ABSTRACT
Leni Riefenstahl's documentary of the 1934 Nuremberg rally of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, Triumph of the Will, is perhaps the most controversial film ever made. At once masterful and morally repugnant, this deeply troubling film epitomizes a general problem that arises with art. It is both beautiful and evil. In this chapter, the author argues that it is this conjunction of beauty and evil that explains why the film is so disturbing. Triumph of the Will is a troubling film. The author claims that it is so because of its conjunction of beauty and evil, because it presents as beautiful a vision of Hitler and the New Germany that is morally repugnant. Riefenstahl was preoccupied with beauty in Triumph of the Will. When approaching a work of art that raises moral issues, sever aesthetic evaluation from moral evaluation and evaluates the work in aesthetic terms alone. This is the formalist response to the problem of beauty and evil.
