Stalingrad 1942-1943

A lot of other lackluster reviews here, but I thought it was a decent offering overall. There are some plot issues of course, and some of those have to do with what seems like cut content. There's also the slightly confusing introduction of a new character the last hour of the film that is treated as if the guy was there the whole film, but after watching this several times, I honestly can't tell. The film can get quite emotional. Some of this adds to some rather illogical areas within the film where the characters make decisions or draw conclusions that make zero sense. The end is like this as well. It's about as bizarre an ending as Das Boot had. In spite of all this though, the film is as likely to be the best view one is going to get of this conflict from a German perspective. There are already a few Russian ones. I do feel a little sorry for Thomas Kretschmann. The poor guy has spent his entire film career playing Nazis if you think about it! Read more

I had to buy the Blu-ray disc so I could watch this again. The digital versions (my preferred way of buying) is dubbed in English which would be like watching Das Boot in English (which I have done and it is horrible) or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in anything but Mandarin. We need to keep in mind this is a Russian movie made by Russians. They have a very different view of the war than the rest of us. they lost more people than any other single nation and even call it the Great Patriotic War. Is this a great movie about the whole battle for Stalingrad? No. First of all, no single movie could cover the enormity of that battle. In the same way that no movie can adequately cover D-Day or Market Garden. These events covered far too much time and distance and involved thousands upon thousands of men. All any one movie can do is pick the part it wants to show and go from there. Das Boot, a five star war movie if there ever was one, is about one submarine, not the whole battle for the Atlantic. Now, did I find this movie overall to be particularly realistic? That depends. I found the fighting scenes to be very well done. Lack of supply lines of course lead to equipment shortages and the bombed out city was very well portrayed. And, as many have suggested reading books on the subject, you will find that much of the battle was indeed house to house and building to building sometimes with Germans controlling one floor and the Russians another floor of the same building. Urban warfare is not so simple as some reviews have suggested. So the "war" part of this movie, in my view, is excellent. Other reviewers have noted how Katya is a stand in for Mother Russia and this symbolism is heavy handed. I am not so sure. While I found the love story between Katya and Sissy (Sergey) to be a bit much, I think men in that situation, fighting a battle of their nation's leader's egos writ large, are going to look for anything they can feel good about fighting for. Would any man be inclined to fight for a country whose leaders are more willing to kill him than the enemy he faces? There will be some true believers, of course, but like most wars, it involves regular people thrown into horrible circumstances. I think this movie did an excellent job showing the difference between Russian soldiers and German or American or British soldiers. The Germans, Americans and British all had hope of going home. The Russians had two choices, die in battle or be killed by their own officers. they knew their job was to die and take as many Germans as possible with them. They knew they were not going home. They had no hope. But by adopting Katya, they at least felt they gave their own deaths some meaning. But after a second viewing, I find the German Captain Kahn's story to be the most compelling. He has been turned into a monster and hates himself. By clinging to Masha he is desperately trying to cling to his humanity that so many have lost in the war and this battle in particular. His personal battle is just as lost as Stalingrad, he just can't see it. I find the reviews dismissing this as just propaganda problematic at best. At least some have acknowledged that Hollywood churned out its fair share of propaganda. I can name at least a half-dozen John Wayne movies alone that were little more than flag waving propaganda. And even more modern movies like Flags of Our Fathers, while in my view excellent, certainly play as propaganda. Why should the Russians not be proud of beating back Germany? And, no, it was not just the weather that defeated Germany. That would suggest that if Russia had offered no resistance at all that Germany would have retreated at the first snowfall. So if you are looking for a movie that covers all of Stalingrad, then I must agree with other reviews that this is not what you are looking for. If you want to see a movie about trying to maintain ones humanity in the face of total barbarism, this is pretty well done. Read more

I think this is one of the best WWII movies made as it was done so authentically & gave the gripping account of these men and what they went through, and why it was such an awful and one of the worst battles ever. Definitely an anti-war film from German & Russian perspective. I preferred choosing the German language as it was filmed, but English subtitles so I could follow & understand. Outstanding directing by Joseph Vilsmaier. I loved Thomas Kretschmann in this, he was so fitting as the young newly promoted lieutenant, excellent performance, as well as his fellow actors in this. Interesting how he also starred in the 2013 Russian version 20 years later, which was very different, 3D. I would recommend watching the 1993 version first, as it was so well done, yet difficult to watch as it was so real & shows us how horrendous war can be. My 2 sons watched this in middle school WWII history class, and 10+ years later, they still recall this movie when referring to the war, battles, etc. as it made such an impact on them. Definitely recommend! Read more

About the only complaints I had concerning the movie itself dealt with a couple battle scenes that seemed... rushed. As they occur early enough in the movie where they should be getting you hooked (they are the first ones IN Stalingrad), I could see how someone not interested in the subject matter to begin with might lose interest. The plot is good, engaging; and gets you to sympathize with the protagonists without raising the propaganda flag. There are some moments that seem staged, but on the other hand you also get to see how some evil people can do enough bad to wash over their comrades' more valiant deeds (on either side). I kind of wish there was a little more information given to the watcher as to the progression of the battle... You basically find out they're encircled, and then, near the end, you get to see Paulus and the rest march into captivity, with the doomed general chastising one of the protagonists (who does not know anything more than we do) about still carrying a weapon. In a way, the lack of that plot device serves to keep your focus on the doomed "heroes"... and I suppose it tries to show you what it's like to be in the midst of all that chaos and violence without knowing if it's even worth it anymore. As far as the DVD goes... I may as well have been watching it on VHS. The picture quality is nothing to brag about, and I'm too used to getting at least Dolby 5.1 on DVD format. Plain old stereo doesn't do jack to justify a DVD format, and a war movie without volume lacks. There are no special features other than "English or German" and "Subtitle" menus, which is rather unfortunate, considering the amount of side information one could offer on such a huge event in history. Read more

Great movie! Going to watch it again Read more