Perfect portrayal of reality

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2012)

I would daresay this is a better war film than 'The Schindler's list'. We have seen many war films from the point of views of Russians, Jews, Poles etc. But this was my first world war 2 movie seen from a German soldier's point of view. The film starts when a battalion of German soldiers are ordered to go to Stalingrad. When they think about going to Stalingrad, they think of farms and greenery but when they reach Stalingrad, the truth is far different than the reality.
The German soldiers think they could win Russia within a month, their very notion turns into disbelief as they enter Stalingrad, and see thousands of wounded German soldiers. Stalingrad war was indeed the biggest mistake of Germany, and it proved the beginning of the end for Germany, and resurrection of Russia. One thing I always wondered as a child, when a war is waged why there is no confusion, how always a particular army perfectly distinguishes its soldiers from the opponents'.
In the very beginning, when Germans invade Stalingrad, we see a massive confusion within the battalion and a German soldier inadvertently kills his fellow soldier. As you may do research, you will find that there was a huge chaos during the world war 2 and such incidents occurred. One thing that the director wants to convey is that all the German soldiers were not blood grubbing monsters, even they were tired of killing other people, even they wanted to go home. But they had no options, if they didn't kill , they would have been killed by their superiors.
This thing is evident when a young Russian boy is captured by the German army, and the soldiers who are protagonists in the movie are told to shoot the boy with dozens of other people. They are reluctant to shoot the boy, but their fascist superior warns them that if they didn't shoot those civilians, they would be next in queue. Stalingrad is an attempt by the director to earn some sympathy for the German soldiers, who were always seen as culprits, but this film shows they were victims too.
I don't want to get into the war crimes that Germans committed in Russia and other nations, but when you view a film you have to see it impartially. At the very outset of the film, it is very much clear that you are not going to see a happy end as you see in Hollywood. This film makes 'Enemy at the gates' look a very cheap film which is far from reality, as it creates Rachel Weisz's character in the film. This film is not for the people who want to see war films just for the sake of explosions and killings of people.
We see scenes in the film where a German soldier shares his bread with a civilian, and also in the end when the Hans Von Witzland refuses to rape a helpless Russian female soldier. This film tells us about the fate of the soldiers who were stuck there and knew what was coming to them. In fact, this movie tells us about the harsh reality of war and it tells that the war is always bad, and there is no winner in a war. This film doesn't show that Russians were bad despite being a German film, nor it shows that Germans were heroes, but still makes its point of earning sympathy for all the soldiers who lost their lives in the battle of Stalingrad.