutes long "only". The writer and director here is centenarian Leni Riefenstahl. At this point in her career, she had already stopped acting and produced some of the most infamous propaganda films in history. However, this documentary here is nothing like that. Like the title says, it is a celebration of all peoples. I personally felt it started a bit uninteresting, but when the introduction was over and the action moved to the actual event, the 11th Olympic Games from 1936 in Berlin, it gets a really great watch. For me, it was fun to see not only the athletes, but check their names on Google while watching and see what happened to them after the Games, during the war for example. I must say it is a bit disappointing how there is not such a documentary for all Olympic Games these days. The film is fairly neutral. It does show the German victories, but also shows for example the triumphs of African American athlete Jesse Owens, the biggest winner from the 1936 games probably. The documentary starts with the opening ceremony (not counting the prologue) and ends with the closing ceremony that follows the marathon event won by a Japanese athlete. Of course, we do not see Hitler applaud the foreign athletes, especially not the Black ones like Owens, but this would also have been really surprising. Germany wanted to prove themselves as open to the world (of sports), but that would have been too much. I believe this was a very good watch and all the original footage makes it a priceless historic document in terms of sports and politics. The only criticisms I could think of while watching was the lack of sports that weren't athletics, but I see Riefenstahl apparently covered that area in her second film on the subject. A must-see for every aspiring sports journalist. Highly recommended.

This is a documentary from the infamous German filmmaker/actress Leni Riefenstahl. Unlike her slobbery love letter to Hitler ("Triumph of the Will"), "Olympia Part One" and "Olympia Part Two" are surprisingly apolitical as well as exceptionally well made--both they don't make for the best viewing today.The film begins with its most famous scenes--nude actors doing various exercises. They are meant to be the ideals of beauty today--Germanic descendants of the original Greek athletes. Aside from a tiny loincloth covering the men, it's all nude--but not at all salacious. Instead, it comes off like an art film--and is AMAZINGLY artistic in style. You can tell Riefenstahl really made this project a labor of love with the camera-work and brilliant editing. This is why it took two years for the films to make it to German theaters--projects that were WAY overdue.What follows next is a straight retelling of the Berlin Olympics of 1936. The opening ceremonies are shown as are the track & field events--the rest of the events are shown in Part Two. While you do see several images of Hitler on screen and a few Germans in uniforms, these really were unavoidable considering this WAS Nazi Germany and Hitler was the head of state. But, victories by non-Germans and even Black-Americans are given the same screen time as those of Aryans--which really surprised me. This is especially surprising since the Germans actually won the most medals--but in watching the film you might just as soon have assumed the Americans did.On the downside, the film is dry--very dry. The narration is minimal--probably to make the film easier to market abroad. It really will bore the modern viewer to see most of these events. The only upside of this largest portion of the film is that occasionally the camera-work is absolutely brilliant--and better looking than more recent Olympic documentaries. The sum total effect is a film with great scenes and some amazing camera-work BUT will have LOTS of slow portions that haven't aged well because aside from Jesse Owens, you won't recognize anyone! Worth seeing once.

Olympia 1 (1938) **** (out of 4) German documentary of the 1936 Olympics, which were held in Germany, which was under the rule of Adolph Hitler. Whenever one speaks of director Riefenstahl you must also bring up the fact that she was Hitler's girlfriend, which means her films are always going to draw controversy whether it is deserved or not. For me, I'm going to put her personal life on the back burner and talk about her talent. Her film Triumph of the Will is held as a masterpiece because of the technical beauty, which to me, is the only thing the film has going for it. I found that film extremely hard to get through because you can only listen to Hitler scream and shout for so many minutes even through the beautiful technical qualities. This film here, I had heard, featured more Nazi propaganda but I found that to be an outright lie because this film is clearly a celebration of the sports and the athletes. The Nazi side of things are not on display in this first part and this thing even shows Hitler in a way I had never seen. I was rather shocked that Riefenstahl actually shows all the athletes pretty much the same way. Yes, the German's are highlighted and have a special light shined on them but, to me, this is because this is a German film. This type of thing would happen anywhere depending on which country was shooting the news piece. What also surprised me is how much respect the black athletes, including Jesse Owens, is given and we also hear the American's Nation Anthem at least four times. As for the Hitler scenes, I'm not an expert on the man outside knowing how evil he was so it was somewhat scary seeing him here smiling, cheering and actually talking to people around him where he seems to be having a good time just like any other fan. In a bit of ironic sadness, there is a scene where French soldiers are "heiling" him and of course we know what happened in the future. As for the technical side of things, this film is just downright beautiful and this beauty is what's so captivating. I really couldn't take my eyes off the screen as Riefenstahl captures so much magic and the angles she shoots out are certainly groundbreaking. The editing is also brilliantly done and adds a lot of suspense to the sport events and this technique has certainly been copied by all the sports films that would follow. All the footage with Jesse Owens is probably my favorite as we really get to see what type of excellent athlete he was. The director is certainly going to capture controversy every time one of her films are brought up but I found this movie to be innocent of any crimes and it really is one of the most beautiful ever made.

Even though this film is pretty much a propaganda piece, it is still one of the great sports documentaries of all time. Leni Reifenstahl perfectly captures a moment in time when the worlds of sports and politics collide. Hitler was trying to use these games to push his ideology of Aryan superiority, but because of Jesse Owens that idea went down the tubes. But, this film also succeeds because it captures all the great moments of these games. This film is definitely a must see not only for sports fan but for students of history as well.