Customer Reviews

Victory of Faith (Der Sieg des Glaubens)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had read for many years that this film was considered lost and was surprised to see it offered on Amazon. I purchased a copy immediately and wanted to be the first to comment on it. The film is historically the first documentary effort of one of the world's foremost documentarians. It is said that she had little time to prepare for the film but the final product was nevertheless quite well executed. Apparently she had deposited a print of the film at some university in England and it was not located until shortly before her death. So unfortunately she never knew her first "rally film" had been discovered. The film is identical to Triumph of the Will in many ways except it has a rougher edge to it. Maybe what you would expect from an early Spielberg or Scorsese, i.e. genius in the making. This film apparently set the standard for all Nazi propaganda films that would follow it. The early views of Nuremberg rally sites are fascinating. The Stormtroopers are in their early uniforms and cheering Ernst Rohm who was later liquidated in the Night of the Long Knives. There is one fascinating scene where Hitler Youth Leader von Schirach actually accidentally knocks Hitler's hat from the podium, right in front of Hitler. Hitler takes it in stride. This scene must have escaped Riefenstahl's keen editing eye. There is the original trailer for the film in the features and there is also a short film "Wort und Tat" from an equally controversial director, Dr Fritz Hippler, and this is apparently his first documentary as well. If you have Triumph of the Will, you must see this film, if for no other reason than to see how Triumph of the Will turned out so well, it was a remake! That is my opinion of course, but I believe that had she not had the experience of the first film she would never have done the magnificent job she did on Triumph of the Will.

This truly is the holy grail for students of National Socialist Germany in particular and World War 2 generally. Long thought to have been lost to history some determined researchers managed to unearth this movie gem and have it available on DVD...Bravo.

Anyone who is anyone has Triumph of the Will in their Collection but Riefenstahl herself did not know that a copy of this movie still existed so you need to get it before they sell out.

I got my copy and finding it to be Region 1 only had to go out and buy a multi region DVD Player,(I'm based in England) despite the expense I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED.

I could have done with this DVD whilst at University studying origins of WW2 and if your a student of history you will NEED to buy this DVD. I am no great student of film technique but again due to the rarity and the genius of Riefenstahl and her methods of movie making which are still considered amongst the best ever I would recommend those studying Film/Photographer to make sure they get a copy or at the very least get their Library to buy a copy.

All in all some may deride it as another piece of Nazi propaganda, nonetheless judge for yourself, you WILL NOT BE DISAPPINTED.

In 1513, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote: "From this a general rule is drawn which never or rarely fails; that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that predominancy has been brought about either by astuteness or else by force, and both are distrusted by him who has been raised to power."

Leni Riefenstahl's "Der Sieg des Glaubens" is an excellent, if unwitting, testament to this brutal truth of politics. Commissioned by Adolf Hitler in 1933, just after he assumed the chancellorship of Germany, "Victory of Faith" was meant to commemorate the Nazi "seizure of power." Aside from Hitler, it prominently features many of the men who were instrumental its victory: but none more so than SA Chief of Staff Ernst Rohm. Rohm, standing side-by-side with Hitler in many of the scenes, clearly enjoys a special status even among the Nazi elite. And this is as it should be, for without Rohm and his SA, Hitler would not have been standing on the podium at all.

Rohm, a pudgy, scar-faced ex-army captain and political intriguer, had been instrumental in supply arms for the Nazi's failed 1923 Putsch attempt: he also served as an early commander of the SA, the Nazi Party's famed storm troopers. For a time he fell out with Hitler and worked as a mercenary in South America; but Hitler, who had difficulty keeping the SA under control, eventually realized that Rohm alone could keep the brownshirts on their leashes. He recalled Rohm, designated him the "Stabschef der SA" or chief of staff, and granted him plenary powers to reorganize the storm troops and bring them into line with the Party's (meaning Hitler's) ultimate aims.

Rohm was brilliantly successful and vastly expanded the SA into a force of some two million men. He conquered the streets and beer halls of Germany for Hitler, and was literally the bludgeon by which Hitler thrashed his way into power. For his pains, Rohm expected both he and his SA to be well compensated. And therein lay the problem.

Rohm was blunt-talking, crude, and revolutionary in his aims.
He wanted to absorb the German army into the SA and create a "National Socialist Army" under his own command -- after, of course, he had purged its officer corps of its aristocrats. He longed for the "second revolution" which would see the end of the Junkers and bring radical socialist reforms in German industry and agriculture. Finally, he was openly homosexual. For all of these reasons, Rohm made both the Nazis and the German army very nervous.

Hitler too eventually came to see his friend and comrade as a threat. The very guile and ruthlessness Rohm had shown during the Party's "time of struggle" now made him a danger to Hitler's person. And so, less than a year after Riefenstahl shot "Victory of Faith" Hitler shot Ernst Rohm. By that time he had worked himself up into believing the SA had actually been planning a putsch against him, and in a fit of rage he ordered all references to Rohm obliterated. Thus, "Victory of Faith" went on the bonfire, ultimately replaced by "Triumph of the Will" (which was filmed a year later). Only a single copy of "Victory" left "accidentally on purpose" in Britain before the war, survived. Lucky for us, because the film is a gold mine of never-before-seen visuals of many top Nazis, and a good snapshot of the pecking order of the Nazi Party prior to the Night of the Long Knives. The black-uniformed Himmler (along with Sepp Dietrich) are then nothing more than praetorian guards; they don't even get to stand on the platform!

Compared to her later "Triumph," Riefenstahl's "Victory of Faith" is somewhat crude and rough around the edges. This may reflect Leni's inexperience, or it may reflect the fact that the Nazis were not yet firmly in the saddle in Germany and their sense of pagentry was not quite fully developed. Watching Hitler and his cronies celebrate their victory, one gets the sense of an underdog team dazedly celebrating in the clubhouse after an improbable win. They stormed the castle....now what?

The answer to that question came a year later, when Rohm was in Stadelheim Prison, awaiting his execution. His mood was philisophical. "All revolutions," he told a visitor a few hours before he was shot, "devour their children."

Machiavelli couldn't have said it any better.

Incredible and interesting example of Leni Riefenstahl's first attempt at documentary film making. Why did she try to cover this film up? In the documentary by Ray Mueller she becomes physically violent toward the interviewer when this film is mentioned. The film really gives the viewer a fresh perspective on Nazi Germany in Hitler's first year in power. The DVD is very well produced, with liner notes, the original trailer for the film and a short film by Fritz Hippler. After seeing this film you will never see Triumph of the Will in the same way again. She used the same cameramen, same sound people, same composer Herbert Windt and the main characters are of course the same except for the omnipresent SA leader Ernst Rohm. He is literally presented as the #2 man and this film was released only a few months before Hitler had him assassinated. Again its an incredible film and any film student or historian will need this in their film collection! If the option were available I would give it 10 stars!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Comparison of Lenni's first film and her second film for Hitler Triumph of the Will must be made because it's a case of now you see him now you don't.

Ernst Rhom the second most influential man in the Nazi party and second in command to Hitler is clearly seen at Hitlers side in Victory of Faith.

Nearly a year later and the now legendary Night of the Longknives saw Rhom and most of his SA leaders murdered under Hitlers orders.

All traces and refrence to Rhom were removed under Hitlers orders hence the making of Triumph of the Will which is so similar to Victory apart from Rhoms absence.

The opening credits and Nuremberg scenes are almost identical in both films including the loyal party cat on the window ledge are the same.

Both films are so similar in direction which makes their comparison that more exciting.

Yes they are different but in a very similar way.

I cannot say which of the two is my favorite,there are some scenes from Triumph especially when Hitler addresses the Hitler Youth that are simply amazing as are both night scenes in each fim where thousands of party members surrounded by bonfires play music and parade their banners infront of Hitler in the Olympic stadium in Nuremberg

Triumph of the Will was the finished product whilst Victory of Faith was the cancelled could do better model.

Had it not been for Rhoms power struggle in the Nazi party and eventual Night of the Long Knives destruction we would not have had two films to compare side by side.

Actually it's a miracle that Der Sieg Des Glaubens exists atall because under Hitlers express orders all transcripts of the film were to be destroyed.

The film we have today was carefully edited from one of only two known copies of the original known to survive and the copyright is jelously guarded by the German authorities.

These films rank as prabably the finest pieces of cinematography propaganda ever made and are still amazing to watch after so many years.


They prabably have not been equalled by any director since.