Olympia-Parts 1 & 2

An important view, it's a marketing movie, but everybody mus watch

I purchased this version of Olympia and wanted to see many different ones because I was so inspired by the film . I also purchased a version by Art Haus on the German Amazon site amazon.de and another one by germanwarfilms.com that claims to have directly transfered it from a 16mm film . I used google translate when I purchased the one on the German Amazon site and can tell you this one has the best film quality of the three. But it all rests on what you want . If you want the absolute best quality get the Art Haus one.It has 3 discs and has Leni Riefenstahls African film features she shot in Africa.It also has her in an underwater film she made .But beware it is in the PAL format and will not play on a regular DVD player from the USA. I have a Philips Model # DVP5990 DVD Player that plays PAL DVDS on all regions that I paid about $75 for.I think I bought it online and it works great putting everything in 1080p if you want to go that route . Also there are no English Subtitles . Everything is in German . It cost $48 shipping included and took a little over a week to get to Tennessee from Germany.The one from germanwarfilms.com is my favorite.It does not have all the extra stuff but I like the way it was put together ,so simple with a good film transfer .You feel the films essence in this one. It has English Subtitles. The Art Haus film quality is a 10 and this one a 7 and the Pathfinder a 5.I like the Pathfinder version though for the many additional film clips such as some winter olympic footage ,boxing and fencing . It shows Hitler in the snow and has other clips that are not in any of the other ones. Has footage of thousands of athletes exercising at the same time.It has women doing exercises with what looks like bowling pins. It also has English subtitles.Best complete footage ,worst transfer . But I recommend them all . I watch all 3 from time to time to see the different features.My Grandfather was 34 years old when this film was made and I can see the honesty and innocence of his generation. Everyone at the events wore suites and ties and the ladys wore dresses. There was no corporate sponsers advertisements in your face and no nike swimsuits. They put a wreath around their heads and the Lady athletes got a tree plant presented to them no doubt to take home and plant to grow and remember the event for years to come . All the boats were identical in the race and so was the bicycles . You had to be the better athlete to win in those days not a better boat or bicycle builder getting the advantage on lighter materials.So nice to watch , and so nice of them to salute the beauty of the youth of our world at that time. Enjoy !

A beautiful Film, in its phoyography way ahead of the standard of the times.By the way, I was there in Berlin at the time. a ten-year-old, and we boys knew "them" all., and everybody shared the excitement of the Games. Today, some call it a propaganda-film. I do not think it was. It refelcted exactly what was happening at the time. It is a sports film.. It is a fair presentation of what was happening at the games.It is a beautiful film. I remember Jessi Owens and his German comptetitor Lutz Long, I remember the decathelon, and that never ending pole-vault till late into the night. I remember "Morris USA". The American sprinters, the relays.We loved every minute of those two weeks. Had to read it in the paper or listen to the excitement on the radio. And have seen it on film now.I thought the opening sequence of the girls dancing was a little stretched. which is my only negative comment to the film if that is "negative". It was beautiful, just a liitle too long.I believe it was the first time, in 1936, that the torch was carried from Olympia in a relay through all the countries on its way to Berlin A sensation throughout Europe.I really recommend the film for viewing to everybody who is interested in sports, the Olympic Games, and those times. It is an outstanding film for its time, in every of its detail.By the way, I saw an American version of the film which showed Adolf Hitler geting all worked up when Jessie Owens ran his 10 sec. He did not. That shot was inserted. That was the actual scene with Adolf Hitler when the German relay girls, for the first time in history ahead of the US team, lost the baton at the last exchange.My review? My recommendation! A beautiful film indeed, but remember it was made 76 years ago.Mark W. BormannRenfrew, Canada

Riefenstahl's masterpiece displays the Olympics of 1936 as the art of sport. Too often the film has been used as propaganda from the left and right. Hitler is shown a few times but the focus is all on the sport. By the way Jesse Owens victories are given good coverage as are all nation's winners. A great documentary.

Some years ago I saw that a theater that played "revivals" was showing Leni Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA. I had heard of the famed cinematographer-- whose life circumstances placed her talent in the middle of 1930's Germany. The film chronicles the famous Olympic games where Jesse Owens triumped on the world stage and Adolf Hitler dominated the political stage. The film is long-- many many hours. I decided to invest the six buck price of admission and just stay "for a while" to get an impression of Riefenstahls work-- I was mesmorized! I couldn't leave and stayed for the whole thing (4, 5, 6 hours-- whatever it is). When I saw OLYMPIA available on Amazon while looking for another film I grabbed it. And, again-- (through the wonders of technology) I sat completely fascinated, entertained, transported by hours and hours of this film and found myself repeating sections more than fast forwarding. It is truly a classic. Anyone who loves film, the Olympics, history-- should see this film and have it in their collection. It is stylized, artful, beautiful, humorous-- (the equestrian sequences of people falling off horses is a riot). But I guess the adjective that comes most to mind is beauty-- the images, angles, light are magical and exciting. At times the beauty of a still standing scupted object-- at times ballet, at times the raw excitement of athleticism and competition. Over the years my love of film has led to the project of founding and running Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. I know film makers, and curators, and heads of film institutes and have seen hundreds and hundreds of films-- I would recommend this film to any and all. It deserves the name classic--

This dvd is VHS quality. I made the mistake of watching it on my 65" tv and normally upscaled dvds look acceptable. This looked BAD! Most of the first 20 minutes is just macro-blocking, zero detail, appalling quality. This is the kind of quality seen in web videos circa 1998! Unless you absolutely must see this superb film for some reference purpose avoid, avoid, AVOID!!!Annoyingly Criterion have a blu-ray copy on offer but only in their $250 plus import fees Olympic films set and this is the only film that interests me.

The details on this tell you that it has been dubbed into English - NOT TRUE ! I am in the UK and as this was ordered from USA it took a few weeks to arrive. The picture quality is rather grainy - but this not my problem. Why do they state this is dubbed into English and on the back of the DVD it says "not dubbed - presented in original format" I checked and watched the first hour. No subtitles ! Then why say that there is in the product description ?

On the pure cinematographic point of view Leni Riefenstahl is a genius (on the same level of Orson Welles). On the historical point of view the nazi salute of the french delegation with the spanish civil war in the background lends credibility to the ambiguity of the trio Hitler-Stalin-West.

This pictorial review of the 1936 Olympics is a masterpiece of documentary film making. It also raises many questions about the event that need a historians help. The Wikipedia source can provide many answers.

I have not watched this actual disc as yet but I paid practically nothing for it. Riefenstahl's work is outstanding and the work she did for the 1936 Olympics was breathtaking. Other films by her are well worth watching provided you realise that she was first and foremost an artist. She never claimed to be a Nazi and regretted making Triumph of the Will. Some have rated her Olympics work as among the finest ten films ever made.