paulclaassen Director Fedor Bondarchuk already won me over with films like '9th Company' and 'Attraction' (his latest film), which are both among my favorites. I finally got my hands on 'Stalingrad' and watched it in great anticipation, and wasn't let down one bit! 'Stalingrad' is among my favorite war films. It was also one of the more touching war films, and not detailed gore like some war movies. I really enjoyed the back ground stories of each of the main characters. All of them had a very definite reason for being there and being who they are. The film features some of the best visuals I've ever seen with great sound. The music was awesome, as well. The battle scenes were incredibly well done.

Jack Penman-Reid Stalingrad is by no means a great film, but neither is it a bad one. It's just OK.The film starts in the wake of the 2011 Japan Tsunami and goes back in time to the battle of Stalingrad. The film is almost entirely set in one square in Stalingrad with Russians holed up in one end and Germans holed up in the other. The plot revolves around 5 Russian soldiers and their relationship with a civilian Woman who lives in the building they're defending.The title Stalingrad is a bit misleading as the movie hardly covers any of the battle, just the personal story of a few soldiers in a tiny part of the city. None of the characters of particularly interesting or well acted apart from one who is mute for the majority of the film but I feel this added to the person's character. I also didn't feel that the opening and ending being in the modern day really added anything to the film or plot and overall was unnecessary. The action is entertaining for what there is of it but it definitely goes down the route of Gung Ho rather than anything believable. Scenes of Russian soldiers on fire but still managing to attack are an example of what the action in this film is like. It's worth mentioning that the vast majority of the action is in slow motion too.Overall I wouldn't say don't watch Stalingrad but don't go out of your way to watch it either. I watched it for free on Netflix and I wouldn't recommend paying for it. It's something to watch once when you're bored. If you want to watch a good film about Stalingrad, watch the 2001 film Enemy At The Gates.

todd_brittain I'll keep it brief: I've watched some very good war movies in my time - Das Boot, Schindler's List, Von Ryan's Express - to name a few, but this? Frankly, it's one of the worst war movies I've ever seen. A truly awful film. The script is terrible; the acting - with the exception of the main German protagonist, the 0fficer character played by Thomas Kretschmann - is poor; the use of slow motion to depict battle scenes is annoying in the extreme and made even more so by the ridiculously overblown musical score playing throughout; the Russian actors' voices are overdubbed by American voice over actors who sound like they're reading their parts straight from the sheet and the battle scenes are ridiculously contrived. For example, there is a scene during the early part of the film in which fuel tanks are blown up by the Germans in an effort to halt the attacking wave of Red Army soldiers. The Russians to a man are saturated in burning fuel, but nevertheless continue to press home their attack apparently unaffected by the flames,forcing the whole German front line to retreat in chaos. It was at this point that I decided I could not watch it any longer. Just ridiculous. The whole thing comes off like an old Commando war comic, but with CGI. I should have known better than to go by the reviews on the cover of the DVD.

accidentaldays Look closely beyond the battle scenes and you will find ironies: A German captain judging Russians as back stabbers, as beasts -- all the while representing a fascist army occupying another country and destroying it. Russian soldiers who manage to find beauty while war rages around them. A Russian who shoots a water-fetching German who showed his canteen to the enemy to avoid getting shot. A fellow Russian reproaches the shooter as inhumane and the shooter reminds him of the Germans' inhumanity. The statue of children holding hands in a circle as the world crumbles around it. The battle scenes are good but the human element in this movie is priceless. I came away thinking that I knew every Russian soldier holed up in the building. And I came to care for them. We forget that the Russians were the valiant ones fighting fascism for so long while the U.S./Britain bade their time (and for good reason). We forget that while Stalin was as bad as Hitler that his soldiers held off the Nazi monster for so long and, ultimately, allowed the West (and my Army dad) to crack the western wall and march toward Germany. Unlike us in the U.S., Russians suffered so much. Their cities were destroyed. Millions of them died. They (the Russian people) are my heroes for their sacrifices so we could buy time. I hope this film reminds us to give credit where credit is truly due. -- Guillermo Torres