Olympia is an interesting german film directed by Leni Riefenstahl that consists of two parts. I'll get around to talking about the second part some other time, but this first part documents the summer olympics in 1936, the one and only time they were hosted by nazi germany. The movie has no actual storyline obviously, but is of considerable historical interest since it was the first full length movie made on the olympics. The movie introduced many innovative filming tactics, such as underwater cameras, and Riefenstahl even attached cameras to balloons. The movie is also pretty ironic due to how it shows Jesse Owens, the african american sprinter, as just another athlete and draws no attention whatsoever to his race. This is important because especially in recent years, there's been a large number of conflicting reports stating how Owens was ostracized by the nazis for being black, but was ironically treated better in germany than he was in the US. Various people claim that when Owens dominated several running events in the olympics, the nazi high command watching the games was absolutely livid at the prospect of a non-european going on a winning streak. Olympic tradition mandates that the leader of the host country greets the winner of the gold medal, but Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens. America as a whole was shocked by this because Owens was ours, and when Hitler snubbed him, he snubbed every single one of us. Later on, Owens would state "Hitler didn't snub me. FDR snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram." While in germany, Owens was allowed to sleep in the same building the european athletes slept in, which definitely wouldn't be allowed in 1930s america. It really demonstrates a huge amount of hypocrisy on america's part. Additionally, the movie goes through basically all of the events that were featured during this particular olympics, such as discus, swimming, 100 meter running, the long jump, and pole vaulting. There isn't really much else to say since the film is strictly focused on the games and not much else. If you're like me, you will find it interesting for the sole reason of it being hosted by the country that would start a giant war just 3 years later. It's such a strange feeling seeing Hitler watching the olympics, but this actually happened. The aesthetics of the movie are almost dreamlike, and it must have been an incredible thing to witness in 1936. Black, red and white swastika flags flying alongside the stars and stripes, union jack, rising sun, and dozens of other countries. Everything might appear nice and friendly on the surface because world war 2 didn't start yet, but the third reich saw the games as the perfect opportunity to show to the world how europeans (especially germanics) were superior to every other race, mentally and physically. Overall, Leni Riefenstahl gave the summer olympics hosted in Berlin the same attention and camerawork she employed for her propaganda movie Triumph of the Will. This movie doesn't technically qualify as propaganda because there's no mention of one race being superior to another, but because nazi germany is hosting the games, it's hard not to make that kind of comparison. Also, Riefenstahl visited america in 1938 to distribute her movie here, but americans weren't very enthusiastic about viewing a film made by a literal national socialist. Some private screenings were held and organized by nazi sympathizers.
