Stalingrad (2014)

This review contains spoilers.Stalingrad is a war movie set in the second Wold War in the Battle of Stalingrad. The movie follows both the Soviet and German army's perspectives as the battle unfolds. Most of the story follows the perspectives of Soviet soldiers that find shelter in an apartment building.This movie is a mess. Many story arcs are jumbled that causes the audience to be unable to follow a character well. The story tried to do too much and it only causes the audience to be confused. The Soviet soldiers in the apartment are fine as characters on their own, but the movie follows each of them causing a jumbling mess. This is further exacerbated by the movie spending time with the German officer and his Russian collaborator. Many of these characters die with their arcs unfulfilled which adds to the pointlessness of following the characters.Besides the story, the action is decent but not impressive. The action could have been better directed, with some of the computer effects being bland. The sound design is great and I did not hear any blaring problems. Some of the action scenes are worth watching. Overall, I would not recommend Stalingrad. It is a movie with many problems in its plot. Some of the action scenes are worth watching even if it leans heavily on propaganda.

Cant remember the last time a film lost me within the first minute of watching it, the very moment that a film depicts Russia as 'saviours of world disasters' its utter rubbish. The film was Cliche, predictable and over the top. There are better films about this epic and tragic battle that are worth your time that pay it more respect, and doesn't use it as a political vehicle to act as a PR exercise.AVOID

Awful. If you want to watch a film about the battle of Stalingrad watch the 1993 German film of the same name or even Enemy at the Gates. This Filmed seemed to pay no attention to the history at all. The whole movie practically takes place in one building. You get little glimpse of the scope of the battle. The film seems more of Stalinist propaganda film from the Cold War. An honest telling of what happened in the battle of Stalingrad, This is not. do yourself a favour and don't give yourself the torture of sitting through this train wreck. They're are much more deserving films on this subject you will enjoy much more. A few are Enemy at the gates, Stalingrad 1993 or even Stalingrad Dogs do you want live forever.

I don't often review a film in a defensive manner, but in this case I was truly shocked by how negative the reviews have been.STALINGRAD is not an epic history of the battle itself. The actual battle took over six months and involved over a million men. Did anyone really expect to see every single soldier engaged rush past the camera? STALINGRAD is not Russian, let alone Communist propaganda. It's a story of human survival and human values such as loyalty, compassion and love. If anything, the movie is overly cautious in that not one Red Army soldier ever refers to commissars, or the Party Line, let alone the danger of being liquidated by the NKVD. But that's part of the point. There are no idealists and no dissidents either. Only men and women fighting to stay alive.The fight for a single house symbolizes the epic battle of Stalingrad. There is no reason to reject this strategy. Anyone who's watched the movie GETTYSBURG (surely the American equivalent of Stalingrad on many levels) will notice that at least half the film's running time is devoted to the valor of a single Union Army Regiment (the 20th Maine) defending a single small hill (Little Round Top.) This movie presents a similar struggle, except a single house is the Red Army's Little Round Top. And the brave, tender, loving woman who lives there is the flesh and blood symbol of all they hope to preserve.STALINGRAD is not only a great war movie, with explosive combat scenes and hand to hand combat, but a very intimate movie too. The fact that a narrator is used to provide back story for the five Red Army soldiers (and their adored Katya) in no way lessens the dramatic impact of their sacrifice. This is a unique look at war because here there is no separation from the Home Front and the Front Lines. The idolized "girl next door" in most war movies is literally next door, and her survival is more vital to these fighting men than their own.Does STALINGRAD have flaws? Perhaps a few minor ones. Thomas Kretschmann is an extraordinary actor, but his character, Captain Kahn, is the "doomed yet defiantly chivalrous German officer" we've all admired ever since Marlon Brando in THE YOUNG LIONS. His love affair with the submissive, lush-lipped traitor Masha is scorching hot at first, particularly one indelible image when he returns to her after a firefight and literally tears the clothes from her all-too-willing body. Yet by the end his heroics have become unintentionally funny, as he commandeers a go-cart and zooms through the crowds like Bart Simpson on a rampage, seeking his golden-haired Slavic siren. When the stern Colonel reprimands him, you almost expect Kahn to chirp, "Don't have a cow, man!" But again, the point here is not to glorify war, or even Russian fortitude. It's to glorify the common humanity of Germans and Russians alike. STALINGRAD is a fine film and time will confirm my judgment!