Customer Reviews

Olymipa (Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I found this dvd on Amazon, I was delighted to see Riefenstahl's classic had been updated with this 2009 digital transfer. I quickly ordered it from Amazon.com. When I viewed this dvd, I could have cried. The digital transfer was just horrible. Also, this dvd's running time is listed as 300 min. The correct running time should be 204 min Please be wise and don't waste your money on this dvd.

Be aware the movie itself is great, 5 stars definitely, however this version is awful; nothing about the picture quality has been improved, there are no special features. It's literally just an overpriced version of the original material.

Part I
The film opens up with a film tribute to the history of Greece and the games. We get to see the names of the nations at the time that the torch passes through as it reached Berlin. A much more realistic torch than today's is ran into the stadium with a few pauses to let everyone see just before the final dash to the Olympic torch at the stadium. It would be great to recapture this in the present day. Some of the tribute leads me to believe that our athletes are overly clothed for the sports.

Part II
By now watching Part I, "Festival of the nation" spoiled you. Again this film starts out with the ideal and surrounded by Leni's signature clouds. List is leading you to "field hockey, soccer bicycling, equestrian, aquatic and gymnastic events. Highlights are the Pentathlon and the Decathlon." Remember that some countries were still using horses in the military.

It may be unique reasons that brought you to this point such as Leni or photography, or interest in history, or, or, or. But once the action starts you feel that you are there and get lost in the "who will win what and how." Even being aware of the outcome does not prepare you to "not bite your nails" as you watch each athlete barley besting the next until it is over too soon. I noticed that instead of placing medals over the winners, they used laurel wreaths.
Any way you cut it, this movie is worth watching.

I had bought 2 versions of "Olympia" (one the "original version" and one the "improved, digatally remastered version" and this one was even worse than the original..maybe even twice as bad. False advertisment ..and even at the beginning it says it has been "Digitally, improved, remastered" ...but simply not true. The "Olympia" i bought that was "original version" was not great,,but it was more of a good picture than this one,,very much so.

this company is selling a "rip off version" and advertising it as "improved, and digitally remastered" ..but dont believe it ,look for the original version,,even if have to pay a few dollars more.

Leni Riefenstahl was a female director in the time of the nasty Nazi's. It's amazing to think that in a time when the Dictatorship was censoring so heavily and everything surrounded propaganda that such a historic piece of film could be made. If you have seen her most famous work, The Triumph of the Will, than you would think that this may be another one sided film showing the surpremacy of the German people. That is not the case with Olympia. There are even scenes of African athletes being awarded medals. You even get to see a pretty risque shot of the director herself in the beginning of the film...

There are a few cool bonus features also. One is a bonus photo gallery and the other is a film of Berlin in color. It gives you a cool look at the city that Olympia was filmed in.

The original three hour and forty minute Leni Riefenstahl 1936 version of the Olympics. Accept no substitute.

I had already gotten this product before I saw the negative reviews that have been posted so I was a bit worried about it. Upon delivery, I found that the picture quality was good and the special features were interesting.

There is a picture gallery with posters from the movie release as well as some interesting shots of Leni Riefenstahl who shows some SKIN in this film...VERY NICE BODY...

There is also a film about the city of Berlin that is interesting to watch.

All in all I am pleased.

It was the 1936 Berlin Games that introduced the opening ceremony, the torch relay, the three-tiered presentation ceremony, and the overall sense of lavish, religious spectacle. In a way these are the first modern games. Does it worry you that most of the stuff we most fondly associate with the Olympics originated with the Nazis? It doesn't worry me: the Nazis' moral sense may have been deplorable, but their aesthetic sense was not nearly so bad as people like to pretend.

The most striking thing about Riefenstahl's documentary, viewed today, is its good taste. I admit I haven't seen the whole thing. Split into two parts for German release, it was edited somewhat and released simply as "Olympia" elsewhere, and it's "Olympia" that I've seen. I mention this because it's quite possible that "Olympia" is the version with the jingoism edited out. But I don't think so. (Surely if the film were to wave the swastika offensively, it would do so around the beginning, and the introductory sequence is just marvellous - it no more deserves to be associated with Nazism than Orff's "Carmina Burana".) In any case, if they edited all the jingoism out of a modern, two-hundred-hour Olympic telecast, it would last about ten minutes. It's amazing how much more crass and brazenly nationalistic modern coverage is when compared with Nazi propaganda. Riefenstahl shows races won by people other than Germans (and yes, some of them are non-Aryan) - she even shows us enough of the presentation ceremonies afterwards for us to be able to hear other national anthems! During the local coverage of the Sydney games I heard NOTHING but "Advance Australia Fair". Only other Australians can fully appreciate the horror of this.