Stalingrad (1994)

For those interested in WW2 or not, this movie is a masterpiece and for a change not made by Hollywood, but a high budget film made by one of the the nations that has had to deal with the madness and suffering of this pointless slaughter at the eastern front. It may frighten American/British viewers not used to subtitles, but do not miss it because of that. It has among the greatest younger generation of German actors in their early roles before Hollywood careers (Thomas Kretschmann!). This really brings out the futility of this campaign and focuses mainly on the Wehrmacht, not psychotic Waffen SS-stereotypes.It is painful to watch, yes, mostly focused on a platoon, certain character portraits from the German side, not the Russian side, but is in no way glorifying or justifying the Nazi ideology. It's just a very realistic, gruesome portrait of the insanity of war and waste of human lives.Do not miss out on this one!

Stalingrand of 1993 is among the many interpretations of this famous Battle of the Second World War and It is the best of them all. It has it all and it also quit accurate in portraying the fight around ,in and below the ground in the city as well as avoiding to glorify it ,but going directly to the meat of the case : The hell that it was and the suffering of the Soldiers in the front lines.As is the standard, the movie follows a platoon of German which is send to the city in order to help in the capture of the city and all of them soon release that this is not going to be walk in the park for the Soviet resistant is fierce and almost from the first minutes of combat you think "The crew doesn't waste any time , they go straight to the front lines. Awesome". The reason why I love this quick transition is that , from the title we all know what will happen and so we naturally expect to see the brutality of war and thankfully Joseph Vilsmaier ,the director, and his team also get that and their efforts are focused to make the fight intense, be accurate of the sake of the period and make the characters ,nice dudes, in order to care if they survive or die. You that feeling it is the same when you are watching Game of Thrones and we get that here ;).To focus on the accuracy of the film ,I was surprised for a lot of effort it was put in it and the costume ,the weapons and the setting is as close as it gets. For that to happen among the actors, the writers, the director's team and producers, it was also a military consultant in aid with the re-enactment. Man I like it when I see a film crew try it best to recreate a historical period and even if something goes south, you still will appreciate the final product due to the obvious effort ,which is put in it. Now as wrote before ,thet flick focuses on the struggles of a single platoon and its members, that focus works to the films favor for when you dealing with a historical subject ,is always better to start with something simple and fuse it in the era. Simply put make the story to fit the era and not the other way around. For although this film isn't a biography (so we can call a historical fiction!) the production, the story and the dialogues are made with the final goal to represent the battle of Stalingrand faithfully.Closing the film is definitely worth watching as a war film, history film and with a good amount of action, so it has the maximum appeal. And the 2013 Stalingrand is a abomination which puts shame to a fight which claim the lives of 1.5 to 2 million people.

Gritty WW2 drama.August 1942. A German combat engineer platoon is resting and recuperating in Italy after fighting in North Africa. Their Lieutenant was badly wounded in the fighting and a new, green, platoon commander, Lt Hans van Witzland, has just taken command. The platoon is soon to be attached to an elite unit and sent to a place synonymous with carnage and destruction on a massive scale. An operation that marked a turning point of World War 2. Stalingrad.A good depiction of the Battle of Stalingrad, told from the German perspective and on a small unit scale. Accurately depicts the callous disregard for human life, the terror, the sheer futility and, ultimately, foolhardiness of the Battle of Stalingrad. Quite novel too, a German telling of the battle, a battle that they suffered massive losses in, ultimately lost and, as a result, ultimately lost WW2.Not perfect. Character engagement is a bit limited - you don't feel as much for the individual soldiers as you should. There's a breathless feeling of action scene after action scene without any time to reflect, or get to know the characters better.

A battalion of German soldiers from the Afrika Corps are spending some time at an Italian port during the summer of 1942. At that particular time their spirits were high as the German army was in the process of advancing victoriously into Russia. But all that was subject to change as their next assignment would be: Stalingrad. And they had no idea what was in store for them. At any rate, told from the German perspective, this film does a remarkable job of showing the hardships and tragedy these soldiers had to endure. Despite proving themselves in battle, their courage and discipline was being tested as much by the Russian winter as it was their Russian foes. And yet they continued on all the same. Now, while everybody knows how this battle eventually played out, this movie allows the viewer to gain a unique understanding of how it may have appeared through the eyes of the German soldier. Definitely worth a watch for those who can appreciate a film of this type.