Poll Position: A Brief History Lesson About "Stalingrad" (1993)

Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day for our readers in the south) was last week and to stay with the theme, we decided to do a war themed movie. War filled with sad and disgraceful moments in human history, but we can’t forget about all the sacrifices our soldiers did for our country. The least we can do is learn about the wars, hopefully enough to never to repeat the stupid mistakes we’ve made. You’ve picked “Stalingrad” last week and a movie I’ve been told punches as powerful a punch as “Schneider’s List”. But the two are polar opposites in what it sets off to do. After the jump I get down in the trenches with the Germans.

Now the reason I say the two movies are polar opposite of each other is, while “Schneider’s List” deals with the more upper ranking German soldiers. “Stalingrad” focuses on the lower ranking German soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad. More specifically on a small group of men that are sent into war from their vacation leave in Italy. As they struggle through the cold climate of Russia, they go through a number of ethical decisions.

The group get accustomed with Russian weather. 

The most interesting part of the movie is the fact that we get to see how the German soldiers dealt with WW2. In most of these WW2 movies, we are in the perspective of the Jewish, The Allies or more specifically the Americans. Rarely do we see the Germans be the victims. So in this movie we get to see the troubles of a group of German soldiers during the battle of Stalingrad. It’s interesting to see how they struggled and at times how they did not exactly shared the same views as their superiors in the war. Early on I felt on the side of these few German soldiers, you were cheering them on, more to survive than to win the war.

Now I wasn’t a big fan of the acting of most of the actors, but what was nice is seeing their personalities develop through the changing times. At first during their vacation in Italy, they are acting big and superior with their high spirits. But quickly, they are brought down to Earth level when the Russians start to attack. Their charm really comes alive during these times, each soldier with their own quirks; I started to grow fond of them. Though sometimes the acting is over exaggerated, and almost gets corny at times. This really sucks because the overall tone of the film is fairly serious.

Typical scenery in Stalingrad during 1942.

Where this movie really differs from a lot of other WW2 movies is the fact that it doesn’t really glorify the graphic battle wounds. Yes you do see a man blow into smithereens and yes a man does get his legs sawed off right before your eyes. But it makes more of an emotional punch than just a cheap shock. But besides a few scenes, most of the movie is fairly tamed down when it comes to blood and gore. What it doesn’t turn down is the powerful moments the movie brings up. It’s extremely hard to watch a man forced to allow his fellow soldiers to kill innocent civilians.

The men eventually come down to a decision that needs to be made: either continue fighting and suffering the brutal Russian winters or just give up and kill themselves to save themselves from the pain. Talk about a lose-lose situation.  Watching the morale of these men deteriorate as the war goes on is painful.  

Without a doubt, the most disturbing scene in the whole movie.

Overall the movie is as dark and cold as the Russian winters that stopped the Germans. It sends a powerful message that the Germans weren’t frolicking in tulips and daisies during the war either. While the acting isn’t super good, it is good enough to really send home the message what these brave men went through. I really liked this movie a lot. It brings to light a perspective we’re rarely told about in school or elsewhere.