Communication and Persuasion, Film Classic of Propaganda - Movie Review Example

Communication and Persuasion, Film Classic of Propaganda Introduction Film is one of the most common channels through which directors can communicate, persuade or transfer their ideas to the people. This is done by incorporating elements made up of their intended information such as the film contexts, structure, and technique. This idea of informing the masses through film is rooted deep in history, with the latest forms of its application being used politically in spreading propaganda. In the light of this, the following study text focuses on the 1935 film Triumph of the Will, highlighting the context of the film’s production, and how it appealed to the viewers, its construction of ethos, and collectively brings out the way through which the director successfully structured it to inform Nazi political propaganda under Adolf Hitler. Film summary The Triumph of the Will was produced by Leni Riefenstahl in 1934 and it addresses the theme of the Nuremberg congregation of about 700,000 Nazi sympathizers which was headed by the party’s top chiefs such as Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess. Hitler is regarded as the producer of the film as he was the one who directed Riefenstahl on what the film was supposed to portray. The idea of the film was to portray Hitler as the ruler who reinstated political power in Germany, and that he would make the state prosper happily under him. It is renowned worldwide as one of the most successful propaganda films of all time, and remains a controversial one in Germany since its themes are accused of reincarnating Nazism ideologies. Part A The Triumph of the Willwas created in war aftermath settings, as is seen from the introductory prologue, which describes 1934, which is the time captured in the film, as “20 years after the World War began”, “16 years after the suffering of the Germans began”, and “19 months before the reinstating of Germany”. Again, as the film climaxes in the event where there are hundreds of thousands of German troops, Hitler lays a wreath of a World War 1memorial, which is the war that Germany lost. The environment is made political in that right from the introduction, a great mass of people is seen from high up in the sky as they collect in Nuremberg. There are bands of marching soldiers similar to what political rallies do to this day. When the plane carrying Hitler lands, he is welcomed together with other party officials by thunderous clapping and applauds from the massive gathering of his supporters. There are uniformed Nazi officials and army servicemen across the entire film. The manner by which the people reacted to the landing of Adolf Hitler showed that they had been eagerly waiting for something, and this was the rebirth Hitler had promised to impose on Germany upon ascending to power. The viewers are treated to numerous ethoses, which inform them that the film is based in Germany, or the Nazi supremacy even before the address to the rallies begins. Firstly, the introductory prologue is done in German. Second, there are several imprints of the Nazi flag with the symbol of the Swastika on it; on the planes, posters held by people in the crowd, and on officials’ uniforms. This symbol is popular worldwide, and represents the Nazi party. Finally, Hitler’s appearance from the plane informs one that the film is political, and addresses Nazi ideologies. The dominant portrayal, however, is the persuasion of the masses by the Nazi leaders to embrace the spirit of “sacrificing for Germany”, which they did by convincing, or rather manipulating the supporters to fight. The fight, they said, was necessary. This in turn represents the issue of propaganda, which is a key element of using intelligence to manipulate the masses (Bernays& Mark 16). Ellul’s definition of propaganda fits into the above revelation. It states, “Propaganda is a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation in its actions of a mass of individuals, psychologically unified through psychological manipulations, and incorporated in an organization” (61). The psychological manipulation applied by Nazi supremacies was reminding the people in their rallies of their loss in the World War, and in it, creating bitterness against the Jews. Part B The Triumph of the Will had numerous instances of myths applied, and which were directly applied in the film, or were left out for the viewers to decode or interpret on their own. The myths in turn represented some messages intended to reach the viewers. The film in overall can be termed as a myth because it reflected Hitler’s idea of restoring Germany’s dignity, and in directing it using applicable ideas in real life, was able to influence Nazi sympathizers to enact them. The myth therefore is that the film was meant to convince the people to fight for Blut und Boden, which is blood and soil. This is further supported by the fact that seven years after its production, similar events had occurred in Germany, and finally the Nazi regime was in full control of Germany. The other instance with a myth was the inclusion of a mother holding up her child to hand some flowers to Hitler. While this is not directly stated anywhere, it is possible that the child, mother, and the flowers all had a message to send out. The mother might have represented the people of Germany. Holding out her child to Hitler, this might have represented the people’s will to give in to Hitler’s persuasion that they fight for their soul. The child in turn might have represented the future, so the message becomes the people willing to sacrifice themselves, and hand over the German future to Hitler’s hands. Finally, the flowers might represent the rebirth, or reincarnation of Germany. This is so because flowers die and then after sometime reappear, as beautiful as they were before. In the same way, Germany had once been reigning, in the current context, it was about to regain its stature, and would eventually restore its power in the future. The third message in a mythical setting is the featuring of peasants in the mass gatherings, and some who had brought their tools to work along. This representation created an insight in that the Nazi were posing in a manner that they cared for the genuine or the native people of Germany of which the peasants were considered part of the German tradition. In it, the message that Germany needed to be restored to its “owners” is revealed. Finally, and coinciding with Joseph Campbell (n.p.) In his understanding of mythology, Hitler was the hero. In his explanation, Campbell offered five phases through which a hero undergoes on their way to the top; a call, which triggers the reason to commit to some action, initiation which starts the journey, a struggle which resists opposition, sacrifice which calls for outmost willingness and participation, and finally comes the triumph or apotheosis. In Hitler’s case, the above circle can be interpreted as follows; the hero-to-be was Hitler. His call emerged from the defeat of Germany in the First World War. His struggle began with the signing of the Versailles Treaty with the Weimar Republic. The fallen heroes in the war, and the call by the Nazis to youths asking them to join in the upcoming struggle represented the sacrifice in the journey. Finally, the apotheosis was realized with the ascension of the Nazi regime to power, having trampled on the Jews. In this, Hitler’s heroic journey was completed. Part C Judging by the 815,000 German Reichsmarks the movie had generated only two months after it was produced, it must have acquired an overly positive public reception (Trimborn 64). The most identified reaction was that by the immediate sympathizers of Hitler’s rule who saw the film as a great inspiration to the reinstating of their country to where it belonged. Hitler was personally impressed by the film’s outcome that he referred to it as a representation of Germany’s power and beauty. In addition, he rewarded the director, Riefenstahl for having come up with a “people’s favorite film”. From these revelations, it is evident that the film was embraced in large-scale locally, and that is what led to the handsome returns. In addition, it was obvious that since much of Germany was for Hitler, they were bound to accept his ideologies. Beyond Germany’s borders, The Triumph of the Will received controversial reception. Parties who opposed Nazi ideologies were against the film, and claimed it reflected on Nazi’s meanness. A different partition claimed the film was admirable, and befriended the Nazi regime because of that. Collectively, the film went viral because of the controversy and unique signals it portrayed. However, when the Allies toppled the Nazis, the film was banned and Riefenstahl was jailed for four years. From this, it can be said that the pathos, or allure to the audience was swift, and so the audience was easy to capture. If the film was meant for modern audiences, the political class would be the first to embrace it, and in a lesser magnitude, the youth. This is because it emphasized largely on the promotion of these two parties. The reason for both of these is that the director seemingly knew what was bound to attract the target audience thus devise strategies that would first impress, then convince them into doing something. It is therefore revealed that pathos, or emotional appeal is paramount in creating attraction for an audience. Judging by the understanding of the target audience, the director of this film knew how to create an emotional desire, especially through controversy and from it, was able to attract immeasurable viewing. Part D The pluralist approach deconstruction of brief democratic tradition of Weimar was the primary approach that the Nazi party employed to reconfigure German into its own indistinct image. This was unavoidably followed by new mythology edification, which was exclusively built on the two pillars of the omnipresent power anti-German and Fuhrer predictions of both international Jewry and socialists. To begin with, among the myths found in the film Triumph of the will, Fuhrer myth is the most essential myth in solidifying aspect of power consolidation of the Nazi. Hitler had learnt the herald of Fascism from Mussolini, that a dictator could take control over industrial and modern European nation, but only through the elimination of all challenging iconographies and elevation of such leaders to a state of quasi-religious. One could only achieve such a status by wide propaganda exercises. According to many historians, all the encompassing icons of Hitler depicted in posters and banners around the cities of German as well as in cinemas and learning institutions, were important not only to secure the Nazi state’s stability, but also to strengthen the connection of Hitler. Moreover, they targeted the ancient leaders in the history of German within a broad country’s consciousness (Barsam 34). According to Hitler, Fuhrer myth was a major tenet of belief as well as a propaganda weapon. The structure of the film Triumph of the will is straightforward, mostly in a literal, traditional narrative in the form of a documentary. This narrative structure opens with the arrival of Hitler and further continues with troops’ inspections and speeches in the order they took place. In this event, the film has no commentary, and there is no interview or accompaniment of music. However, Leni Riefenstahl transforms all there through manipulation of cinematography techniques as well as using other essential cinematic devices. There are many stages while producing a film, which takes place from Shooting towards public projection, editing, printing, music accompaniment, commentary, and sounds. At each individual stage of producing a film, the shot effects can be transformed, but the main film content must be the one to start with. In the film Triumph of the Will, there is no limitation of the camera by what the characters know or see, and the theme of the film flows freely in space as well as in time. In literary form, this type of cinematography used by Leni Riefenstahl is known as the OPV (Omniscient Point of View). Leni Riefenstahl makes use of distorted lenses to disguise Hitler’s image and hide from view the exact condition of Germany. Moreover, the setup of the camera used in the film brings two important effects to the viewer, animation, and disorientation. Animation in the film is achieved through angle visions and closeups. For example, this is highly depicted in the scene whereby Hitler is lecturing the youths. This scene starts with a great close-up of a screaming trumpet that covers the entire screen. Disorientation on the other hand is achievedthrough, leaving out some vital aspects of the reality of the German’s situation. For example, Hitlerpresents a flower bouquet by a woman with her daughter (Barsam 37). There are other girls in the crowd who observes that and finally the daughter lifts up the hand of her mother to symbolize that she won. This depicts that Hitler loved his flock the same way he treats his children. According to the myth present in the film, one can argue that a myth is an eternal truth or a self-evident truth that the entire society acts on. Part E Being directed and acting several historic films, Leni Riefenstahl is viewed as the only leading artist who is identified with the history of the Nazi era. His film, Triumph of the Will, is considered by many reviewers as a great propaganda film. Although Leni Riefenstahl denies that the film is not a propaganda one, but a “pure history”, there are various examples in the film that depicts that the film is a propaganda film (Taylor 45). It is also widely argued that Riefenstahl’s relationship with the leaders of the Nazi party led to the production of the film Triumph of the Will. Most of the themes portrayed in the film support the propagandist and fascist nature of the film. For instance, in the Triumph of the Will, Hitler has developed as a divine leader anointed by God to lead the people of German with racial awareness movement. This is depicted in the beginning of the film. Riefenstahl makes use of this motif throughout the entire film (Hinton 56). For example, when Hitler is giving out a speech, the angle of the camera has been always from below as a sign of giving him a godliness aura. Secondly, a comparison of the styles used in two vital films, Alain Resnais and Triumph of the Will documentary Fog and Night, shows exactly why it is logical to argue that the film is a propagandist and fascist film. Fog and Night is a documentary that was produced in the year 1955. This was ten years before the establishment of the Nazi party. The film Triumph of the Will, on the other hand celebrates the congress of the Nazi party in the year 1934. On the other side, the Resnais’ film portrays the concentration of the Nazi party camps (Taylor 47). This film contrasts past events with present event by copying some images from Riefenstahl’s film to portray the past transition from the world of Riefenstahl to post-war era. Although these two films were produced for different purpose and in varying historical contexts, their comparison reveals how the film Triumph of the Will was used to convey political ideas and feelings thus standing out to be a propaganda endeavor. Lastly, Riefenstahl’s admiration of the leadership of the Nazi party and its leaders, especially Hitler, paves the way of terming it as a propaganda film. A deep analysis of the film shows that the subtle techniques and structure of the film as well as the presented events prove it to be a propaganda film (Hinton 56). This proves that no matter how Leni Riefenstahl argues that the film is “pure history”, his main intention was to make it a propagandist as well as fascist. Although there lacks a narrative voice in the film, it starts with some written texts that explains the German’s rebirth after the First World War. It is also clearly depicted that the film represents Nazism transformation that took place in German (Taylor 45). This makes Riefenstahl an artistic endeavor, which portrays the transformation of the Nazism movement in German in his film. Many people consider his film as the leading propaganda film of the Nazi era. Works cited Barsam, Richard M. Filmguide to Triumph of the Will. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Print. Bernays, Edward and Mark , Miller. Propaganda. Brooklyn, N.Y: Ig Publishing, 2005. Print. Ellul, Jacques. Propaganda.New York, Vintage Books, 1973. Hinton, David B. The Films of Leni Riefenstahl. Lanham, Md. [u.a.: Scarecrow Press, 2009. Print. Joseph Campbell, The hero with a thousand faces (3rd edition). Princeton University Press, 2004.Web. 23 Jun. 2014. Taylor, Richard. Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. Print. Trimborn, Jurgen. Leni Riefenstahl: A Life.Faber & Faber, 2008. Read More