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Olympia, German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl's two-part documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympiad, remains fascinating as both a stunning work of cinema and a historical document of Nazi propaganda. Held in Berlin, under the victory-obsessed eyes of Adolf Hitler, the '36 Games were pursued and produced by the Third Reich with extraordinary zeal. In addition to creating gorgeous Olympic facilities and rigorously preparing its athletes (whose 89 medals far outpaced the second-place USA's 56), Germany commissioned Riefenstahl (Triumph of the Will) to produce this film -- a tool for sharing its triumphant Olympic moment with the world. Working with the finest black-and-white film equipment and a battery of cameras, Riefenstahl captured the era's leading athletes, often from oddly striking angles and occasionally in slow motion. Competitions unfold in rapid fire with an announcer offering minimal play-by-play. There's little natural sound, and the Sousa-meets-Wagner score often makes it feel like a March of Time episode with an unlimited budget. From its long opening montage -- a 15-minute music-video parade of the buff and the beautiful -- to its close-ups of the various runners and jumpers, swimmers and divers, equestrians and oarsmen, Olympia serves as a paean to the human body at its best. Our favorite highlights: U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens winning four gold medals (Hitler's harrumphing exit from the stadium didn't make the movie, of course) and 13-year-old Marjorie Gestring soaring in the women's diving competition to become -- at the time -- the youngest-ever Olympic champion. Her winning smile is pure elation. -- Gregory P. Fagan

All Movie Guide

Having proven her mettle with her still-astonishing propaganda epic Triumph of the Will, German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl furthered her reputation with the two-part Olympia, an all-inclusive filmed record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In its original 220-minute form, the film was designed as a paean to Aryan superiority, likening the strong-limbed young German athletes with the godlike participants of the ancient Olympic games. By accident or design, however, the film transcends politics, resulting in an across-the-board tribute to all the Olympic partcipants -- even those whose racial makeup did not come up to the "pure" standards established by the Third Reich. This is especially true in the first portion of the film, in which black American runner Jessie Owens emerges as the star. The second half of the film is the more impressive technically, with Riefenstahl utilizing an astonishing variety of camera speeds and angles to record the diving competition. Working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, Riefenstahl and her staff were often denied desirable camera angles, forcing them to improvise with telephoto lenses; the results are often far more dramatically impressive than the up-close-and-personal approach taken by contemporary TV cameramen. After an editing process that took nearly 18 months, Riefenstahl added icing to the cake with a richly evocative soundtrack -- an added touch which, so far as the filmmaker was concerned, "made" the picture. Inasmuch as the German government was still trying to curry favor with the outside world in early 1938, Olympia was shipped out in various reedited versions, each favoring the athletes of the release country. Many English-language versions avoided any references to Hitler or Nazism -- quite a feat, considering the preponderence of swastikas at the Olympic site. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 825307915990
• Source: PATHFINDER HOME ENT.
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Deutsche, English
• Time: 3:24:00
• Sales Rank: 8,809

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