Stalingrad Film Review

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Stalingrad is a film that focuses on the Battle of Stalingrad that took place from August 23 1942 to February 2 1943 and was one of the worst battles of World War II in terms of bloodshed. The city of Stalingrad was fought for control of by the Nazi German forces and fellow Axis allies against the Soviet Union. This battle was one of the most defining moments of the Second World War because the German army suffered some of the most severe causalities of the entire war. The film was directed by German director Joseph Vilsmaier and focuses on a group of German soldiers as they deal with the conflicts they endure during and after the battle. Each of the Germans of the platoon must deal with their actions and how each of them will be affected. Throughout the movie, there are also numerous occasions where Germans commit heinous acts during and after the battle of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most brutal in all of history and especially WWII in terms of civilian and military casualties and the movie’s depiction of this violence is accurate to some degree. Historically, the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the worst in terms of civilian and military casualties and was also an iconic turning point in the war. Stalingrad is at times both historically accurate and fictionalized to make the movie more appealing. The statistics displayed in the film and the statistics of the actual battle were very similar. The movie stated that over a million people died in the conflict, starved to death, or froze and the actual statistics say that 1.7-2 million casualties were actually suffered by the Axis and the Soviets. Reasons behind the immense amounts of deaths was because of the close combat situations that w... ... middle of paper ... ...e brutality of the film is unrelenting and instills a feeling of sadness and despair as the movie slowly winds to a close with each of the main characters dying. Some of the soldiers are portrayed to not be sadistic and evil, but many others are depicted as brutes who care for nothing more other than to kill and harm. This is a very strange idea for a filmmaker to represent the soldiers this way, when not even American films are as degrading or destructive towards the Nazi army. The director did a decent job of placing the film in context with the era, but the fictionalization of some parts made the movie seem less real. Stalingrad is not an awful movie but it is also not the most elegant or well done in terms of directing or characters and does a decent job of being historically accurate. Works Cited http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm

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