Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht

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.

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.

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.

What is it with these NAZI's ???? Always thinking that they are superior.... support of movies like this either means that your a history buff or a modern Nazi supporter. If your a supporter then your no historian. Lol

As usual Leni Riefenstahl did a better than average job to accomplish the propaganda duties she had with the National Socialist Party of Germany. Although she would have preferred to have this short disappear, "Tag der Freiheit" has survived as another example of her ability to address ideological issue through montage (of pre-existent footage and material shot under her direction), and in this case without dialogue or narration. The idea was to boast of the strenght of the Nazis' party, with images of its members and the German armed forces. Apparently she was not able to do what she wanted, but the result was not that visually execrable. She would have full control of her work for the Nazis, in the subsequent two masterpieces she made.