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“Triumph of the Will”
The film “The Triumph of the Will” is a good example of a propaganda film used in the times of Hitler’s reign in Germany. The film tried to demonstrate how perfect Germany is as well as the greatness of Hitler as a leader. The main aim of the film was to try to convince the Germans to share the same hatred for the Jews. This film helps its audiences to understand how Germany fell under Hitler’s spell. Hitler was known to be the best in everything he did unfortunately he was the greatest hypocrite. This propaganda film was created by the German filmmaker known as Leni Riefenstahl.
The film contains the chronicles of the 1934 Nazi party congress in Nuremberg. This congress was attended by a large number of people who were supporters of the Nazi Party. Some of the examples illustrating the film as propaganda include the speeches made by various leaders of the Nazi during their meeting at the congress. These speeches included Hitler’s interspersed with footage of massed party members. It is noted the film was commissioned by Adolf Hitler himself where he served as the unofficial executive producer as evidenced by his name appearing at the start.
Propaganda according to research is the process applied in order to influence human action through manipulation of representations. The representations may be in form of spoken words, written, pictorial or even musical form (Fox 45). In most cases, the cinema utilizes all of these representations making a filmmaker to have more power as a propagandist if he decides to use his power to its fullest potential. Therefore, a film is most likely to be a weapon of propaganda when it contains all four types of representations as mentioned above. Whereas a film may just be, a visual epic when its purpose is just to entertain its audiences thus does not contain such representations. The significant distinction lies in the purpose of the propagandist to persuade the audience to accept the attitude or action he or she demonstrates. For instance, in this film “the Triumph of the Will”, Hitler was able to gain support from people of his country to throw away the Jewish people from the Germany and Europe alike (Barsam 89 ). He achieved this using his Nazi propaganda films as a weapon of mass distraction and manipulation Germany’s population. Hitler was very clever to idealize the Germany soldiers as heroes, bestowed nationalism to his people and finally put the economic hardships of Germany on the Jewish people.
To a small extent, Riefenstahl should be held responsible for her actions in using Nazi propaganda. This is because through the film, she was able to gain sudden and lasting international fame as one of the greatest female filmmakers. However, to a large extent, she should be held accountable for her actions ion using Nazi propaganda. This is because the film promoted unethical government system. The film also promoted Hitler’s genocidal policies and this could be seen through Hitler’s speeches, a deliberate decision aimed at enhancing the propaganda associated with the film.
Communist propaganda is a film demonstrating power of propaganda as weapon during wartime. The film was shot on victory day showing a military parade in Moscow in 1945 (Giesen 34). Through this, we see many countries have chosen to use films as away to promote propaganda especially during wartime. For instance, in this film, we learn the Chinese, the soviets and the North Koreans have invented this type of approach as their weapon during wartime.
A contemporary film made during wartime includes the film by Charlie Chaplin known as “The Great Dictator”. This film was created in 1940 during a battle of World War I. The film was an advancement of Hitler’s controversial condemnation of fascism and the Nazis. The author of the Film intended to influence people against Hitler’s reign, which was full of hypocrisy. For instance, the film is used to portray propaganda through the speeches from the leaders and other followers of anti-Nazism. A good example from the film showing Chaplin’s propagandist includes the statement where he said that “one does not have to be a Jew to be anti-Nazi, all one has to be is a normal decent human being (Fox 67)”. Therefore, in my position, this is a propaganda film and this could be seen through the sound and speeches made during the various meetings.
Works Cited
Barsam, Richard .Film guide to Triumph of the Will. Bloomington, IN: IndianaUniversity Press, 2004.
Fox, Jo.Film propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany: World War II cinema. Michigan, CA: Berg, 2007.
Giesen, Rolf.Nazi propaganda films: a history and filmography. Los Angeles, MA: McFarland & Co., 2003.
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