Slight disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2004)

Even though there is no doubt that this movie gives you an impression of the cruelty and hopelessness of the soldiers involved in the battle of Stalingrad (and any other battle in any other war, I would assume), it fails to be remembered as a great motion picture as well, because from my point of view it is just too cliché-ridden - some examples (*** SPOILERS ***):

the officer who remorselessly sends one of his soldiers on a suicide mission during battle - the young, first-time front soldier who loses it and shoots his own comrade - the ultra-correct young officer and the weathered old soldiers - the human moments when the German soldier gives bread to a Russian on the battlefield - the over-evil Nazi officer - the soldier who shits his pants during battle - the guy who learns that his wife is leaving him via a letter she sends to him - the obligatory suicide mission that is undertaken with the main characters surviving

... and so on - I believe that all of these things have really happened, but if they all hit you within a few minutes, the whole thing gets ridiculous and looks like 'the compressed Stalingrad in a nutshell'. With each new cliché occurring, I found myself thinking: Yes, that was exactly the one that was missing and that I was waiting for ... sometimes less is more, I would say.