Oh hell no!!! NO NO NO!!!

Rating: 1/10 (31 January 2006)

I am a big fan of war movies. Especially world war II (obviously being from Russia). Let me say that Hollywood had done a great job on making WWII movies that relate to America. Congratulations to Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan, also great job Micheal Bay on Pearl Harbor. Tora Tora Tora, Midway, Ike, Tobruk, Empire of the Sun, etc. Those were all great movies. However, those were all Anglo-American battles. Lets move into the Russian front. Lets focus on Stalingrad, the biggest battle in human history to date. A battle that was fought between the two most powerful countries in the world (Germany and Russia), with the two biggest tyrants in the world (Hitler and Stalin), and with some of the finest weapons in the world. What does Hollywood do? They sh*t on it. First let me correct some historical accuracies: 1. Most of the crossing of the volga happened at night.
2. In 1941, when the Germans first invaded, the red army did resort to one man having the rifle, and the other having the bullets. However by 1942, the industry in the Soviet Union rose so rapidly, that the soldiers were armed to the bone.
3.The Germans spoke German, and the Russians spoke Russian. Neither of them spoke English.
4. Nikita Khrushchev was nowhere near the battle. Marshal Georgi Zhukov, and General Vasili Chuikov were in charge of the battle, and in the end, Chuikov led the 62nd army to victory.
5. There were no communist propaganda posters. There were war posters, urging victory.
6. A ten year old kid would never run around in shorts in -40 temperatures.
I could go on forever about the inaccuracies. Someone with no knowledge of history outside their country wrote the script for this. I guarantee that there is not a single Russian in the credits. As for the story of Vasili Zaitsev. He really was the best sniper in Russia at the time. He was leading a sniper school in the battle. His little sniper band was called the Hares (Zaitsev means Hare in Russian). There was more than one German supersniper sent after him, and they were all killed. The whole child spy story was a load of crap. The love story was completely unnecessary. I think the movie focused more on the love story than the actual dual. At least the love story in Peal Harbor was interesting, this one was complete schlock. Overall don't waste your money. Americans are good at making American war movies. If you want to see a movie about the Russian side of the war, look for the movie Osvobozhdenie (Liberation). Its hard to find, but its worth it. If you want to see a movie on the German side, look for Der Untergang (Downfall). Ignore this heap of garbage. My family fought in this war, and my great grandfather was in Stalingrad. This movie is a disgrace to him, to my family, and to the 22 million men who died defending Russia from the Nazi monsters.