Poll Position: Stalingrad (1993)

In honour of the troops that gave their lives for us and Canadian Remembrance Day, last week's poll was war themed. The winning movie was actually one we only put on at the last second, and it ended up winning by a landslide. Last week when I watched All Quiet on the Western Front, I felt it was interesting to see the war from the other side. Stalingrad does it again, but now we're on the other side, geographically, of the German's fight, heading into Russia. Does this German language film have the strong impact that other war films have? Can it make you feel for the troops on the other side? Hit the jump to find out.


We follow a group of soldiers lead by Lt. Hans von Witzland (Thomas Kretschmann). They start off in sunny Italy enjoying the water and the wine, but soon their assignments come in. They find themselves ordered to the Russian frontlines, fighting for control of the city Stalingrad. Things are not going well for them, and Hans is having a hard time dealing with his superior's orders. They essentially just keep making terrible decisions and sending men to their deaths for minimal gains. Hans also can't see the point in the abuse and harm of the Russian civilians. But when he tries to put a stop to things of that nature, he is reprimanded. Eventually they are assigned, as punishment in a way, to the front lines out in the middle of nowhere as the Russian winters bear down on them. Soon it becomes less a matter of following orders, and just a simple struggle to survive the cold.

It starts off with all sun and women in Italy. How soon things change.

When the movie started off, I'm not sure if it was because it was all in German, or if the subtitles weren't the greatest, but I had a really hard time identifying with the plethora of German soldiers. This became less of a problem as the film wore on and the lesser characters were either killed off or were simply separated from the group. It did make getting attached to any of the characters really difficult for me. It felt like I only started getting to know the different characters towards the end, but by then it was pretty much too late.

The German troops struggle with the Russian winter while also fighting tanks!

One thing I that stood out to me was when the soldiers realize that it was now around Christmas for them. One soldier tells a really sad story about becoming disconnected from his family because of his experiences with the war, and then he just starts singing "O Tannenbaum". That's "O Christmas Tree" for those unfamiliar with the German name. It actually had a weird collision with real life today, as there were discussions about Christmas music being too early or out of place. Well how about a Christmas song in the middle of the damned war being sung by doomed soldiers? Makes the malls playing it seem not so bad. Does that make this a Christmas movie? That's a weird thought.

What the movie absolutely nails though, are the harsh and brutal conditions of the Russian winter. Combine that with little shelter, few rations, people shooting at you and tanks trying to run you over, and it gets pretty hopeless. Need to make it worse? How about if your superior officer was a horrible Nazi who ordered you to kill innocent civilians, or else you can join them in the line of fire? It's not surprising that soldiers defecting was a problem.

As if the cold wasn't bad enough!

I was trying to remember if I'd seen any movies that had winter warfare in them, and I finally remembered seeing Doctor Zhivago all the way back in February. Now, that film was about the Russian Revolution, but still featured quite a lot of scenes of war in the Russian winter conditions. Stalingrad featured more modern warfare, obviously, and had a really interesting battle against tanks at one point. Mostly though, it seems both films focused on how survival becomes far more important very quickly.

While the film was potent in its depiction of the war, and how not all the German soldiers were Nazi's and were simply under threat of being killed themselves, I couldn't help but find myself bored by it. I think that's primarily because I had such a hard time connecting with the characters, but I think if I had a better copy of the film, or maybe if it was dubbed I would have gotten more out of it. As it was though, I can't say I really enjoyed it. In fact, even the winters weren't depicted as well as they were in Doctor Zhivago which also had the additional benefit of stunning and amazing cinematography. While I can't say Stalingrad was bad, I've just seen better in almost every area this movie covers. Obviously though, if you're interested in war films, this is definitely worth checking out.