This movie is obviously famous for what it is, a masterpiece of Nazi Propaganda and a film that helped mobilize the German homefront to support the Third Reich in their efforts. This movie, engineered in a way by Josef Goebells moreso than Riefenstahl seizes on the experiments and successes of Eisenstein in using associative editing and montage for state sponsored propaganda purposes. Goebbels had this produced for the same reason all the Soviet films were produced; to rally the people of his country behind their ideological cause with the power of film. It’s clear at this point, and made especially clear with this film, that film is a medium unlike any other. It has the power to move people to kill. We see that here.
This film is a dangerous development in the history of cinema, one that will be examined again and again throughout the century to come. It is dangerous because whereas previous efforts in psychological manipulation through the artform of film were just that, experiments, ranging from Eisenstein's Strike to Man With a Movie Camera, Triump of the Will is not an experiment it was a state sponsored weapon built and commissioned for the purpose of warfare. It was launched and used on its population with brutal success in helping to solidify support for Hitler. This film can be attributed with directly altering the psychology of the citizens of a state to get behind the Holocaust and invasion of Europe.
That is noted through the first shot of this film, flying in from the clouds imbuing Hitler with God like power and then filming him climbing up the steps in a mass rally as if he was a Roman Emperor. This film shows that angles can impose meaning that wasn’t necessarily there at first and imprint that meaning through editing into the minds of an audience.
Film is a bullet in a loaded gun. Once fired off to audiences everywhere it can cause irreparable damage.