Stalingrad

Stalingrad.....mmmm....the battle has been portrayed so clearly on film, before this version. Memorable images of mamuschkas dragging their kids on sleds through barren snowy streets, bodies exposed and not buried (how do you dig in near permafrost conditions?). Germans freezing and firing interminable ammunition.

So what does this bring to the table? One, it's by the people that brought us the interesting "Das Boot" and that alone is recommendation. Two, it shows the German viewpoint of a battle in WWII, and that's rare on this side of the Channel. What did I think of it? The horrors of war - whoever the victors/losers are, are portrayed too well. Not being German, I can only guess the effect the word "Stalingrad" has on the population's psyche. I suspect the fact that we always hear "Russian Front" tells us something about avoidance. The figures are inconceivable. Of the 91,000 German POW's alone taken at Stalingrad 27,000 died within weeks, never mind the combatant deaths!

This film follows the adventures of a group o engineers from the heat and calm of an Italian 'holiday' to the Russian Front. In "Das Boot" we are sympathetic to the one character, in this film we don't have things so easily sketched out for us. We get surprising behaviour from some of the group when deriding Hitler's speech in the open; we see sadistic leaders - the cavernous amount of food stored away whilst the 'grunts' are literally starving made its point well. Good acting, 'lovely' cinematography.
[Reviewed by Nuthatch]

Happy sun shiny! Slog slog slog slog slog slog blam! slog slog blam! blam! YAAAAAAAAAA! Silence, bonding, terror, atrocity, fear, survival and blam! The end - This is how most modern European war films go and expect to see this in good amounts in Stalingrad. [Reviewed by Merlin]

For me, Stalingrad almost had the feel of a documentary in the way it portrayed the sheer mundane drudgery of war, in particular the endless waiting in between periods of intense action. Although it followed a number of individuals in order to give us some characters to sympathise with, the film's main point seemed to be the obscene scale of the destruction and the pointless waste of human life in general rather than the individual's sacrifice. I think the long-distance shots in particular, with the vast expanses of snowy Russia in the background, highlighted the insignificance of the individuals involved. There are no outstanding heroes and even the villains just seem to be caught up in events outside their control. War at its most real. [Reviewed by Nightjar]
Hmm, what to say... I was left feeling that this must have been very much what it was like! How different it is from all the great American war films - I very much doubt Saving Private Ryan would have earned as much praise had it been more like Stalingrad. A grim film, but more than that it mixed in all the other aspects of human experience with humour, pathos, hope and empathy as well as showing the horrifying suffering and bleak pointlessness of war. Again, as with many accounts of the first and second world wars, we see how much it is a war started by people who will never have to fight it, for ideals which very few on the ground can actually sympathise with! In Stalingrad one of our protagonists is branded a Russian sympathiser because he orders a ceasefire in order to let both sides collect their wounded. It put me in mind of the famous Christmas football match in WWI - another instance of soldiers recognising others humanity and the Generals realising that should this empathy continue then the fighting would cease!

The bleakness of the Russian winter was hammered home through this film (why on earth did anyone settle there in the first place?) and I was struck by the scenes of the suffering of the Russian civilians shown alongside those of the soldiers. It must have been so terrible - no wonder people couldn't talk about it to their families when they returned. The bleakness of the film made it difficult viewing and towards the end you did feel, like the soldiers, that death would be a welcome release for them as at least it would end their suffering. I defy anyone to still believe that there is any glory to war after watching this film - it should be compulsory viewing for all politicians everywhere. [Reviewed by Stonechat]