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with this film is it must portray the German soldiers somehow as likable, regular Frantzes. Well, they may well have been but they perpetrated, on an almost unheard of scale, atrocities, destruction, and death. The viewer-with-a-pulse, of course, will be unable to forget that and is placed in the bizarre position of rooting against these "heroic" figures.
Naturally, for empathic reasons, the Germans have second-thoughts about the war, the film going so far as having them pal around with a young Russian boy and a Russian woman. When Russians summarily are executed, our "heroes" do it with.... distaste.
The direction certainly is not beyond the capability of an average television series' director.
I'd like to say the battle and engagement scenes were exciting but that would be a slap in the face to many war films of even average achievement.
Avoid.
Follow Ups:
... was the most affecting war movie I have ever seen and I am sure must have been discussed here before. Obviously written and directed from a very much partisan Belarussian perspective but some astonishing imagery, breathtaking effects (the loss of hearing in the woods adds so much to the chaos) and gut churning atrocities depicted.
Incredible.
nt
and the historical inaccuracies ( the Russians have 1950's USA tanks, the German trenches get bombed by Marine Corps Corsairs )
Yeah, RightThe friction between the aristocratic Prussian Officer + the Sergeant, which makes for most of the films drama, fizzles + the film ends on an odd note
James Coburns finest role, + David Warners
James Mason is in his usual top form, but he is way better as Rommel in The Desert Fox Curious how this most English of gentlemen consistently got roles as German officers, and played them really well!
Legend has it Sam Peckinpah had a film about Stalingrad financed + ready to go, even had a few daillys filmed, but he died before any progress was made with that
GW
Edits: 10/20/08
My uncle died in Stalingrad and I can assure you he was not bloodthirsty!
You can read his last letter to his wife, in the book " Stalingrad ".
Yes a Schinken.
" Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu'une tête bien pleine."
People with deformities or other visible imperfections (dwarfs, midgets), gays, gypsies, and Jews were already being segregated. This was NO secret to the German people and ugly rumors commonly circulated about the fate these people faced or already had met.
The idea that men innocently don a uniform and just go off to war is a silly excuse. Before the US committed hundreds of thousands of soldiers to Vietnam, there were Senate hearings ('63), led by Senator Fullbright, which exposed the impiousness of the regime we were trying to keep in power.
When one goes off to kill, it is imperative upon the individual to know why he is doing so.
Of course they would rabidly embrace the notion of a strong nation retaking its rightful place in the world. Oppresssion has a strong rebound.
Does that explain your aversion(/fear?) of "non-whites" ?
Edits: 11/10/08
Questioning authority was not on their minds, unlike what happened here beginning in the 60s.
You forgot the main part.
The politics where the first to get it. And it was first created for them, socialist, communist...
of course it is not a silly excuse.
Not all soldiers were intellectuals.
They did, many did, what they had to.
And if you did not you were put away.
my father did the underground, his brother the army.
" Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu'une tête bien pleine."
While I agree that it's not the best war film around, I'd have to say that it is as least worth watching, especially if you are interested in the battle of Stalingrad.
As for the humanity of the German soldiers, they were indeed human, even though their own suffering was surely brought upon themselves --- and the Russians paid them back in full, with interest, all the way back to Berlin.
While we're on the subject of Stalingrad, I would suggest a recent book by Michael Jones: Stalingrad: How the Red Army Survived the German Onslaught. Jones gets into declassified Russian reports and gets underneath the Soviet propaganda machine for a very revealing look at various stages in the first part of the battle. Amazing read.
http://www.amazon.com/STALINGRAD-Army-Survived-German-Onslaught/dp/1932033726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224511495&sr=8-1
who pointed out that Stalin had "no room for God" on their belt buckles.
I saw this, and while not a favorite, I didn't find it that ("avoid") bad. I guess if one have a couple hundred in queue and had the benefit of hindsight.........
It's no Underground or Full Metal Jacket or Patton, that's for sure.
I liked it more than you did.
Surely there were some Germans involved in the campaign who recognized that fighting the Russians was virtually a death sentence--hence, those with second thoughts. That the movie should focus on their story is, as you suggest, to create sympathy for the lead characters.
Overall, I thought this movie did a workable job of portraying the chaos and horrors of warfare . . .
I saw Vilsmaier's version and IIRC, it dealt with the rank and file Wehrmacht soldiers who should not be confused with the various SS troops who were much more indoctrinated and largely responsible for the atrocities.
He quotes sources that show the Wehrmacht were willing participants in carrying out atrocities against Russians. The Wehrmacht didn't do as much as the SS because it wasn't their job, but they certainly participated. You don't need indoctrination when you believe all Russians, including civilians, are the enemy.
Henry Metelmann's writing also extensively covers his experience in the Wehrmacht where they "took the gloves" off, so to speak.
Regards. Doug
and the films that most accurately show the Eastern Front:
Mein Kreig ( German perspective through film cameras carried by soldiers who were there; survivors who narrate their footage )
Come + See ( from the Russian perspective )
Vilsmaers Stalingrad misses by miles in comparison
GW
*
.
What a gut wrenching film that is...
going off to conquer their neighbors. Kind of like Americans when first we attacked Vietnam and Iraq. After losses, sure, one has second thoughts........
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