Glad I wasn't there!

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2004)

'The Finest Ambition of the Solider is to prevent war from ever happening, but it has always been out of their hands. It is in the hands of men whom they do not even know.' Saving Private Ryan, Das Boots, Thin Red Line, When We Were soldiers. then there is Stalingrad! A perfect masterpiece. The acting and filming in this movie is top notch! I also think the music in this movie is great and fits the movie perfectly. Stalingrad holds no punches back in depicting the siege of Stalingrad by the German Army and ultimately their defeat in the cold bitter Russian winter! As far as a 'war' movie goes, I would give honors to Stalingrad over Saving Private Ryan and even Liberal Hollywood's take on the siege of Stalingrad (from the Soviet point of view): Enemy At The Gates. Saving Private Ryan, though a great film, just doesn't bring the horror of war down to the common foot solider as accurately as Stalingrad. Enemy At The Gates is simply an awful movie. Of course with such a movie will come a lot of political overtones. I'll make just a few comments here. One, I am very thankful the allies won World War II. Secondly, when I think of 'Nazis', I think of Hitler and all of his cronies and all the evil villains who executed the millions of innocent Jews in the concentration camps. I believe a majority of Americans believe this way. The German soldiers fighting on the front(s) were simply following orders and bravely fought in this War as did the American, Russians and British soldiers and to each was their own personal Hell. The sad fact about Stalingrad, in watching this movie, is that all of this really happened. Men froze and starve to death millions of people were killed and generations were lost. Basically, this is a good War movie that ends with no heroism and accurately portrays the horror of war for the common man regardless of witch uniform they are wearing. 'Freedom is just a word until you lose it.'