Berlin 1936 Olympics TV Broadcast Review: Eerie and Fascinating

If you want to feel like a time traveler who stumbled into a very dark, very weird living room, then yes, you should probably watch this. History geeks will be absolutely glued to the screen, while anyone looking for a slick, inspiring sports documentary is going to hate it and turn it off in five minutes. 📺

This is not some beautifully restored masterpiece. It is raw, ghost-like footage from the first major live television broadcast in history.

Most people think of Leni Riefenstahl's gorgeous, propaganda-filled movies when they think of the '36 Olympics. But this is different.

This feels like someone left a security camera running in Berlin during a very tense, strange week. It has this green, fuzzy, low-scan look that makes everyone look like walking shadows.

You can barely see the faces of the athletes. Sometimes they just dissolve into white blobs when they run into the bright sunlight.

There is one moment where a guy high-jumping just... disappears into the sky because the camera operator couldn't tilt the giant machine fast enough. I laughed out loud at how clunky it was.

It is so different from the polished, joyful ski stunts in Der weiße Rausch - Neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs. Here, everything feels incredibly heavy and rigid.

The giant Telefunken "television cannons" are the real stars of the show. They look like sci-fi weapons sitting on the sidelines, and the operators look like they are sweating bullets trying to aim them.

You can see them desperately turning hand-wheels just to keep up with the runners. It looks exhausting.

There is also no commentary for long stretches. Just this low, rumbling hum of crowd noise and the occasional crackle of static that makes you feel very far away from home.

Honestly, it gets pretty boring if you try to watch the whole thing straight through. I found myself skipping ahead to see the swimming events, which mostly just look like a muddy soup of splashing water.

But as a historical artifact? It is wild.

You are watching the literal birth of the modern media monster we live with today. And it started right there, in that stadium, with those weird, blocky screens.