Stalingrad

A Tale of Two ‘Stalingrads’ -- David Axe, War Is Boring

Two movies about one battle—one a masterpiece, the other an embarrassment

In 1993 the Germans made a movie about the 1942 Battle of Stalingrad—a bloody turning point in the vast, apocalyptic German invasion of the Soviet Union. The film is called, simply, Stalingrad.

In 2013 the Russians also made a movie about Stalingrad and also called it, well, Stalingrad.

One of the two flicks is an anti-war masterpiece that boldly inverts the tropes of war movies and, in doing so, captures the chilly, Hellish reality of one of history’s most awful armed clashes.

The other is a silly, melodramatic celebration of war—and shot in shitty 3D, no less.

The German Stalingrad is the good one. The Russian version is awful—and by all accounts way more successful at the box office.

Read more ....

My Comment: I concur .... the 1993 German version of Stalingrad is the better one .... while the 2013 version is a product for this age .... slow motion, bloody, and in 3D. My father ... who was in the Soviet Army group north of the city in 1942 .... found the 1993 version realistic to the point that he could not watch it. He passed away in 2005 .... but if he was to see the 2013 version .... I know that even though plot lines are weak, the visual images of people burning and dying would have been very difficult for him to see also. Another Stalingrad film that I like (and recommend) is "Enemy at the Gates".