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Triumph of Good Sense
Because it was on Netflix, and I'd never seen it, about six weeks ago I put Triumph of Will on the Instant queue. I'd heard endless things about it, but never seen it. So it stayed in the bin, like a malignant piece of crystal sculpture. Until Olivia and I got to see it.
Tonight is Ellen's second night of allergies, which means she sort of lays there snoring in her giant knit polka-dot jedi robe, with various cats "making biscuits" until she muzzily shoo's them away. Well, I can't watch stuff WE want to watch, so...
"Daddy?" I hear a voice from upstairs, about an hour later, "is what you're watching scary?"
"Well, no, but it's not something you'll likely be interested in. But you're welcome to come watch if you want."
And so she did. Since it was the first time I watched it, I was surprised at how little dialog there was. Most of the first part was about what Germany in 1934 looked like, and this is interesting in and of itself. So Olivia not only settled down, she started, well, watching.
"Who are those people?"
"Most of them are just regular Germans. The men in the fancy uniforms tricked them. The fancy uniforms told them that they were great, which was true, and then they told them to do terrible things. By the time the regular Germans realized what was happening, it was too late, and almost everyone you see in this film died. But that's in the future.
You and I are time travelers, in a way. We know what's going to happen, but they don't."
Olivia nodded, and kept watching, entranced. And then Hitler came on for the first time.
I've been a student of the Second World War for, gosh, thirty years now I think. It was the first time I'd ever seen one of his speeches, uncut and uncensored. I nudged Olivia when it was done, "what did you think about that?"
Only to be greeted by a snore.
She didn't really know what was going on, but she was affected by the cartoon pageantry of it all, the allure of a triumph. Yet, when the star of that triumph finally took the stage, she took a snooze.