The mountain movies were a substitute for the war films. They were a face of masculinity and purity, according to which the conquest of the mountains was a symbol of the personal power, in a world that had lost direction. They provided a description of human control over the forces of nature. The addition of aircraft, especially when Ernest Udet flew them, made them much more significant, linking war, the conquest of nature, and aviation, in a symbolic relationship. His appearances in films were a constant reminder to the audience of the romantic heroism of the pilot of the war, and a means of using the character, who, through "will", controls nature and technology. They praised the aircraft as a tool by which human will power was expressed, and as a model of technological achievement.
The mountain movies greatly influenced the design and inculcation of Nazi ideology. Following the First World War, the German psyche was debating the dilemma of wanting to break free from the yoke of the tyrannical regime in the face of the effects of personal chaos. One of the tracks they chose was this genre, which was exclusively German, and which reflected a wide-ranging sporting activity.
Filmmaker Arnold Punk discovered the genre and had almost a monopoly on it until the end of the Weimar regime. Punk was a geologist by profession, and a mountaineering enthusiast. He even sought to spread his faith in the towering peaks and dangerous climbs on them, and relied on actors and technicians who had themselves become excellent alpinists. Among the best known were Lenny Riefenstahl and Lewis Trunker. The mountains as a symbol were already an element in expressionist cinema, but he was interested in real mountains.
Punk initially created, in the years 1920-1923, a trilogy that showed the beauty and joy that is in mountain sports, and this in spectacular field photography, which was a stark contrast to the typical studio films of the period. Punk later showed greater interest in combining the emotional passion in the sights of the peaks and abysses, and in the human conflicts that arise in distress. Each year brought with it another mountain drama.
The message conveyed by Punk matched the mood of many Germans, who even before World War II found refuge in the Alps from their daily routine, and climbed to the peaks in order to look down on contempt. They were more than athletes. They were zealous believers, who performed cult rituals. They were characterized by heroic idealism which, as a result of blindness to more tangible ideals, was embodied in this tourism industry. Punk developed the mountainous survival narrative further and further, bringing it to the pinnacles of fanatical and nationalist emotion, in a way that overlapped with Nazi ideology. Scenes of heroism and heroic sacrifice, civilian and military, became dominant. The protagonist in them was released from his hesitations, and the transformation that the audience underwent was one of release from complications after a temporary paralysis attack created by the camera stunts. The development of this narrative reflected, above all, the pro-Nazi wave that intensified in German cinema in the early 1930s.
Lenny Riefenstahl continued to star in Punk, inspiring them to her films, among the first of which were also mountain films, in which she also starred in these. The mystical-primitive experience stands out, such as [1932] ''Das Blaue Licht''. In this film Riefenstahl directs herself, as a reclusive Italian country girl suspected of being a witch, as she climbs the mountains alone, and the village men who try to follow her fall to their deaths. On full moon nights she reaches a cave full of crystals that emit blue light. She befriends a German painter, who discovers the cave, tells about it to the villagers, who loot it, thereby causing her suicide.
Luis Trunker, another Punk star, also turned to an independent career, starting to create and star in his own mountain movies. In Trunker, military heroism stands out, as in [1931] ''Berge in Flammen''. The plot of this film is about two mountain climbers, an Austrian and an Italian, who before the First World War climbed the Alps together, but in the war fought each other.
The sacred mountain stars in many traditions and myths of all religions. It is related to the hero archetype. Of the four elements, it is most closely related to the element of air. Nietzsche is considered the mountain and air poet. The color of the snowy mountains is white, the color of light in which all the colors unite. White symbolizes the innocent primordial state, and the final state of integration. The films of the time were still shot in black and white, which highlighted these mythical qualities. After the white color comes the red color, the color of the Nazi flag.
All of these contributed to the fusion of the mountainous subculture with the Hitlerite subculture. The mountain movies were a response to the military and economic crisis of the 1920s, which was particularly pronounced in the field of aviation. They were used to promote aviation and militarism. The pilot was also used to redefine the masculinity figure, which is based on self-confidence, iron nerves, and ignoring dangers, traits that were also typical of those of the mountain climber. Hitler established his spacious vacation home, with a small movie theater, in Berghof in the Alps. Berghof became a well-fortified compound, where his associates also lived and his headquarters operated. On a cliff at the top of the mountain was another small residence, called "The Eagles' Nest", which was a place for solitude. Hitler did not engage in skiing and dangerous mountain climbing, but he did a lot of hiking on the trails that were paved on the mountain.
Ernest Udet was already a well-known character when he started acting in mountain movies. At the same time, the importance of aviation has gained much momentum in public opinion. Arnold Punk was not naive on the matter. He admired Udet, and knew that his appearance would open a chapter of military history in his mvies, with all the consequences. The geopolitical developments of the period were intertwined with the debate over the future of aviation. The restrictions imposed on Germany under the Treaty of Versailles were in stark contrast to the development trends in the Allied countries. The number of German aircraft it in the 1920s was small, but the Germans did not interested so much flying machines as in the pride involved, the sense of power, and the unstoppable desire. Aviation was a recipe for education, and shaping a future nation, prior to military armament. Like the 19th century railway revolution, the plane was also designed to pump blood to the nation's arteries, unleashing its potential. From here it was also a short way to the theory of ''Living Space''.
The airspace created new possibilities for Germany's aspirations for power and self-defense. All that was needed for that purpose was a determined will, along with appropriate propaganda, that used the most powerful tool at its disposal, cinema. The pilot became the archetypal colleague of the mountain climber. Together they left the viewers feeling hyperactive. The pilot was not just a knight. He was an industrialist, well aware of the power of machines in modern life. He symbolized the new pace of life, and the fusion of man with the machine.
Comparing the qualities of the modern pilot to the qualities of a mountain climber the balance clearly leaned in favor of the former. Punk movies between the years 1929-1933 are not just examples of the continuity of the genre. They are an expression of the social stalemate crisis, which could be resolved through the pilot's liberated dynamics. The presence of the aviation star, along with the aerial photography, enabled the broadening of horizons, which erases all claustrophobia. With Udet's help, viewers regained the sense of mobility they had lost. He does not look like the ideal Hero. He was short, only 160 cm tall and round, but he was the epitome of professionalism in aviation.
In the film [1927] ''Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü'', despite the recurring narrative in the Arnold Punk movies, there are significant upgrades compared to his previous movies. The heavy and extroverted symbolism of his previous works, as in the [1926] ''Der heilige Berg'', is replaced here by a more realistic and vital approach. The mountain is a real mountain, not a metaphysical place of challenge and salvation. The result is more realistic and compelling. However the plot narrative is similar, and will repeat next time as well. At its center are a man and a woman, and their struggle to get out of a snowstorm with their colleagues. The storm causes them to make mistakes in their way, and in addition disrupts the minds of the weak among them. They try to escape on their own, but the result is a fall into the abyss. After the rescue squad fails to arrive, despite its many efforts, it alll depend on the pilot in the air. After lengthy searches, he finds the trapped people and helps rescue them. The pilot is not part of the social circle of climbers. He arrives quickly from a distance, from the big city, and has the resilience and ability to be resourceful in lost situations. ''Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü'' was an artistic and commercial success, returning pride to German cinema. At the same time, he promoted the aircraft, as a machine with performance capabilities that no others have. The movie was released during the stock market crash in October 1929, and is one of the last silent films. As part of the mountain films starring udet, it combined also the transition from silent film to sound films, which created a severe crisis in the German film industry.
[1930] ''Stürme über dem Mont Blanc'' is the second of four mountain films with Ernest Udet as the rescue pilot. He won many compliments for his role, breaking records for daring flights over the landscapes of the Alps, which gave the movie its dramatic power. The compliments fit into the overall critique, praising the physical and cinematic achievements that have reached highest peaks. This movie, like the others, emphasizes the vital need for speed and agility that the aircraft imparts, as opposed to the slowness and awkwardness of mountain climbers. The plot is about a meteorological station manager at the top of the mountain, caught in a storm and slowly freezes to death, but manages to broadcast a call for help. The rescuers are delayed due to the storm, but the pilot comes to the rescue. The criticism in the New York Times was: ''Steel cliffs rise in the snow, the clouds pile up at their feet ... glaciers intertwined in cracks. A plane is struggling in a path over the mountains, in the middle of a fierce storm." The power of the machine and the will of the pilot are learned from this review.
The success of these two movies convinced a German studio to collaborate with Hollywood, and create the [1933] ''S.O.S Eiesberg'', which takes place in Greenland. The views of the sea glaciers replace the views of the Alps. The plot formula is similar, the director and crew are almost identical, and even the names of the plot heroes are similar. Udet appears by his real name. In this movie, a delegation sets out to search for the lost diaries of an ice-currents researcher. The expedition gets stuck on a floating glacier, and personal attempts to reach the shore, to the nearby Eskimo village, fail. The pilot of the team, who is the girlfriend of the head of the delegation, and played by Lenny Riefenstahl, also fails to rescue them. The one who finally does it is Udet. Riefenstahl is also the female protagonist in the previous two films with Udet. In this last movie of him with Punk, the plot is less important. The main protagonists are nature and the airplane, and there is almost no dialogue. Punk designed a huge nature painting, over which technology hovers. It was the main source of success. The natural landscapes are revealed in full drama through the pilot's constant search for the survivors.
The last mountain film in which Udet participated was [1935] ''Wunder des Fliegens: Der Film eines deutschen Fliegers'', created after becoming an active Nazi. It's a propaganda film about a young glider pilot, the son of a war pilot who perished in the war, who crashes in the heart of the Alps, and Udet is called to rescue him. He is the main character, and recreates his resume. The young pilot actor role is done by the one who starred in the best-known Nazi propaganda film, produced by Carl Ritter, [1932] ''Hitlerjunge Quex''.
''Wunder des Fliegen'' was created at the initiative of the Luftwaffe. The pathetic and emotional message is prominent. Praises for heroism, fame and adventure appear again and again. Udet can be found in almost every scene. The hero of the war also indulges in memories of the past by a collection of images displayed in a long scene. In the flashback, Richhofen can also be seen for a short time, while figure is slightly dwarfed compared to Udet. The aerobatic stunt pilot Udet appears in many scenes. Various sequences from his previous movies help serve this purpose.
All flying skills in mountain movies are important, but the main skill is aerial observation. Again and again the pilot is seen scanning, with his sharp eyes, the surface of the landscape, in search of a sign of life of the survivors, lost in the snow. This can be linked to the Nazi skill in espionage. Reinhard Heydrich was a fighter pilot who specialized in reconnaissance flights, while having a secret information folder about every important figure.
Between ''Stürme über dem Mont Blanc'' and ''S.O.S Eiesberg'', Ernest Udet also planned to participate in an international production of a flight film over Mount Everest. After this plan did not materialize, in 1931 he made a filmed flight journey to the African steppes, creating a film and photo album under the name: ''Fremde Vögel Über Afrika''. The film consists, for the most part, of aerial footage of wild herds in Africa as they roam and flee across the savannahs. The filming became a real adventure, after the crews ran into many technical glitches. Short excerpts from the film are combined in the 26-27 minutes of the movie ''Wunder des Fliegen'', together with scenes from ''S.O.S Eiesberg''.
