Triumph of the Will has been on my list for a while. I am watching it tonight, and thought I might make a few notes.
The first realization I had is that although I’ve seen many pictures of Hitler, I’ve never really seen much film of him. Watching him, he does a really weird salute to the people Heiling him. It’s more like a waiter carrying a plate. It feels like a position from which he can absorb, but not offer, energy.
The first address he makes is to the assembled labor forces. This is strategic, since the Communists had been trying to recruit labor as well. He states something like: that battle is over. You are here, you are valued, and nobody who is an honest German will admit anything but that you are the equals of us all. All those troubles: irrelevant and behind us.
Then, addressing the Hitler Youth, he says, and I quote the subtitles: “We want a society with neither castes nor ranks.”
It is interesting that they call each other “Comrade” as well.
The myth that Fascism and Communism exist at opposite ends of the political spectrum has been very useful for Communists, but it is just that: an untruth. A lie.
Within the film they repeated discussed both National Socialism, and the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.
As I said several days ago, I think the metaphor that works best for me is the battles between the Bloods and the Crips (or the Jets and the Sharks, if you prefer). When the Spanish Civil War happened, both sides were ultimately run by blood-thirsty monsters. There was no good side, even if the Stalinist puppets managed to appeal to a lot of naive idealists. They lied to do it. That is what they do.
More tomorrow. I need to go to bed. I finished the first hour, and will finish the second hour tomorrow. I lead an odd life, but it is congenial to me.