filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Boba_Fett1138 Since the 1936 Olympics was pretty much one big propaganda event for Hitler-Germany, this documentary about it can also be seen as a piece of propaganda. You could say that it's just a recording of the event and it doesn't glorify Hitler and Nazism. It show a bit too much of Hitler and his friends than really necessary and it glorifies the German athletes more with its images than with most other athletes is the case. The 1936 were used as a medium to show the supremacy of the Aryan race and show the German athletes as Übermenschen.Besides being known as the Nazi-propaganda Olympics, the 1936 Olympics are of course also known as the Olympics of Jesse Owens. The black American who won 4 golden medals. A clear booing and whistling can also been heard during the first running that he won and during some of his other wins and attempts, while all other athletes got cheered at, no matter were they were from. This didn't only happened to Jesse Owens though, since he of course wasn't the only black athlete at the Olympics who won a medal.They didn't used only footage from the actual Olympics but some of the images were obviously added later into it. I'm not just talking about the movie its intro but also of the actual sporting events. This can be the drop of a spear or discuss and things like that. It's obvious that it's all added later and that the movie is edited in such a way that it's obvious that at times the crowd reactions and all don't really go with the images but for artistic reason it obviously works out well for the movie. It often gives the movie some diversity and more pace as well.The documentary shows the most important attempts and athletes and of course the wins of all events. It often uses multiple camera-angels for this and some slow-motion as well.There is no denying in it that Leni Riefenstahl was a very talented documentary maker though it of course it remains a shame that she mostly used her talent for making Nazi propaganda pieces, despite always having denied she was a Nazi sympathizer herself. It gives her documentaries a bit of a bitter taste, no matter how technical well made and revolutionary they all are. She gets very much appreciated and recognized as a pioneer in documentary making but she also gets hated at the same time. It doesn't really make her documentaries any less great to watch though. It's always something beautiful, renewing and just unforgettable.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Chris Burin This is a brilliant sports documentary - the experimentation with camera angles was revolutionary at the time and the pole vault sequence at night is one of my favourite sequences in a film ever. The athletes are portrayed as superhuman, so in this sense the film is elitist and Nietzschean, but this is certainly not a racist film, politics does not play an explicit role, although one could argue that the deification of athletes (they are shown in close-up, alone, to contrast with the watching masses) promotes the idea that some men are greater than others. A fascinating film, and a definite progression from the standard documentary format of Das Triumph des Willens.

Brian Washington Even though this film is pretty much a propaganda piece, it is still one of the great sports documentaries of all time. Leni Reifenstahl perfectly captures a moment in time when the worlds of sports and politics collide. Hitler was trying to use these games to push his ideology of Aryan superiority, but because of Jesse Owens that idea went down the tubes. But, this film also succeeds because it captures all the great moments of these games. This film is definitely a must see not only for sports fan but for students of history as well.

gbheron I must admit I don't get it. Reviewers and commenters lavish praise on the brilliant cinematography employed by Ms. Reifenstahl in filming the 1936 Olympics. She is supposed to have poured years of her life into her two-part documentary (this film is part one). Nowadays the NFL puts out weekly and yearly highlight films, and the only difference I see is that one is black and white, the other in colour. For me this is standard documentary, and that's all. My recommendation is that if you do not consider yourself a highbrow film connoisseur or are not interested in the 1936 Olympics this movie may bore you.