People are voting emotionally.

Overrated

Just what I expected

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This film gives the viewer a real slap of reality to what the soldiers on both sides went through. It's the best film available about this particular World War 2 battle. The film describes the moral of the German soldiers going into the battle, right to what the battle became and ended up to be at it's conclusion. It's a true account of the horrors that these soldiers were faced with and makes it abundantly clear to the viewer how much of a tragedy this whole situation really was. The film is shown from the German soldiers point of view, and shows the world exactly what Adolf Hitler did to his soldiers. This film makes it clear that a tragedy like this never should have been allowed to happen, and leaves the viewer saddened and disgusted that it really did happen. It leaves the viewer well aware of how inhumane, selfish, careless, and out of reality Adolf Hitler was by this time. This film has it all for a war movie. Awesome battle scenes and perfectly accurate to everything that took place in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Gritty WW2 drama.August 1942. A German combat engineer platoon is resting and recuperating in Italy after fighting in North Africa. Their Lieutenant was badly wounded in the fighting and a new, green, platoon commander, Lt Hans van Witzland, has just taken command. The platoon is soon to be attached to an elite unit and sent to a place synonymous with carnage and destruction on a massive scale. An operation that marked a turning point of World War 2. Stalingrad.A good depiction of the Battle of Stalingrad, told from the German perspective and on a small unit scale. Accurately depicts the callous disregard for human life, the terror, the sheer futility and, ultimately, foolhardiness of the Battle of Stalingrad. Quite novel too, a German telling of the battle, a battle that they suffered massive losses in, ultimately lost and, as a result, ultimately lost WW2.Not perfect. Character engagement is a bit limited - you don't feel as much for the individual soldiers as you should. There's a breathless feeling of action scene after action scene without any time to reflect, or get to know the characters better.

The reason I like German or in general European war movies is that they don't always have happy endings and don't glamor the war. War is full of cruelty, loss of any reason, inhuman and utterly horrible. In this story we follow Lt. Hans von Witzland. From the name you can figure out the young lieutenant is coming from a long traditional military family. At some point in the movie a higher ranked officer is mentioning his father. The young lieutenant is going through a change of perspective when he comes face to face with death and war, he's loosing his close friends, realizes the pointless battles, the corruption within higher ranked officers, the powerless generals who blindly follow orders from above and seeing everyone as numbers. This is how he looses faith for his country, his people, his army and the identity he once carried proudly in his stripes is now lost as he tries to survive the cruel winter in the front. An awesome movie that shows you the reality of every war. Nothing glamorous, just inhuman, raw and cruel. I would love to see this movie remade and modernized.

It is a great portrayal of battle for Stalingrad. As I write this Stalingrad now known as Volgograd is attacked again, by new enemy, Al Qayida from East Caucases.There is nothing better to portray this battle then scenes from this film. It is funny, that fountain with people dancing is still a center of Volgograd, and the battle was fought around it.What in the hell made Hitler send his armies that far away? I guess the crazy idea was to join with advancing Japanese armies somewhere in India. Idiotic and crazy! Just as Hitler was. Idiotic and crazy! If he every took a train from Berlin to Moscow he would never thought about advancing towards the East that far. I know Lebensraum and all, but it was crazy!