Because Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) not just filmed, but, to some degree, choreographed the Nazi rally she documented in "Triumph of the Will," because the 1936 Olympics were designed to showcase Nazi Germany (as the 2008 Olympics are being designed to showcase communist China), and because Riefenstahl received the assignment to produce the official record, many suppose that "Olympia" (1937) is Nazi propaganda.

The two-part movie certainly celebrates athletic bodies stretching to surpass competitors and world records, but most of the bodies celebrated are not blond Aryans, the Nazi ideal. In the prologue of the movie, ancient Greek statuary of athletes come to life—not "blond beasts" but dark-tressed ones, including those setting off from Mount Olympus with the Olympic flame (it seems that this ritual was invented by Riefenstahl for the movie).

African Americans, most notably Jesse Owens—who won gold medals in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, the long jump, and as the anchor of the men's 400-meter relay (in which no other competitor is even visible by the second hand-off of baton)— and Glenn Morris (who won the Decathlon) dominated the track competition (Archie Williams won the 400 meters, John Woodruff the 800 meters, and there were silver and bronze medals won by Americans, including Jackie Robinson's older brother, Matthew, for the 200-meter dash; white American athletes also won five gold medals in track events, black ones six). Riefenstahl, who would later go to Africa and photograph naked or nearly naked black bodies, looked over the bodies of the African American athletes. It seems to me that she also put Japanese athletes on display more than German ones (a Japanese-team athlete, Kijung Son from the Japanese colony of Korea, won the Marathon and Japanese athletes were surprisingly competitive in high jump and pole vault), though I did not watch "Olympia" with a pair of stop watches to measure this.

It also seems to me that a contingent of Japanese spectators are shown more often cheering on their athletes than German spectators are shown cheering German athletes (though there are some vociferous Italian spectators, and the American contingent was chanting "U S A" even back while Owens was preparing to make his world record final long jump). The stadium crowd in general seems to applaud whoever does best, an Olympic ideal lost in American televising of more recent Olympics. Riefenstahl showcased musculature and poetry in motion rather than celebrating German bodies and accomplishment. (I have a book of stills from the movie, but the movie is about movement even more than it is about musculature.)

The man with the clipped mustache (Adolf Hitler) was on hand and appears periodically on screen, including looking peeved when one of the Aryan teams (Dutch women's relay, I think) drops the baton. He was the head of state, and if there were a London Olympics now and Queen Elizabeth was in attendance, I think that she would be periodically shown both in live television coverage and in any documentary of these hypothetical Olympic Games.

It is tempting to view the defeat of German aspirations by American domination in the track events as prefiguring how the war that would soon engulf much of the world would turn out. As smoothly run as the 1936 Olympics were, they were not a succession of German athletes winning medals (that would come later with the steroid-engineering East Germans...).

If not glorifying Hitler or Aryans, what about "body fascism"? Documenting Olympic games is not an occasion for showing dumpy bodies. Olympic athletes are muscled (though the 1936 ones were not as musclebound as contemporary bodies built in part by steroids...). Riefenstahl's movie did not fetishize any one racial type, and in my opinion did not fetishize any particular part of the human body. An argument might be made that the movie (in common with sports news coverage now as then...) valued male bodies more than female ones. There is considerably more footage of male track events than of female ones (in Part Two, female divers are shown more than male ones).

There are no human interest stories, no interviews with the athletes, no discussion of the historical importance (sports history or world history) of what was photographed. After its poetic ancient Greek lineage opening, the movie is fairly straight-ahead records of the races and vaults, final standings, and brief vignettes of awards ceremonies (with "The Star-Spangled Banner" the musical leitmotif). Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad, the official documentary of the 1964 Olympics, shows more drama and something of the athletes outside the Olympic stadium (and also has a stunning sequence of the Olympic torch being carried past Mount Fujiyama). Coverage of the opening ceremony is brief and the ceremony was less elaborate than those in more recent Olympics.

The racial ideology of the Third Reich silently but systematically undercut on its how ground by the successes of American (mostly, but not entirely African American) athletes and knowledge that the world would soon be at war and there would not be more Olympic Games (until 1948) provide an extra layer of historical importance to what happened in Berlin in 1936. Co-ordinating what was shot with an unprecedented number of cameras, Riefenstahl wove together a document of historical and aesthetic accomplishment. (Part Two has some comic relief, but more exaltation of athletic accomplishment. It includes the non-track events, including gymnastics, swimming, diving, equestrian, sailing, shooting, and the dousing of the Olympic flame at the end of the games. It seems more a grab-bag than the systematic coverage of the male track events in Part One.)


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8