well acted mish mash history drama

Rating: 5/10 (18 March 2001)

I didn't come away from this movie feeling it was a complete waste of time but it was a waste of resources, $90million worth on sets and costumes and authenticity for a basically theatrical production. All the actors put in good performances particularly ed harris. The film basically never gets to grips with its material or the setting. Are we grateful to the russians for saving us from fascism and being utterly cruel and heartless in the process or should we revile them as they were in the cold war ? This is not a dilemma the film answers but just raises over and over while pointing out these are all people who love and hate and are weak and strong and they are in a war, apart from that the war could be anywhere. Lack of vision is what i'm talking about. For example the film actually opens to tell how far the "german jackboot" has put its heel into Europes back, well so what if you were unaware of a war in Russia or a place called Stalingrad in history this piece of information is next to useless to citizens of 2001. It is clumsy and at best school room history. Then theres the whole issue of the central character and his conscience over killing so many for whatever cause. Little effort is made to see inside the characters beyond some minor lines about the obvious side of killing for example Zaitsev explains to a would be sniper that these are real people they are killing but he could be talking about buying cucumbers at the supermarket for all his zeal in the task. The script is poor and does no service for a new europe seeking truths in the past for all that the film is just another technical production success with a well acted drama element not untypical of a tv show like wings of war.