Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht

Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht (1935)

*** (out of 4)

When Leni Riefenstahl made TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, apparently Adolf Hitler felt that it didn't show off the German Army enough so this short was made. This here was meant to show off how strong the German Army was but of course what happened over the next several years has tainted the film and even Riefenstahl's legacy.

There's no question that this here is a visual masterpiece, although it's certainly not on the same level as TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. With that being said, I think this film is a lot more entertaining to watch since it's just 17-minutes. What we've basically got here are clips of the German soldiers doing their daily routine but it's the masterful camerawork that really sells the film. I really loved how Riefenstahl shot the movie with the camera down low, looking up towards people and making them appear much bigger. The way the sun is high above them beating down just added a surreal touch.

Of course, it's impossible to watch this film without looking at these soldiers and wondering what horrors they committed during WWII. You can't help but think which one of them were killed in battle. Which one of them worked at the camps where millions of Jews were killed. The ugliness hangs its head all over the film.

Firstly let's put all politics aside and then we will see a splendid image of military technique from that particular epoch. This movie is of a great interest for people interested in militaria, re-constructors and such. No other documentary allows us to see how certain equipment is used in most proper way, how it works, how it is operated and so on. Just take a look on rapid deployment of PaK guns, AT crews fighting off tanks, Flak batteries in air defense role, such pictures have great learning potential. Scholars of military can learn very much about German strategies and military doctrine especially through well perpetrated maneuvers shown in this movie. Truly essential documentary for anyone interested in topic.

This is nothing but a prowess of the powerful German army right after the NSDAP seized power. It has quite a misleading title as there is not a image of freedom in sight, maybe that was directed at the Reichsparteitag day? Anyway, you get to see soldiers marching, cannons firing and cavalry galloping through "lakes". All made to look quite menacing and threatening, successfully so. There are machine-gunners who jump off quick driving cars (dont know how much this is sped up..) and setting up their machine guns in no time that was very impressive. Also there is some pictures of Nazi flags and the Führer with his associates, serving to glorify the party. All in all its very impersonal, we see a machinery at the party's disposal, nothing about freedom.

Oh, and those airplanes flying in sun-cross formation was very impressive, real or not.

Dealing with self esteem issues after being slighted in Triumph of the Will, Nazi brass ordered director Leni Riefenstahl to make this valentine to the armed forces. Somewhat ragged and loosely edited Riefenstahl does offer up an imposing vision of German military might but where Triumph was measured and graceful Day of Freedom is chaotic and rushed. The unimaginative foley artist work is also an indication Riefenstahl was distracted expediting matters in order to prepare for the Olympia docs. All in all a sloppy concession to a military spoiling for a fight, albeit an intimidating one to the public of the day.

The date being the 28th of June 1919 and the declaration of the Traité de Versailles; a Peace treaty that brought about the end of the Great War of 1914 - 1918. Part of the Treaty of Versailles, and also in particular the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and 1920, had Britain, France, the United States and Italy setting the terms of the political, domestic and financial domination of the German state, was that they, Germany, were to, both, relinquish any existing armoires and to hold-back any further building and stock-pilling of future weapons; out of the ashes of war the Weimar Republic is born.

The Weimar Republic was officially laid-to-rest by January nineteen thirty-three and the sea change of European politics once more was altered; the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei had truly taken hold of a new Germany and its new doctrine saw a new threat, a New World Order, of dark clouds looming over the horizon. The 7th of March 1936 saw the newly elected party dare to push the boundaries and flex its muscle toward the big-four by daring to reoccupy the demilitarised zone of the Rhineland as this region of Europe had been out-of-bounds to any form of German military. The purpose of this manoeuvre was simply to test the mettle of the big-four and thus, possibly, engage Europe into war once more; Britain, France, the United States and Italy were silent. The opportunity to re-establish the authority over a weakened Germany was ignored and never took; silence spoke louder than words to the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

With this newfound confidence came the extravagance of propaganda that was the highly imaginative filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (1902 - 2003). Commissioned to rework a publicity shoot for the disgruntled Wehrmacht, being given less screen-footage in the previous 1934 "Triumph des Willens", this newly produced feature's purpose being to raise the profile of the German Wehrmacht of Land, Sea and Air.

Filmed on German Armed Forces Day at Nuremberg, Germany on the 10th to the 16th of September, 1935 and titled the Reichsparteitag der Freiheit (Rally of Freedom), ironically, the Nürnberger Gesetze (Nuremberg Laws) were introduced here. Albeit a short affair of less than thirty-minutes, we see here, the military rearmament had now fully matured and once more Ms. Riefenstahl master of artistic-technique making its mark with intriguing silhouettes and foreshadowing the thought of military might as Deutschland Erwache; both literally and metaphorically.

This self-proclaimed strength of force is all smiles and grandeur with those viewing from the high-branches, grinning like over-excited children on how much has been, and too, to be, achieved. Leni Riefenstahl has captured a time of military opulence with her pioneering imagination of the use of tools that aids the viewer to witness the mock battle and the flight of the German phoenix passing over the vast crowds dwarfed by polarising flags of exploitation; this really is the vision of the future.

Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht is short in length but not stature, military parades are time immortal and proclaim no new goals throughout time but to show and flex one's muscle to adversaries. This snippet of history is a not a comprehensive piece, because of its running time constraints it can delve into ambiguity; lacking in any true detail of merit we are left with a story that holds no beginning and no end, whilst not an empty experience, far from it, we are left with a very unnerving look into a machine that is primed & ready; Deutschland Erwache. The nightmare begins.