An anti-war war movie, a bit protracted though

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2013)

For losers of a war or a battle, it is not customary to create something depicting their defeat, especially if this happened not so long time ago. E.g., Russians have had several defeats in the post WW II period - could you imagine them picturing this? With Stalingrad 1993, Germans have crudely shown the horrors and sufferings in one of the most severe battles in the WW II, without glorifying themselves and without scoffing at their enemy. On the other hand, Soviet Russia was no innocent victim, its treatment of own and neighboring people in the 1930ies was nasty and lethal as well, and Soviet (non-)activities were largely a reason why Hitler had courage to start this horrible war.
As for the movie, the events and background seem realistic (probably shot in Finland), most of actors performing Russians speak decent Russian, and leading men are catchy to follow (primarily Dominique Horwitz as Obergefreiter Fritz Reiser, Thomas Kretschmann as Leutnant Hans Von Witzland, Jochen Nickel as Unteroffizier Manfred "Rollo" Rohleder). However, some of the scenes could have been shortened, and direct battle scenes comprise only a small part of the movie. The ending is predictable, although the scenes leading to it are well directed. It seems that the creators wanted to combine profound human aspect with concrete battle, but for this task, the movie was too short - a miniseries could have been more appropriate. Nevertheless, if you like war movies based on real events, Stalingrad is worth watching.