Stalingrad

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.


One of the best   January 14, 2004
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

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 !


Cast of Dozens   December 20, 2003
 6 out of 13 found this review helpful

To be sure, with 95% of all war movies being garbage, this is a good flick. However, it lost its opportunity for greatness when it passed on being the portrait of a decisive turning point in the world's greatest conflict. Obviously done on a tight budget with limited research, most of the battle sequences are shot nearsighted in scale so few tanks and actors are needed. Street fighting is limited to one brief episode in a factory. The added intrigue of the evil German officer (something out of an Indiana Jones flick) was out of place as well as being inaccurate for that period of the war (that crap started after Hitler's assassination, years later). Missing is the overconfidence and arrogance that turns to surprise and shock with the German's facing their first defeat. Another omission is the bitter determination displayed by well-trained career soldiers who knew they weren't leaving alive. In this film the Germans come off as a retagged bunch of draftees just waiting to lose.


Don't forget the gal   December 19, 2003
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

I've scanned about 40 of the reviews below and none of them seemed to mention the rather implausible plot element of the beautiful Russian girl (with a German mother) whose life is spared by a handful of German soldiers, and who is shot down as she, in turn, tries to lead them to safety (??) somewhere out on the steppe. This element was quite a surprising fall from the fairly carefully rendered combat sequences that reviewers describe.


Outstanding   November 21, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

There are few movies around which really deal with war on the Eastern front during WW2, of those which I have seen this is definitley the best.

We follow a group of soldiers through the hell of the battle that was Stalingrad through this very nicely shot film, which really smacks you in the face with the horror of war. One scene which really reached out and grabbed me was Pitomnik Airfield, where we see the mad and desperate frenzy of wounded and dying soldiers trying to get aboard one of the planes, their only hope of salvation from the Kessel. It was exactly how I imagined it while reading Stalingrad by Antony Beevor.

This movie also closes with one of the most desolate and dark scenes ever I think, the remnants of the group having failed at their miserable attempt to escape the Kessel, sitting and freezing in the open Steppe, just waiting to die.

Simply harrowing stuff and I highly recommend this to all.