'Olympia'

For those of you who've seen Quentin Tarantino's brilliant "Inglourious Basterds," the name "Leni Riefenstahl" is bandied about quite a bit.

I'd heard the name two dozen times, but I'd never connected to her true historical significance. Frankly, there may not be a more significant filmmaker in the 20th century and there certainly has never been a female that influenced film and directing as much as she did.

She was the Nazi behind "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia," the end product of shooting the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Of course, we know the story of Jesse Owens, the black track athlete who won four gold medals at Adolf Hitler's big Aryan shindig. Like the overly drunk, belligerent guy that shows up three hours late, Owens ruined Hitler's party.

I'd always been told that both films were Nazi propaganda in an attempt (in terms of "Olympia") to showcase the Aryan race's physical superiority over non-Aryans.

I do not think this was the case. Don't get me wrong, I think Riefenstahl made a big mistake getting mixed up with the Nazis. She claims she knew nothing of the Final Solution despite hiring concentration camp tenants as extras in films. Even if she did find out, Riefenstahl was not unlike millions of other Germans that simple did nothing and claimed ignorance.

"Olympia," I think, is a pretty straight forward film about the Olympics. No matter her political or biological leanings, she was simply in love with the athletic, human form. If nothing else, she was kind of a perv.

For one, there's very little attention paid to the German excellence in the Olympics. If anything it's overly American although there's plenty of footage of other countries competing and winning. There's more footage of Jesse Owens than Hitler.

If German athletes were given a bit more time than other countries, it's because the home nation won 89 medals outlasting second-place United States by 33 total medals. Germans were bound to be shown a lot because they won a lot.

Furthermore, not many non-European countries medaled. Only four nations from Asia, two from Africa and two from South America won a medal. Only a handful of others showed up to compete. The fact is, in 1936, the world was almost a totally different place. It's brought up that Owens could ride in whatever part of a bus in Berlin but at home he was relegated to the back.

Countries too were in turmoil with change and colonialism that didn't change until World War II 11 years later. India wouldn't see independence until several years after World War II. The Nazis were certainly assholes, but a bunch of other developed countries were sons of bitches.

The only part that I think could be deemed "propaganda" in terms of the Aryan superiority is the very beginning when Riefenstahl shows the white athletes (Germans, I can only assume) in slow motion performing Olympic exercises like the javelin, sprint and whatnot. However, again, I think this is purely incidental and proves only the point that Riefenstahl loved the human form more than anything.

I may be a Nazi apologist and I apologize for that. But I simply don't feel this film is anything other than a recording of the 1936 Olympics (note: it was commissioned by the IOC ... not Hitler).