Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 3, 2006

Triumph of the Will is a documentary-style propaganda film by the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl chronicling the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. It features footage of uniformed Nazi party members marching and drilling to melodious major-keyed classical music, as well as excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi Leaders at the Congress, including portions of Adolf Hitler's own speeches. The overriding theme of the film is that Germany is a great power once again, and that Hitler is a German Messiah who will bring glory to the nation. Triumph of the Will was released in 1935 and rapidly became the best-known example of propaganda in the history of the cinema. Riefenstahl's innovative techniques such as moving cameras, the use of telephoto lenses to create a distorted perspective, aerial photography, and revolutionary approach to the use of music and cinematography have earned Triumph recognition as one of the greatest films in history, although its glorification of the Nazi regime makes it controversial. (more...)

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