I know it’s quite an obvious choice to feature part of Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia today, but I’m doing it anyway. I’ve personally never had the patience to watch any of the actual Olympic Games, but I have no difficulty watching the few hours of beautifully abridged footage presented in this two part film. I truly wish that every year’s games could have been shot by Riefenstahl — preferably without any propaganda parts, of course. I might now be more familiar with the world’s greatest athletes had Olympia been a tradition in the vein of Apted’s Up series.
Fitting for today’s opening ceremony, I’ve included the prologue. Why can’t they show this every four years prior to the live coverage of the Games? Because of the nudity? Because an alleged Nazi made it? Well, they still employ the torch relay tradition, and that was also devised as part of the Nazi propaganda for the 1936 Berlin games. And the Olympic rings emblem was reintroduced for Nazi purposes, also. So …
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