Great blend (minor spoiler).

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2001)

This film will please both the entertainment crowd and the arty guys like me. There is always tension, there is good acting, some sex, great special effects (the air strikes are, well ... striking). But there is also accurate historical reconstruction: this is a film to be seen by those who enjoyed the book "Stalingrad" by Antony Bevor, and the lesser known "The Betrayed Army" (a book of memoirs by one of the few survivors. In it you will find the story of father and son both soldiering in Stalingrad, which briefly appears in the film also). And yes, Nikita Kruschof did serve as a commanding political commissar during the battle of Stalingrad (to answer a previous review). I like to find hidden references to other films, and in this case the titles which came to my mind were "Stalker" by Tarkosky (the setting, the un-sentimental respect for human suffering), "Blade Runner" (the setting, again), maybe Sam Pekinpah's films (the depiction of death), American Westerns (the ending of the film).