Response to Triumph of the Will

Watching this was a very interesting experience.  I valued it for the sake of getting a better understanding of history, and I could really appreciate the quality of directing and camera work.  Yet on the other hand it is Nazi propaganda.  Professor Marshall told us to watch Hitler’s face as he gave his last speech so we could see a moment of hardly contained self-aggrandizement and contentedness with his position of power flash across his countenance.  This was the one moment that truly gave me chills.  The whole film was eerie and unsettling given the context, disgusting even, but only that one smug look on Hitler’s face was what moved me to anger and fear.  This alone made me feel guilty for liking the rest of the movie technically and in terms of fabrication and achieving its goal.  I decided I should not hate the film, the film is inanimate and does not possess any intention or emotion, it was simply a tool.  Instead I feel I should direct my anger and disgust toward the people who commissioned it and used it as a sort of social weapon to go on to do horrible things.