Customer Reviews

Olympia: The Complete Original Version (The Leni Riefenstahl Archival Collection)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Olympia is a piece of sport history coated in a magnificent art form. The superlatives aren't enough to describe this documentary; a veritable time machine traveling to an amazing and Orwellian future Valhalla called Nazi Germany.
1936 Olympiad was also well renown for the first to be broadcast on a form of television. This DVD sadly has an image quality comparable to what the citizens of Berlin saw on those twenty five large screens scattered along the City's main boulevards 70 years ago. Having seen some excerpts from "Olympia" in the documentary `The Wonderful Horrible life of Leni Riefenstahl" on DVD, I had great expectations concerning the image quality of this new release. What a disappointment! No one bothered to digitally remove the annoying scratches not mentioning the total absence of any timid tentative of restoration of a decent audio sound. Everything seems like a low resolution transfer from a cheap VHS . Let's hope that some day Criterion Collection will do this film the justice it deserves.

The original, as I viewed it on public television perhaps twenty years ago, was spectacular.

But the problems in this version are not just superficial and are not simply ones that some hyper-purist would notice. They include tiling, caused by extreme compression; scratches and blips galore; grey tonal quality converging on nil, and sometimes making it seem like one is looking through a duststorm; ridiculous cropping of the image, often even cutting off the heads of the subjects. The audio's flaky, too, especially noticeable in the sometimes lurching, but always tinny rendition of the orchestral scoring.

Weirdly, the package seems to have been conceived well, with nice features included. How is it possible, then, to have messed up the technical execution so badly?

I have been waiting for Criterion to release this for 4 years now. With the technology of restoration of older films vastly improving I must say this is the worst transfer that I have seen of an older film released in the last two years. Don't spend your money on this edition and hope that Criterion will release this in our lifetime!

I have long owned a VHS copy of Olympia, and it wasn't visually bad, but of course I longed for the improvement a DVD version might bring. This release was a surprise - it seems to be not an optical transfer, but a DVD of the VHS version, horizontal analogue scan lines and all, and visually a disappointment. I realise that a total restoration is expensive and that the market for this kind of thing is relatively small, and I'll live with what I can get, but if Criterion ever releases a restored version, I'll be first in line. Until then, concentrate on the hypnotic, iconic content. As an avowed curmudgeon, I'm offended by yahoo patriots at international sporting events chanting USA!USA! from the bleachers. There they were, in 1936, chanting for Jesse Owens as he won four golds - then and there the patriot war cry seemed right.

This disk is terrible. It is obviously cheaply digitized from a poor master tape. Don't purchase products by Pathfinder Home Entertainment, if this is an example of their business practice.

The words 'digitally remastered' do not appear on this package anywhere. It looks as if they have merely reused an old VHS-era transfer and packaged it in a 'limited edition'. The picture and soundtrack both contain a huge amount of video noise and the source print is jittery and grainy.

Very disappointing. The images are washed out: no definition, no crispness. Even as a reference copy it would be a strain on the eyes. Hard to understand why such a well known documentary was released in this poor condition.

Well, the extras are good, and it does seem to be the German version, with a choice of that language or English. The quality, on the other hand, is inferior to the Criterion laserdisc, which is ten years old and left much room for improvement even when it was new. The video is badly compressed, causing noticeable tiling, and the print is quite grainy. This looks pretty lousy even on a 19' monitor. The only advantage I can see is that it is slightly less cropped than the Criterion. The previous five star review reads suspiciously like a press release.

My parents took me to see Olympia at a Dartmouth College screening when I was younger. I have never forgotten the visual and creative impact of this film. Nothing comes remotely close to it's mystical and artistic beauty. I have waited in vain for a theater to re-release it or for there to be a screening of this masterpiece. Now I find that the DVD has been marred. Just because her politics were confused her magnum opus has to be destroyed? Not fair, not fooled. This is a glorious example of human artistic achievement. How could anyone disrespect it to this extent? Do they think they are "punishing" her? Shame on Criterion.

I hadn't seen Olympia since the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles when the first part was broadcast there. Since I don't buy VHS anymore I was glad to see it on DVD. I was disappointed by the awful transfer (from TAPE no less!), the lousy video compression, and the badly engineered audio compression that sounds like it was done at too low a bit rate due to the aliasing. HOWEVER, if you want this DVD for the movie that is contained on it then you will not be disappointed. Leni Riefenstahl's incredible skill in cinematography is on full display (as is her naked body at the beginning of the first part) and Herbert Windt's superb astounding musical score adds so much to it.

My recommendation? If you're a purist, wait for Criterion to bring out a DVD edition. Otherwise go rent it or buy a used copy.