Product Details

• Actors: Olympia
• Directors: Leni Riefenstahl
• Format: Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Surround Sound
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 2
• Studio: Triad Productions Corporation
• DVD Release Date: December 9, 2008
• Run Time: 204 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001NFTPX4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,366 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl (Enhanced Two-DVD Set) 1938" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Subtitles! Good quality transfer., April 1, 2009

By 

Golrab (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl (Enhanced Two-DVD Set) 1938 (DVD)

I read the small print so I was aware that it was a DVD-R, but I wasn't prepared for it to be in German without subtitles. That being said, it is a better transfer than the edition put out in 2006 by Pathfinder.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The photography lures you, action holds you., November 14, 2009

By 

bernie "xyzzy" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl (Enhanced Two-DVD Set) 1938 (DVD)

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.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Olympia...All versions are created equal, February 18, 2009

By 

N. Rall - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl (Enhanced Two-DVD Set) 1938 (DVD)

Olympia is a movie that resides in the Public Domain. Every version I have ever found is of the same quality and this version is no different. The DVD offers no frills but when you buy this movie, it is not for the frills, it is for the movie.

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 greatest thing about this movie is that even though the subject matter is repugnant, the film is done in great taste and Leni Riefenstahl is a genious.