Stalingrad

Rating:
Summary: Germany fails again
Review: This is an excellent film. It depicts the arrogance and selfishness of Hitler, his Generals, and the Nazi cause. While the German ground troops were fighting in a climate for which they were not prepared, the generals where holed up in a safe place, lots of food and drink. Hitler, safe in the bunker, while his men were fighting a loosing battle. Lost in the cold, lost without food and proper clothing. They froze, they starved, they fought, they died for an unrealized goal. This film shows that Hitler cared nothing about the people who lived and died for his cause. They were sent to the Russian Front without the proper clothing for the climate, their tanks froze, they were without food (except for chocolate rations dropped from planes). Yet, this shows how a country would stand and unite for a single man, a petty cause, and die for a country -- a death without dignity.

As was depicted in "THE BUNKER" Hitler wanted nothing left to the enemy -- he ordered total destruction. The manner in which the German Army was unprepared to face the Russians, in a sense, Hitler began his destruction of his own forces, by sending them to Russia unprepared and ignorant. "If the war is lost, the people of Germany will be lost also"

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal War Movie
Review: I have seen more war movies than I care to remember, including the John Wayne epics, and even a Ronald Reagan "masterpiece." The good ones, in my opinion, include Das Boot, A Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, and Apocalypse Now. However, never have I seen a film to equal Stalingrad. If ever a film showed the stupidity of war and the shameless exploitation of soldiers by their government, this is the one. I suspect that German audiences were struck dumb with horror, especially those old enough to remember the battle or even to have participated. If not, they should have been.

Rating:
Summary: as close as it gets.....
Review: when your children are called to war by the drums and flags..... let them see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Horrifying ,tragic, very well done.
Review: The people who brought DAS BOOt to us have once more done what I personally thought impossible:make german servicemen sympathetic.I can think of few soldiers who elicit less sympathy than wwII germans, yet in this movie,albeit rife with military cliches{a cruel, bestial commander, a thoughtful anti-war soldier, a farm boy,etc.]the creative team has done that. The movie opens in Italy, idyllic, with german soldiers swimming,playing in the sun. The unit then recieves orders to go to the russian front,and of course the scenic changes are brilliant.What happens in russia is well known and though the battle scenes are graphic and well done,filled with chaos and fear,here is where the movie takes on the weightier philosphical issues,and where i think it bogs down. Still, despite the absurd ending{predictable] it is aninteresting account of young[mostly]men thrown into desperate situations,and trying to survive. Not for everyone,worth a look at the very least, for its unusual portrayal of german soldiers.

Rating:
Summary: One of best Anti-war movies ever.....
Review: In one sitting the veiwer can see the horrors of war from German eyes. The movie does borrow a bit from "Cross of Iron" with another Soviet Child-Soldier, and the avergae Landser's dislike of the overbearing German leadership, however it goes to a new level of the genre. Just like by watching "Das Boot" you can smell the deisel fuel and feel trapped in the sub, this movie will chill you with the frozen weather, and the futility of war. A must see. I reccomend the DVD version, so you don't have to sit and read the sub titles, and enjoy the scenes.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but fascinating
Review: I was inspired to watch this movie again after having finished off Antony Beever's excellent Stalingrad history. It was instructive to watch it when all the details of the battle were so fresh in my mind, because the movie takes great pains to incorporate many of the details which made the siege unique. The movie is flawed- there are quite a few stock characters and some scenes which are poorly done (the maniacally laughing general comes to mind), but the battle scenes are well done and perhaps more importantly, the perspective is tremendously fresh. You simply don't see the Wermacht protrayed sympathetically very often, and it takes movies like Stalingrad and Das Boot to remind American viewers that the German soldiers were not cartoon characters. Not perfect, but highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: It could have been a lot better
Review: I'll give director Joseph Vilsmaier some credit for being ambitious, just some. For the most part, Stalingrad is a pretty bad war film, one that struggles constantly to be dramatic and powerful but feels so obviously choreographed and forced that the payoff comes off feeling very weak.

Stalingrad does feature two decent combat sequences, one in the streets of the city itself and another that features a German platoon taking on Russian tanks. The street battles are fairly well choreographed and the snow battle against the tanks is excellently done, but I was surprised that I felt absolutely no sense of dread or tension. My heart never beat any faster while watching these scenes, very much unlike the infantry battle scenes featured in other anti-war films like Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, and Cross of Iron.

I think the main problem for that is because I didn't feel much for the characters. The problem of that aspect stems from both the screenwriting and the actors. During all too many scenes, the characters talk about what's wrong with their personal lives but all of it feels so stereotypical, it's just "heard it all before" kind of material. Of course, if delivered well, the material could feel fresh and innovative, but in this film, the actors fare no better than the script. They either have exaggerated scared looking expressions on their face or are so flat that they're boring.

It's not easy to categorize Stalingrad as what kind of war film it is. It's not particularly filled with a lot of action and combat sequences and it's not focused enough to be a character driven drama. Instead, it's just a poor and quite bad concoction of both.

Rating:
Summary: Very overrated war film
Review: Stalingrad is quite the unharrowing war film; it lacks a certain sense of direction and never quite knows where it should go, resulting in a film that's confused in its execution of its themes.

There are more problems than just that. The film is shoddily edited, to such an extent that some of the combat scenes actually looked a little more goofy than shocking. Some scenes make quick transitions to another and the change of setting from the streets of Stalingrad to the frost-covered areas of Russia isn't an improvement.

Stalingrad also features very poor acting, with maybe the exception of Dominique Horwitz as the lieutenant. Everybody else tends to overact or show the wrong emotion at the wrong moment. The result is quite disorienting.

Some of the reviews compare this to Saving Private Ryan, but I can see no reason as to how Stalingrad could be compared to that masterpiece (which is also perhaps the best war film ever made). Stalingrad is just an unthrilling, numb, and off track war film that never seems to know what it wants to do next. It's as if though the director screenwriter came up with ideas as they were filming.

Who knows, maybe a longer cut might fix some of these problems, but from what I saw, I wasn't impressed at all. For great war films from the German perspective during World War 2, watch Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron or Wolfgang Peterson's Das Boot.

Rating:
Summary: No Thank You
Review: A war movie is always hard to make as the director usually tries to balance two aspects - realism and human interest.

Too much realism and you may as well have strung together some old newsreels. Too much human interest and the viewer eventually expects to see John Wayne saunter into picture dressed as a German general with a broad American accent toting shotguns and smoking cigars.

The most successful marriage of the two remains The World At War -largely because the cameras gave you the picture and Olivier broke your heart with his narration. Spielberg almost cracked it in Saving Private Ryan with a searing first 20 minutes and then blew it in the last 20 by turning Tom Hanks into a WW2 version of Indiana Jones - holding off crack SS troops ( they were resting and refitting in France after service on the Eastern Front and would have polished off his crew with hands tied behind their backs ) in a display I have not seen since a B grade matinee in the 60's. To say nothing of the laboured attention to the fateful role played by the previously released prisoner.

Stalingrad is riddled with inaccuracies and corn. The dialogue is stilted and wooden. Many of the situations were contrived. And throughout the actors remained relatively well groomed and well fed. Read any account of actual events - the starvation, the lice and the appalling conditions and you will need your cast to go in the opposite direction to De Niro in Raging Bull to scratch the surface of authenticity. Probably an impossible story to convey accurately.

If you want to see the Russian campaign the way it was and can bear the quirks of Russian film making and sub titles then get hold of a copy of 'Come & See '. That's how I imagine it really was.

Stalingrad was hell. This interpretation was nonsense.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Provacative
Review: At the beginning of this movie you can't help but smile, but by the end you'll be near tears.

The film starts as the young cocky solidiers, get their minds filled with propoganda by a superior Nazi officer. They talk about how they are going to crush "Ivan"( the Russians), on their way to Stalingrad. From here it becomes a downward spiral. Each solidier has his own troubles, and each must find a way to deal with them. This film mixes the action sequences and dramatic scenes brilliantly. Some scenes you won't soon forget.(I refuse to tell you them because if you sit down to watch this movie, you'll be looking for them)The movie is sad, near the end you find it hard to believe these solidiers are the same ones you met at the beginning(of the film). I saw this movie over two months ago, and it still is stuck in my mind.