Painful to listen to...

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2001)

I excitedly rented the DVD on the day that it came out, went home, started watching it and was enthralled by a very good opening sequence. The ferrying of the soldiers across the Volga was visually stunning. Only when the dialogue started did i realize that the movie, despite its attempts to be true to actual events, was less than convincing. Everytime the actors spoke, I winced with anguish. Vassili Zaitsev, Nikita Kruschev, etc. with accents as British as British can be. Fine, the actors would probably have been less convincing (if that is possible) having fake accents, but then don't have the German army speak German! Again, I must state that certain parts of the film are quite beautiful to watch (not to be confused with 'war being beautiful to watch'), but the accents nearly drove me mad.