Stalingrad

Rating:
Summary: One of the most brutally brilliant WWII movies ever made.
Review: Long before Saving Private Ryan, Stalingrad was released in limited distribution in the United States. I was fortunate enough to see it then and was completely stunned, here was a WWII movie that was unlike any American WWII movie that I had ever seen. Stalingrad traces a German platoon from the beginning of the Stalingrad campaign to its cold, horrible end, and it is a measure of the talents of the actors, the directors and the writers of this film that you actually begin to empathize with the characters in the film, even though they are members of the Wehrmacht. The scenes of urban combat in the movie are horrific and claustrophobic, again inviting comparison with Saving Private Ryan (although it should be the other way around). American war movies about the Second World War, even ones such as Saving Private Ryan or Catch-22 which do not glorify the military or the war have a different sense than German war movies such as Stalingrad and Das Boot because, let's face it, we won WWII and as the saying goes, "the winners write history". I can't really put my finger on this more precisely but I will say that this is an excellent movie, hard to watch at times, but still an excellent movie. END

Rating:
Summary: Das Boot (The Boat) on Land and Equally Shattering
Review: From the same producer of "Das Boot," "Stalingrad" tells the story of the common cog in the military machine of the Third Reich. Stalingrad does so with exceptional cinematography and casting, focusing on a new Wehrmacht (Heer) Lieutentant's first experience at the front, and his interactions with his Captain, Sergeant, Corporal, and Privates. If you have heard of and imagined what the "Ostfront" or "Eastern Front" might have been like, this is the movie to see. It puts the carnage of our own recent films of the U.S. Civil War, senselessly bloody attempts to "take" terrain, or in this case, a city, building by building, in another context. It puts to you directly the eternal question: why war? I cannot answer the question, we know why German territorial expansion became World War Two. But to those involved in the expansion, what did it really mean? As one soldier comments from the train taking them from sunny Italy to Stalingrad, "Adolf is going to build me a highway out here." There will be land enough for all...remember Manifest Destiny? Who were the "Untermenschen" (literally, lower people). Slavs? Russians? Lakota Sioux? A thoughtful immersion in the themes of the film Stalingrad will open your mind to other questions, questions that have been asked and unanswered on every populated continent or sector on Earth. Can we learn something here that will avert repetition elsewhere, as we may be destined to go? Hopefully, that answer is yes. Lincoln is remembered as once saying, "G-d must have loved the common man, he made so many of them." Many different uniforms have been worn, but are the wearers the same? At one excecution scene in Stalingrad, a soldier comments--this is so we remember which side we're on. That is because it is so easy to forget....

Rating:
Summary: The way war should be shown : Vivid and Horrifying
Review: I had never heard of this film untill I spotted this DVD out of the corner of my eye in the store and bought it, and I am glad I did. This movie has surpassed any previous depiction of the stress and hardship's that the common soldier and civilian alike faced in WW2 that I have ever seen and I felt this is also the first war movie to take the glory out of battle and replace it with the truth "war is hell".

I like many other reviewer's here have seen the endless stream of documentories about stalingrad and have heard the accounts from veteran's of the battle and about the horror and suffering that wen't on, but I feel that the word's and tear's from these veteran's never quite sunk in. After seeing this movie I feel like the pain that was depicted has allowed the words of these veteran's to finnally sink in and I have a new understanding of just what these men had endured...and yet I feel like I still dont know the whole truth.

This film has a permanent home in my collection....I only regret that this movie was not embraced by the U.S. film industry and shown to a wide audience a long time ago....I recommend that anyone who is fan of war movie's or just curious about the war that changed the world.... this is a movie that you cannot pass up seeing.

Rating:
Summary: Frozen Hell
Review: Probably the turning point of World War II, the film chronicles the lives of the ordinary German soldier who underwent a 'frozen hell' in Russia. Despite heavy losses, Wehrmacht troops have conquered the city of Stalingrad, but they are encircled by the Russian army and a German officer and his men realize the futility of war offers little hope of final victory. Stalingrad has great battle scenes, original acting, together with decent set locations depicting the last desperate days of World War II's most important battle. We see an army deserted by its leadership as it battles two overwhelming enemies -- the Russian army and the Russian winter! I felt like I was actually there.

Rating:
Summary: "What we were fighting for . . . "
Review: From the sun-soaked beaches of southern Italy to a slow freezing death after being abandoned at Stalingrad, this film grimly depicts the human cost involved in Adolf Hitler's callous betrayal of the German military during the Second World War.

I've met soldiers who served on the Eastern front; without exception, they described the Russian people as magnificent. Those sentiments come through in this film. The horror of this film comes from the relentless grinding down of both sides into depravity.

This simple story is about a hitherto successful assault battalion sent to Stalingrad, then gradually cut down until every last man is dead. That happens in war. Many Allied infrantry units that landed in Normandy in June 1944, as 'Saving Private Ryan' hints at, had 150 percent replacement ratios within months. The real difference is 'Why?'

On a strategic basis, Stalingrad was a German success. A Germany army of 300,000 men tied down vast Russian forces, assuring the disastrous collapse of the Red Army drive to break through in Operation Mars just west of Moscow. Read 'Zhukov's Greatest Defeat' by David Glantz for the story of that battle. Without the stubborn defense at Stalingrad, the German Eastern front might have collapsed in the 1942-43 winter.

This film and 'Saving Private Ryan' vividly illustrate the contrast between Allied and Nazi methods. Americans sometimes went to absurd lengths to save the life of a sole individual, the Nazis were willing to throw away any individual's life -- and the lives of hundreds of thousands -- for "the glory of the Fatherland."

The brutality of this policy is not overlooked. As defeat becomes inevitable, Nazi atrocities escalate. Nazi commanders made it certain that no German soldier could surrender and expect leniency. Communist forces were no less ruthless; for decades, Russians were terrorized into abject obedience by everyone from czars to commissars. Yet, when millions of Russian soldiers were captured because their leaders surrendered, Stalin had only one verdict, "there are no prisoners of war, only deserters."

In an America that treasures the rights of individuals, 'Stalingrad' is a chilling reminder of how little an individual truly matters to a fanatic -- religious, political or any cult. The next time some two-bit boss, or "for the good of the company" tyrant, insists "My way or the highway," think of the "road" the men in this film took and how miserably they died because of it.

Stalingrad was the clash of two tyrannies, each dedicated to the idea that individuals meant nothing compared to "the worth of the whole community." The result grinds people into nothingness. This film, watched with 'Saving Private Ryan," explains "what we were fighting for."

Rating:
Summary: Stalingrad-A Good Film To See
Review: If you're looking for a romantic ending type of war movie, when a hero comes in to save the day, this is not the movie to watch. This movie is told through the eyes of German Storm Troopers who are trapped in Russian where in their only option is to be killed in battle or to freeze to death. The besiegement of the city of Stalingrad quickly turns from a seemingly ingenious decision by Hitler into the hellist realization of the imminent defeat of the German army. There are two major war scenes, the openning one in the city of Stalingrad and the second on the outskirts of the city (infantry verses tank battle). Both scenes are good but contain slighly unbelievable parts. This movie will be a good addition to your war movie collection. Although I do not speak any foreign language, I recommend that you buy all foreign films with subtitles and not English dub over versions. Also see the French film "Capitaine Conan".

Rating:
Summary: KREIG is HELL
Review: I thought this was a extraordinarly excellent film. It depicts the average German foot soldier, and what he had to endure, in the hellish inferno called Stalingrad. Just as the ticking metronome the real 6th Army had to hear from the Russians, as psychological warfare, so is tormenting drama that unfolds in front of you. One of the scenes that I didn't think was too realistic, was when the Germans blew up a Russian T-34 tank, with a molotov cocktail. But, I can understand they didn't want to destroy a piece of history. The soldier that gets blown in half looked very realistic though. The scene where they were trying to escape Stalingrad, at the airfield, was an accurute account of the hopelessness of the whole situation. Very few aircraft managed to escape. Although the film was a little long, the ending tells it all. It's refreshing to see a real war film, instead of the BS Hollywood has to offer. Watch the Battle of the Bugle with Henry Fonda, and then watch Stalingrad. You make the decision.

Rating:
Summary: RUN FOR COVER, IT'S VILSMAIER AGAIN !!!!
Review: I am not a fan of Joseph Vilsmaier's films. In fact his dwelling on WW2 and Nazi realted subjects really gets to you. Of all his works Stalingrad stands out as on of those films that are enjoyable to watch if u are into "realistic war movies" (realistic compared to hollywood) but which fall short when it comes to story telling and depth of the subject.

Vilsmaier has proven to be pretty superficial and painfully politically correct with his latter work "Comedian Harmonists", a film that is also just a shadow of what it could have been.

Fact is that what we see in "Stalingrad" is technically well done considering it's year of release, but does NOT portray the average German soldier on the Eastern front.
What is sickening is the "self hatred" of the Landser shown in this film. Which soldier who is right in his mind admits that "he is a beast trampling on Russian soil" and then cintinues to fight ???? Even more, which soldier who is right in his mind admits that he hates the Nazi regime but continues to fight with all he has got ????
Fact is that many German soldiers simply belived that what they were fighting for was a just cause. Either blinded by propaganda, driven by feelings of revenge or simply naive obedience, no army would have continued to fight so viciously against incredible odds if it was full of "self haters".

Fact is that nobody wants to portray "heroes" of a story who obviously are fighting for a bad cause but do not realize it and therefore give it all they got.
Something the numerous Vietnam War films out there tried to do and ended up portraying Nam Vets as drug abusing psycho maniacs and mental wrecks, a trend heavily criticized by vet organizations.The same idiotic trend applies to German soldiers in GERMAN war flicks.
No , the "good guys" are so morally "good" that they preemptively admit their guilt, whereas the copy book nazi officers try one more time to win the "who looks like the Gestapo guy from Raiders of teh Lost Arch"-contest. Nuff said about cliche. The whole movie has a bitter taste to it, and that is the feeling of the German Social Democrat Party (Yes the one's who recently ruined the German economy and send a whole generation out on the dole)having written the script and Jossi Vilsmaier gets the one million Euro German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis).

When will someone pick up Guy Sajer's "Forgotten Soldier" and put in on the screen ???? That would be a movie that could leave u shattered without any illusions about war.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: There you go, the title says it all.

A film worht buying and watching, right from the beginning you are on the tip of your seat as the movie takes you on a stunning and gripping WWII ride.

It is good to see movies based on the "other" side of the war, namely the Germans.

Joseph Vilsmaier makes history and drama come alive.

You follow a "green" officer and veteran Wehrmacht soldiers into the city of chaos and death, Stalingrad.
Some very gripping scenes showing that being human has its flaws and that the only thing on their mind was survival.

EXCELLENT !

Rating:
Summary: Stalincrud.
Review: If there's any truth to this movie, what really destroyed the mighty Wehrmacht at Stalingrad was boredom.
Reasonably respectable, at times even impressive. But, generally turgid and meandering. Also, it takes a simple class approach to Nazi evil, suggesting that the average German soldier was just a hapless victim sent to the front by sadistic and uncaring commanders. If indeed the nature and magnitude of Nazi evil were that simple.