10 Groundbreaking Films That Are Actually Terrible

A companion piece to The Birth Of A Nation? Unfortunately, yes.

Leni Riefenstahl was an astonishing, undeniable talent in cinema, the German Orson Welles: a fêted female producer, writer and director at a time when women had no agency in the industry at all. Triumph Of The Will is a remarkable example of propaganda in cinema, technically pioneering and innovative, a globally award-winning film whose influence is still being seen in documentaries and advertising to this day.

That propaganda, though. The theme of the film is Germany’s return to prominence under Der Führer and the Nazi Party following the Night Of The Long Knives, and Adolf Hitler’s presence haunts it even when he’s not lovingly framed on camera - he was heavily involved in commissioning it and making it, as much as any strong-arm Hollywood producer would be today.

Trimuph Of The Will is Nazi propaganda from the very first frame, and Riefenstahl, for all her arresting gifts, made her most career-defining work for the Nazis and specifically for Hitler.

That context alone makes that Triumph Of The Will a ghastly piece of work, one which history has deservedly cr*pped on from a great height.