Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.
Riefenstahl's Olympia is one of the most cinematographically revolutionary documents in film history. The inventive camera angles, slow-motion sequences, tracking shots, and the lyrical opening evoking ancient Greece established techniques that defined sports filmmaking for decades. Its novelty is unimpeachable — no documentary before it approached athletic events with such formal ambition and aesthetic intensity. However, as a documentary it lacks conventional plot structure (scored 2), and 'acting' is largely inapplicable beyond the natural performances of athletes (scored 2). The ending, while building effectively toward the marathon climax, is somewhat abrupt as a standalone first part. The film's profound ideological context — its role as Nazi propaganda and Riefenstahl's complicity — is inseparable from its legacy, but its technical and cinematic innovations remain genuinely exceptional and singular.