Victory of Faith

Considered lost for nearly 70 years, Victory of Faith is again available to viewing audiences. A key work in the evolution of National Socialist propaganda, it provides an ambitious record of the 1933 NS Party rally at Nuremberg. The film ran afoul of authorities, however, after the "blood purge" of 1934, which rendered Brownshirt leader Ernst Rohm, a central figure in of the 1933 rally, a non-person. Across Germany, references to Rohm were obliterated from the public record, and all prints of Victory of Faith were tracked down and destroyed. Until now, the film seemed little more than an intriguing postscript to Third Reich history. Though far from a masterwork, the film is a revelation on many counts, offering a fascinating first draft of the ideas and techniques Riefenstahl would pull off so powerfully in Truimph of the Will. In their contrasts, the two films shed much light on the early evolution of NS propaganda, its evocation of heroism and collective will! , its portrayal of the 'national people's community,' and its depiction of Hitler most of all. Where Triumph of the Will showed Hitler assupreme symbol and absolute master of the movement, the Hitler of Victory of Faith is still first among equals, a man with an unrulyforelock, a presence not yet wholly in command. Moreover, Victoryof Faith provides a revealing look at the NS movement in the firstblush of its 1933 triumphs. Here, the movement still bears themarks of its street-fighter origins; its rituals are often raw,lacking the orchestrated precision and theatrical grandeur weassociate with later stagecraft. In these and other ways, Victoryof Faith fills a gap in our understanding of the Third Reich,capturing the Hitler state at a pivotal stage in its earlydevelopment.

Fascinating Film ,,, DISAPPOINTING DVD TREATMENT

Victory of Faith is certainly a fascinating film, especially for students of Riefenstahl's filmmaking techniques or for students of the period. Since this film was thought lost, and was unavailable to so long, even seeing it at all is like finding treasure.


Unfortunately, the treatment that the DVD presentation received at the hands of the DVD makers is sloppy at best and absolutely maddening at worst.


Most maddening is the fact that they have their name ("A&M") in a bar at the upper left of the screen for the entire first 7 to 8 minutes of the film, and ---as if that weren't bad enough--- they have the words ("Copyright 2003") in a bar --at the same time!-- at the bottom left, during the same ENTIRE first 7 to 8 minutes of the film. That's two notices at the same time for the entire 7-8 minutes.


This is especially offputting because it is the first 8 minutes of the film (the Nuremberg "prologue") which is the most beautiful, lyrical part of the film. It is during those 8 minutes that Riefenstahl can wax poetic as we see the sights of Nuremberg and the preparations for the rally.


The film print which was discovered in Britain reportedly had this first sequence missing, and it says on the box that the DVD is presenting the British print of the film.


Evidently, therefore, the DVD producers had to specially obtain this first sequence from another source, and edit it into their presentation (which is appreciated). HOWEVER, in doing so they have added two thick black strips on the screen in two different places, continually and at the same time, (which, in the aggregate, probably amount to almost 1/4 of the screen space) giving their name and copyright notice.


This is infuriating and inexcusable! (I wish I could show you a frame capture). It is completely distracting.


Obviously, they put it in two places on the screen and very prominently in large type in order to keep someone from creating a "letterboxing" copy which excludes their notices. But it is unfortunate that they did not just "ghost" it in at the bottom, as cable TV stations routinely do with their logos nowadays. But, no, this is much more than that. It is two large thick strips on the screen, both of which remain distractingly present throughout the entire prologue.



I have never been so disappointed in a content-related decision by a DVD manufacturer. The most beautiful part of the film (and the part where Riefenstahl can show her editing technique off the most easily) is really pretty much RUINED for the viewer.



Yes, you can get an idea of what's going on, but there is the constant distraction of not ONE, but TWO continual copyright notices. This is a shameful treatment of the film!



Secondly, as if that weren't enough, there is another problem. There are no chapter divisions during the film. The 61 minute film is one big "chapter" on the DVD. Therefore, if you as a viewer or film student wish to navigate to a sequence near the end, you must fast-forward through the program in order to get there. Since Victory of Faith (Der Sieg Des Glaubens) was clearly divided up into sequences, it seems lazy and uncaring in the extreme of the DVD producers not to have at least put chapter divisions at those clear sequences.


A third problem is that the opening credits of the film (just the credits, mind you) are obviously taken from a very bad slow-play VHS copy with poor sync. The picture is fuzzy and jumpy and losing framing. It looks as if someone took an old camcorder and shot the titles off of a movie screen (which they may indeed have done!). Perhaps this was the best that could be done if the title sequence does not survive in better quality, but it's a real shame, as it starts the whole presentation off with a poor quality image (although the overall image quality gets better).


What is so maddening about all of this is that we KNOW that beautiful, pristine footage of this film exists because it was used in the documentary THE WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI REIFENSTAHL (MACH DER BILDER). There, the image quality of Victory of Faith is beautiful and glowing. Here, on this DVD, the image quality overall is "okay", but not nearly of the quality of the clips in WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE. Plus, there are the problems with the extreme overbearing copyright notice, lack of proper chaptering, and extremely poor quality title sequence.



All in all, if you really need to see this film, this copy is "acceptable", but don't be expecting the quality of Synapse's TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (which was beautifully restored and presented), and don't be expecting the quality of the clips seen in WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE. And be prepared to have the prologue ruined for you, as a viewer, by the blatant and extreme huge copyright notices.




I don't understand the DVD company going to the trouble to obtain, author to DVD, and market a rare film, and then treating it so SHAMEFULLY in it's presentation.


Overall, I'd give the film itself four stars, but this DVD presentation 1/2 star.


Bottom Line: mixed emotions. It is wonderful to be able to see this long-lost film which many of us thought we'd never see, and to have it in DVD form which can be reviewed and repeatedly studied; yet it is absolutely maddening to see it given so shabby a presentation on this particular DVD release. October 21, 2007

Excellent reminders about talented nice people with tunnel vision

This DVD should be watched in conjunction with the other films about Leni Riefenstahl. The film is a great and frightening picture of the time. And it doesn't take too much imagination to find familiar territory being explored. You take any group with a resentment towards another over some percieved wrong, then you have potentially a restless and violent population capable of extremes of behaviour. Who does that remind us of today? NAZIS were not simply evil people. They had popular support over the writings of Hitler because he was charismatic and spoke with a personal authority. His words were taken as being like the words of god. In some respects, Riefenstahl made Hitler what he aspired to be. She was one of those who laid the fabric for his coat of arms. Any artist who claims to be apolitical and then weaves such a tapestry of darkness is either dishonest or simply being protective. The film is clearly filled with sympathy for its subject.
July 30, 2007

Trial Run For The Big One

Frankly, I had never heard of this film before but noted its existence here on amazon while I was looking to buy Leni Riefenstahl's most famous work, Triumph of the Will. So I ordered this as well.
Now having seen this, I would agree with another of the reviewers that the main benefit to one interested in history is that the viewer sees many people instrumental in Hitler's rise to power who are no longer prominent when Triumph of the Will was filmed. The most important of these is Hitler's soon to be former SA chief, Ernst Rohm who is featured prominently in Victory of Faith.
If you are expecting Hitler to rant and rave, you will be disappointed. Der Fuehrer manages to keep his legendary temper under control and to project an image as a serious politician who intends to guide the nation in the direction which he believes he was appointed to do. This is the first Nazi Congress after his appointment as Chancellor and he is not yet firmly in the saddle, so his comments are very general and mostly upbeat, with a lot of talk about building a classless society and the role of youth and workers in that society.
Remember, this is the National SOCIALIST Party. Lots of Germans were Socialists but not all those were nationalists. Hitler's remarks seemed like a reaching out to those Germans who were not yet with him. It is also important to remember that this was the height of the depression as well. The Nazis and Communists had battled in the streets for years over which form socialism was to take. With those two groups comprising together the majority of the electorate, it was almost inevitable barring an armed forces coup that some form of socialism was going to be state policy following the elections. As Hitler was more palatable to the elite than any Moscow-loving communist, he was asked to form a government. Some say that the army, vastly outnumbered by the SA, was afraid of a revolution in the streets and so acquiesced to Hitler's appointment. If that is so, then the hated Versailles Treaty, which limited the size of the German armed forces, is guilty of yet one more unintended consequence.
Victory of Faith seems primitive indeed when watched back-to-back with Triumph of the Will. It seems almost like a trial run. Riefenstahl's directoral prowess was not yet in full flower, and the film often seems choppy and spliced together. Perhaps this is due in some measure to deterioration while in storage.
The most breathtaking moments are watching the nascent SS goose-step by for review by Hitler. They are already like a precision machine, even at this early stage. And I had to laugh at the fawning lick-spittle treatment Hitler got from his subordinates. Its no wonder he came to believe not only in his omniscience, but in his omnipotence as well.
I give this only three stars as it doesn't come close to matching the power of Leni Riefenstahl's real masterwork, Triumph of the Will. March 12, 2007

Buy this DVD only if you have a fascination with Leni Riefenstahl or the history of the early Nazi Party

I don't really fit into either category, but I have done a lot of reading of military history over the last few years, especially the Russian-German conflict of WWII.

Eventually, I started thinking about how the Nazis came to power. Buying this DVD seemed like buying a record of a small but important piece of history.

I got this DVD at the same time as Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" just to see for myself the differences.

And there are many.

In "Victory of Faith", Ernst Rohm is featured almost as prominently as Adolph Hitler himself, which shows just how powerful he was within the Nazi Party in 1933 as head of the SA - he was nearly equal to Hitler. A number of the early Nazi Party bigwigs are featured prominently as well. As mentioned by other reviewers, the familiar Nazis of WWII - Himmler, Goebbels, and even Goring - make only brief appearances in this movie.

"Victory of Faith" is a roughly and simply made documentary of the rough and simple early Nazi Party, with lots of the usual ground-level shots, simple close-ups of key Nazis giving speeches, and scenes of Nazi Party members marching and camping out while carrying on with the 1933 Nazi Party Congress. The ordinary, every-day life activities of these proto-Nazi storm troopers in their campgrounds are depicted with a down-to-earth humanizing touch. By the time of "Triumph of the Will", these same Nazi SS and SA storm troopers will be put on a pedestal and glorified as Aryan gods.

The contents of this DVD are fragmented into several parts, and my copy of the DVD did not move smoothly from one section to the next. Even accounting for this problem, the fragmented pieces of this film still do not fit together smoothly.

And so this DVD is basically just the raw footage of what remains of the movie. If you don't speak or read German, the English subtitles provide very little information about what is going on in this movie.

For most WWII buffs, the usual top Nazis of the WWII era are readily recognizable, but the problem is that this DVD is about the early Nazi Party, which was led by people who would be replaced and then doomed to death and/or obscurity later on. Without any help from the DVD, one has to research some of the early history of the Nazi Party to find out who is who in this movie.

The only one of the obscure proto-Nazis in this movie that I was able to successfully figure out was Baldur Schirach, who had just been made the head of the Hitler Youth. He is featured very prominently giving speeches and leading the Hitler Youth. In a touch of irony, at the Nuremburg trials post-WWII, he would be one of only two Nazis to renounce Hitler (Speer was the other).

There is much in the way of foreshadowing of things to come in "Victory of Faith". One can already spot the stylishly evil black uniforms of the SS, which Himmler had commissioned only the year before from fashion designer Hugo Boss, yet another of his gradual steps to distinguish his SS from Rohm's SA. However, in this film, the black-uniforms of the SS stay entirely in the background, and they are just that, uniforms. In "Triumph of the Will", the SS uniform is framed front and center, and reaches the full heights of its powerfully evil symbolism.

Himmler and the black-uniformed SS would be the instruments for Hitler to gain complete control of the Nazi Party. Less than a year after "Victory of Faith" was made, Ernst Rohm would be executed by Himmler's SS.

And so "Triumph of the Will", Riefenstahl's documentary of the subsequent Nazi Party Congress of 1934, is mainly about the ascension to power of the winners of that internal power struggle. The biggest winner was undoubtedly Heinrich Himmler. In "Victory of Faith", Himmler barely makes an appearance as one of Hitler's SS guards; in "Triumph of the Will", he is powerfully depicted at Hitler's side throughout key symbolic moments.

With an unlimited budget, we thus get to see the full stylishness of Riefenstahl's pioneering film techniques in "Triumph of the Will".

Hitler's speeches in "Triumph of the Will" concentrate heavily on justifying the massive blood purge within the Nazi Party that had just occurred. If one simply ignores all the propaganda bombast and Norse mythology - Nazi symbolism, "Triumph of the Will" fundamentally only shows that the main purpose of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress was to have the large numbers of defeated SA men publicly demonstrate their fealty to the new unquestioned boss of the Nazis, Adolph Hitler, and to showcase the new group of Hitler loyalists who had taken over the Party.

All in all, "Victory of Faith" provides an interesting glimpse into a key moment in history - that period of time right before the Nazi Party transformed itself into the cohesive, Hitler-centric, evil force that would beget WWII.

Unfortunately, this DVD is pretty much a do-it-yourself history project, with just segments of the raw footage of that moment.


November 30, 2006

Very good but.....

This production is well done and certainly worth viewing if one is interested in this era of history. However, the film could have benefited greatly with the tpye of historical commentary that was added to the special edition of Triumph of the Will. Perhaps a future edition? January 10, 2006

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