Stalingrad

The acting is very good in this film. We aren't meant to be sympathetic to the German soldiers. They are merely cogs in the Nazi war machine. Fallible characters who show both courage and cowardice in the process of the story. I found that it was best to watch the movie in its native German with English subtitles. You get a better feel for the emotional content of the words that are spoken, even if you are not fluent in the language.

The production values are excellent, as are the sets and costumes. This film, to my knowledge, is thoroughly convincing and makes you feel as if you've been drawn into the era to witness the terrible battle as it nears its conclusion. At the end, we see the beginnings of the terrible march to Siberia by German prisoners. Only five percent survived, but I'm sure the Russians would have been satisfied had none of them made the trip.

The only thing I might have wanted to see was a bit more of the perspective of the Russian troops, but I guess that might have made a long film a bit too long.

Truly an unforgiving and brutal anti-war film and not to be missed!


Deeper than hell; what canst thou know? _   November 13, 2005
Leonard Fleisig (Washington, D.C.)
67 out of 69 found this review helpful

That was the question Job once asked himself in the Bible. If Job had been alive and on the eastern front in World War II he may have found the answer to his question - Stalingrad. The hellish battle of Stalingrad, as seen through the eyes of a small band of German soldiers, is the subject of director Joseph Vilsmaier's visually stunning and brutal film Stalingrad.

Stalingrad begins on the Italian coast where a German platoon enjoys leave after the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa. Recovering from wounds and enjoying wine and German women while sitting along a bright, sunny, beach the men are called to order. A new opportunity for glory awaits them in Russia. Next stop Stalingrad. We see the platoon boarding a train and entering a tunnel in Italy and exiting a tunnel into Russia. We see the platoon's new officer Lt. Witzland writing home to his wife. A stranger to battle, Witzland writes of the glories to come and of his hopes that he will prove himself to the battle-hardened men under his command. As we shall see, Witzland does indeed prove himself but not in the manner he could ever have predicted.

Witzland's baptism starts immediately upon disembarkation on the outskirts of Stalingrad. Horrified at the mistreatment of some Red Army prisoners he protests only to find himself knocked into the mud and sneered at by the powers that be. Word quickly spreads that this callow youth is a "friend of the Russians" and only his father's military background saves him.

The platoon is ordered to take a factory and the horror begins. Amidst flame throwers, horrible deaths and raw sewage all thoughts of romantic heroism evaporate and Witzland soon learns that survival is the one and only rational, if hopeless, goal one should take into war. Witzland's ultimate humanity never deserts him and, contrary to orders, tries to arrange a brief truce so that the Russians and Germans can gather their wounded. The truce is horribly boggled and the platoon's descent into hell continues in lock step with Stalingrad's descent into a frozen Russian winter. The platoon is arrested for trying to jump the line to get one of their men some medication and they find themselves doing duty as human mine sweepers.

The German army is soon encircled by a Red Army break out and despite the devastation they know is forthcoming the fanatics among them commit even greater horrors. As the men wait for a break through that never comes the excesses of the fanatics continues. The appearance of the men devolves along with the situation. The end, the apocalypse that awaits the trapped Germany army is inevitable; only 6,000 men out of more than 250,000 survived the battle or their imprisonment in the USSR. Witzland's final attempt to reclaim his humanity is a stunning one.

The above outline does not do justice to the power of Stalingrad. Although seen through a German lens that captures no small amount of the humanity of the common German foot soldier, it does not flinch from showing the horrors unleashed in the name of the German people, the Volk, and overseen by a series of true-believers for whom no act of violence is too sadistic or too meaningless. Portraying the differences between the typical German foot soldier and the S.S. for example is not new. However, Vilsmaier handles the distinction in an effective and (seemingly) realistic way that neither excuses the behavior nor tries to limit attribution of horrific acts to a small group of less than human soldiers. Brutality is omnipresent but that brutality renders the flashes of humanity evidenced by the platoon all the more stunning.

Stalingrad is a haunting film and one that will linger long after the final credits run.



Dramatic, yet influenced by political correctness   October 8, 2003
Andre Hein (Copenhagen, Denmark)
61 out of 80 found this review helpful

I find Stalingrad highly recommendable to anyone interested in a battle that has - with some justification - been regarded as the psychological turning point in a war of attrition between two dictatorships.

Having an army background (military infantry officer) myself, I found great pleasure in watching an infantry platoon "at work" (if you pardon the expression), instead of following a larger unit abstractly. The platoon level provides an excellent opportunity to comprehend life and interaction in a small unit literally under fire. Which the platoon in question certainly is.

In "Stalingrad", I very much appreciated the dramatic way in which the platoon's different phases were described: The relaxation inbetween battles in Italy; the gathering of the battalion and its subsequent departure for Russia; the journey through Russia; the arrival in Stalingrad; the first encounter; the mounting casualties; the conflict between the men on the ground and certain superiors; the uncertainty; the battle fatigue; the chaos; and the ubiquitous and inevitable death.

The actors are splendid, their conversations frank and spontaneous.

However, the reason for only suggesting 4 out of 5 stars is the political correctness inherent in "Stalingrad". On several occasions (for example, during the battle break in the city when both parties send out people to get their wounded, and in the conversations between the platoon leader and the Russo-German woman-prisoner) we are reminded of how unjust the war was, how badly the Germans behaved in Russia and how innocent the attacked Russian were. These incidents are, to be honest, rather pathetic, but luckily not to an extent that completely ruins the general impression of "Stalingrad".

No doubt - the Wehrmacht did indisputedly commit atrocities in the Soviet Union during WW II. But I would have liked the movie to mention the Soviet atrocities as well, both against German troops as well as ITS OWN civilian population. The movie seems to portray the Soviet Union as the innocent victim of German aggression, which it was clearly not: WW II started mainly because Britain declared war on Germany after the attack of the latter on Poland 01 September 1939. But for some "strange" reason, Britain forgot all about declaring war on the Soviets, although the Soviets attacked Poland from the east following the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty.

Germany lost the war, and its conquerors quickly imposed on it a feeling of guilt that may have seemed partly justified in 1945, but which still - as can be seen in "Stalingrad" - haunts movie-making in Germany.

Let me emphasise that the aforementioned political correctness in no way makes the movie bad - but its omission would undoubtedly have motivated the undersigned to suggest all five stars instead of four.

If you liked Das Boot, you will surely like Stalingrad too. I blame neither author nor director of Stalingrad for the political correctness; that ghost is still too firmly rooted in German psyche to be forgotten and omitted in movies about the controversial phase of European history from 1939 to 1945.


Graphic, Powerful, Thought Provoking   November 13, 1999
36 out of 50 found this review helpful

Stalingrad was released in Germany to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the momentous battle. The film was well attended in Germany, where emotions run deep on this event; many Germans still have connections to the half million men who died in the battle. Previously, the same film makers produced Das Boot, an excellent and award winning film that received limited distribution in the U.S. Stalingrad is not as good a film as Das Boot. Perhaps for this reason it was not given any significant distribution in the U.S. The film has a cliched storyline, and an anti-climatic ending. The characters seem to be a German version of every war character you've ever seen; the sadistic officer, the countryboy common soldier, etc, and the anti-war slant is familiar. And yet, the movie has a power that is hard to deny, and it is very rare to consider ordinary Germans as equal victims of Hitler as everyone else. In this movie you get the real sense that the average German soldier, though loyal to his country, was ashamed of his cause, and felt victimized by his circumstances. It's easy to see why this film was popular in Germany. And it is because the film dares to present us with another consideration of the people who got caught up in the war, in this case the Germans who became soldiers, that it's important. The footage is graphic, the battle scenes as good as any filmed, the story cliched but thought provoking - it's for these reasons I would recommend the film.