[David H. Bebbington]

I would like to add a belated comment:

1) What do I think of the picture of Jesse Owens? Good but not exceptional. As a sports photographer. Riefenstahl was able to recognize that taking a close-up of an athlete's face as he stood on the starting block a split second before the start of a race was likely to yield a good picture. She may well have shot large numbers of the competitors at the 1936 Olympics in this way. Only Owens' dramatic performance lent special signficance to this picture after the fact.

2) What do I think of Leni Riefenstahl? An obviously talented stills photographer and cinematographer who was more than willing to ignore whatever moral principles she did or did not possess in the interests of furthering her career. Some APUGers will know that I am descended from German Jews on my mother's side - my (now separated) wife of 25 years is German and I have spoken to many former Nazis over the years. I avoid moral posturing, I am more interested in eyewitness acccounts of life during the Third Reich BUT one thing I cannot stand is Nazis in denial, who claim either that no crimes took place of that they know nothing of them - there were plenty of indications even by 1936 (Hitler's rise to power supported by the thugs of the SA, his subsequent murder of many of these, his support for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, his assumption of the role of dictator and dissolution of parliament) of what kind of person Hitler was, and I feel that LR was in denial all her life.

In conclusion, I believe that "Triumph of the Will" is studied in film schools by those with ambitions to direct pop videos and commercials!