Stalingrad (2013)

Unfortunately, this movie turned out to be what I expected from a Russian produced film about the Great Patriotic War. The film depicts the heroic soldiers and sailors of the Soviet Union fighting to the death the barbaric fascist invaders. The Soviet defenders are almost all saintly; one is even nicknamed Angel. The Germans are all beastly underlined by the atrocities they commit on screen against the surprisingly large number of Russian civilians living in the middle of the battlefield. This movie compares unfavorably with the German produced movie Stalingrad and Enemy at the Gates because of its simplicity. The only scenes that I found interesting showed the Germans preparing to attack and those which depicted the Soviets crossing the Volga. I have great difficulty recommending this movie especially considering alternatives.

Fmovies: Seriously, why is almost every scene in this movie using slow motion? This one visual trick screwed up the film's pacing and tension so badly that whatever else might've been there couldn't have saved it. Slow motion is usually used to amplify powerful scenes, not to blanket the whole movie with it. It can obviously enhance a scene in a movie if used sparingly but the filmmakers really went comically overboard with its use in this one. The movie's laughably propagandistic sentimentality does it no favors either though I guess Bondarchuck's pal Putin might appreciate it (Bondarchuck has publicly supported Putin's moves in Crimea and otherwise).

The script and the dialogue were absolutely terrible and cringe-worthy. Who actually speaks in those propagandistic terms? They also set up the characters so badly, I could scarcely remember anyone's name and didn't care about any of them. They're ridiculous caricatures with no humanity behind them and their actions are illogical and baffling most of the time. The characterizations are so minimal you'd struggle to see them with a microscope. The setup in the beginning and the narration overall didn't work either, I mean was that Russian aid worker really telling the story of the bloodiest battle in human history to a group of scared German girls trapped under ruins? Way to depress them even further.

The movie wasn't really about Stalingrad either but about this hastily put together group of soldiers defending some random building in Stalingrad. You could've transplanted them to any other random battle and nothing would've changed. There's the Barmaley statue of the dancing children and boats crossing the Volga to remind you it's actually Stalingrad but that's about it. If they chose this as the film's context then the movie should've been about resilience and brotherhood but none of that was to be found. Instead the film's focus was on the explosions and slow-motion combat. Michael Bay would surely be proud. I have to say I did get a few laughs from the movie though. When the few defenders of the building suddenly decide to storm out of their defensive positions à la 300 and when a gun crew manages to bank a shell off the armor of a broken T-34 to a German position around the corner, I just couldn't contain myself. I don't think the filmmakers intended those scenes to be funny though so make of that what you will.

In the present days, a Russian rescue team is saving lives in Japan after a tsunami. They find survivors and their leader calm a youngster down telling the story of his five fathers.

In 1942, a group of Russian soldiers hold a strategic building in Stalingrad against the German troops to protect the Volga River for the crossing of their comrades. They meet the seventeen year-old teenager Katya (Mariya Smolnikova) and she becomes the pride and joy of the band. Meanshile, the German Captain Koln (Tomas Krechmann) falls in love with the Russian Masha (Yanina Studilina), who resembles his deceased wife. But love in time of war may be tragic.

The impressive German war movie "Stalingrad" (1993) is one of the best of the genre ever, depicting the bloody Battle of Stalingrad. The Russian "Stalingrad" (2013) is not a remake of the German movie but a melodramatic and corny love story in the environment of the devastated city and heroic attitudes of the Russian soldiers. The CGI, scenarios and battle scenes are top-notch but part of the dialogs may be lost in translation since there are long sentences in Russian that are resumed in one sentence in the subtitle. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Stalingrado" ("Stalingrad")

Stalingrad fmovies. Director Bondarchuk should be arrested for creating this criminal film. Words cannot describe the depths to which this film has sunk. Every single aspect of it is deluded, pointless, dull, illogical, and irritating. The director has no story and no characters, and uses the film to shove in scenes he thinks are cool. From what I can gather, he loves The Matrix. Not only do we get more slow motion than the average human can endure, but we get stunts that belong in a Matrix film. My God, these soldiers are ninjas, their weapons can do wonders that defy laws of physics, and... What exactly was the film about? Well, absolutely nothing. It's part pathetic melodrama with all the qualities of a soap opera from Mexico, part Matrix. And when it's neither, it's just people sitting and staring, or talking nonsense. You could remove half the scenes and actually make the story more focused and clear. But what would be the point, when the story is so thin and outright insulting? How do you take one of the greatest battles of all time and turn it into a lame story about officers missing their girlfriends? In this film, Russian officers shoot soldiers in order to discipline them, and Germans hold rousing speeches about the prospect of getting sex from six-armed prostitutes in India. Has a madman written this? Or a pretentious, talentless idiot who thought Russian cinema really needed the most moronic cliches from the dumbest action films from Hollywood? This is not the first time Bondarchuk has done this. Oh, no. He has also butchered the memory of the war in Afghanistan, with his Full Metal Jacket/Platoon ripoff. How does this person keep getting any money to make films is beyond me. As I said, his filmmaking is outright criminal. It is an insult to the audience, to film as an art form, and to the Russian soldiers who fought in Stalingrad.

When I seen the trailers for this movie, I was gob-smacked. The superb VFX suggested an epic movie about the battle for Stalingrad. Great, this was going to be like "The Longest Day" or one of the other huge classic World War II movies. After the initial opener set in another part of the world, we get to Stalingrad. After some opening battle scenes which are very well done indeed, the realization sets in that what looks like an epic movie is in fact one set around a square in the city, and mainly on the now famous Pavlov's House. The events depicted are set before The Russians encircled The Germans, so we don't get to see the sight of half starved Germans. The movie settles into segments where the Russian heroes all seem to be obsessed with gaining the attentions or affections of 15 year old Russian civilian girl (Natashka) who bravely stayed in her home despite the carnage visited on the city. The apparent intention of the movie to show a love story set in Stalingrad isn't properly thought-through, simply because the hero who eventually wins Natashka's heart is a bolt out of the blue, with little in the way of cluing-in the viewer as it develops. We are left disengaged and wondering what and why about this. Thomas Kretschmann plays German officer Peter Kahn, whose main priority seems to be with a Russian woman (Masha) who reminds him of his wife who died in an air raid back in Germany. He literally puts aside all common sense and military discipline with his obsession for Masha. He defies orders, displaying little interest in the battle and risking court-martial and the firing squad. There are many good things about this movie. The VFX and sound are amazing, absolutely first class and up there with the very best. The realism they crammed into the VFX just has to be seen and appreciated. The German Panzer tanks are in fact a single Russian T34 disguised as a Panzer IV and then replicated by the VFX team into several more Panzers. Others have mentioned that Panzer IV tanks of 1942 didn't have the protective metal skirts shown in the movie, but to me that is nit-picking. The German aircraft flying overhead and the flak coming up at them is an amazing scene, as is the one where we see a damaged plane coming in and crash landing in the square. The hand to hand fight scenes are very realistic. The period uniforms seem to be quite accurate, especially the German ones. The general appearance of the uniforms is welcome and shows them grubby and dusty, which makes a welcome change from the unrealistically shiny boots and helmets in the thick of battle that we see in many war movies. Great attention to detail has been given to this. We get some aerial views of the banks of the Volga and the VFX period-recreated city damaged and on fire, which is very satisfying. They give the viewer a tantalizing glimpse and feel of how close the Germans came to victory. While overall I don't think this was a bad movie at all, I do think an opportunity to expand it more was lost. I watched this with sub-titles and the quality of translation is pretty poor in places, with small mistakes that I found annoying. There really is little excuse for this. For me, the VFX team saved the day. Their work and that of the make-up people is a credit to them and helps make this movie visually better than it otherwise deserves to be. I am giving this movie a 7 as a mark of respect and appreciation for the work the VFX and make-up team did. There is a short (about 9 minutes I think) "VFX Making Of" on Youtube that I highly suggest wat

WWII gets the 300 treatment as our fantastic heroes defeat the nasty Germans, sometimes single handedly killing a dozen men each in slow motion blood spraying hand to hand combat. It's that realistic, especially as Russians apparently keep fighting even when completely consumed by flames.

The defenders of Stalingrad were courageous real people but this belittles them as two dimensional action heroes.

A lot of effort and budget was put into making this but it was ill spent, there is no reflection, no feeling, no humanity, it is hollow. If you want to see a film about Stalingrad look up the earlier German film.