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Re: [OM] Re: OT now Coke, mutating to chemistry and now documentary...

Subject: Re: [OM] Re: OT now Coke, mutating to chemistry and now documentary...
From: Jerry Liles <wliles@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 14:34:11 -0600
Reifenstal's films are the best known from the Third Reich, and, as you say, have a debatable message, though I would argue the Triumph of the Will was ultimately malignant. The so-called documentaries that were unequivocally malign were those like, "The Eternal Jew". Failing to condemn them is unconscionable. They were, without doubt, evil.

Jerry Liles

Robert Jackson wrote:

The "message" encoding in Leni Reifenstahl's films has been the subject of a lot of critical discussion over the years. In Triumph of the Will there is actually not all that much explicit "message." For all its pomp and circumstance, there's really very little of the National Socialist formal agenda in the film. Of course, the implicit "message" of the film was that Hitler descended from the clouds to grace Nuremberg with his presence and that he's there to insure that Germany doesn't forget her past or lose sight of her future. It's one of the most compelling pieces of persuasive political filmmaking ever released to the public, but it never really comes out and says much about what the goals of the party are. It's just kind of a feel-good movie about what a great guy Hitler is.

Olympiad is a different beast. Reifestahl has been accused of having a "fascist aesthetic." Essentially she concentrates on the strength and beauty of the human form as an object of power and perfection, with Hitler cheering on from the sidelines. It's been seen as sort of a sales film for eugenics, but again without any actual explicit "message" to suggest such a thing. She was a very subtle and talented filmmaker. I can't imagine Reifenstahl doing anything as heavy-handed as Bowling For Columbine.

On Nov 30, 2003, at 7:51 AM, Jerry Liles wrote:

That's like saying the "message" of the "documentary" films of the Third Reich weren't ultimately malevolent.



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