Stalingrad [DVD] [1994]

It's tempting to call the harrowing Stalingrad a World War II version of All Quiet on the Western Front, since both films take the perspective of ordinary German soldiers at ground level. Stalingrad surveys the misery of the battle of Stalingrad, the winter siege that cost the lives of almost one and a half million people--Russian defenders and German invaders alike. Not unlike Spielberg's approach to Saving Private Ryan, German director Joseph Vilsmaier rarely steps outside the action to comment on the higher purpose of the war, assuming the audience is aware of the evil of the Nazi regime. Instead, we simply follow a group of soldiers as they endure a series of gut-wrenching episodes, events that have the tang of authenticity and horror. Vilsmaier has a taste for symbolism and surreal touches, which only add to the unsettling sense of insanity this movie conjures up so well. --Robert Horton

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: An epic treatment of World War II's most prolonged and bloodiest battle has yet to be made, but this grunt's eye view of that event is a powerful dramatic treatment on its own terms. Even before the storm troopers of the Sixth Army depart for the Russian front from a beachside idyll in Italy, there is a suggestion of trouble in the ranks when one of their number refuses to button his collar for a medals ceremony and his commanding officer in turn refuses to award him his medal. This theme, the conflict between the ground-level soldier and the officers who blindly follow orders, caring little for the morale of their men, is best illustrated in a terse exchange of dialogue. When a captain tries to tell Sergeant Rohleder (Jochen Nickel), 'I'm not a Nazi,' the weary, nearly frozen sergeant replies, 'No. You're worse, you lousy officers. You went along, even though you knew who was in charge.' In this movie's view, Stalingrad became less of a battle against the Russians and a more a battle for survival. 'If you start to think, you go crazy,' advises one soldier to another even before they're in desperate straits, and there are few heroes in this story, just men operating on gut instinct. The script focuses on a small company of soldiers, all of them fairly admirable, though as their number dwindles, they become divided on the limits of their duty to the Fatherland. Like Das Boot, with whom this shares a number of production personnel, this was a TV miniseries in Germany, which doesn't mean the filmmakers stint on their depictions of violence. Even if it comes up short in depicting the details of the German command's folly in fighting on through the winter, Stalingrad, like Das Boot, does transcend national rooting interest...Stalingrad