Watch Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations For Free

You won't be disappointed!

the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

Absolutely Fantastic

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 high-quality sports documentary, photographed in stark b&w by Leni Riefenstahl, features all of the glorious highlights that took place at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany.It also features Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler as he officially proclaims the Games open, as well as footage of Hitler, all decked out in a Nazi uniform (swastikas included) saluting the athletes at the opening ceremonies - And, later, Hitler sitting with his buddies, laughing and smiling and cheering his beloved Germany on to victory.Besides that, this production also includes several "fantasy" sequences that, presented like some sort of a slow-motion ballet, display completely nude male and female figures.All-in-all, Olympia was certainly well worth a view.

Instead of Triumph of the Will there's surprisingly little politics and propaganda going on in this first part of Riefenstahl's Olympia. Riefenstahl is documenting the athletics in the Olympic Stadium, and yes, Hitler is there, but that's about it. Sure, the German athletes are the best and heroic, and there's a piece in there when the commentator says something like 'the best white European runners against the black giants', but that's about it.Jesse Owens was the star of this Olympics in many ways, and Riefenstahl isn't reluctant to show his big smiles after winning yet another gold medal. Although a lot can be frowned upon in Germany in those days, 'Olympia' isn't as charged as many people believe it to be.Having said that, this first part of Olympia is basically just showing us who won the medals in the Olympic Stadium, and although some of the images are great and there's a beautiful use of slow-motion, it's not really that interesting...6/10.

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.