Product: Stalingrad (2003)
Rating: 2.0
Huge disappointment - a waste of time for a serious student
After reading the generally favorable reviews of this documentary, I was anxious to view this DVD. What a huge disappointment! This documentary is almost completely devoid of any factual information. There is some nice footage from the 1942-43 time frame, but other than that this DVD is a waste of time. Large segments show modern video of the Volga or of the snow covered steppes with repeated dialogue about how Hitler was evil, how he abandoned 300K soldiers to their fate, etc. ad nauseum. Some of the other reviewers were bothered by the voice-overs, I thought they were fine. The main problem with this DVD is that you'll learn almost nothing about the battle. If you've read the Wikipedia page on Stalingrad, you already know orders of magnitude more than anything you'll learn from this documentary. There are no maps, no discussion of the strategic or operational situation, no real attempt to place the fighting around Stalingrad into the larger picture. Most of the documentary is dialogue (with voice-overs) by participants on both sides. They all basically say the same things: the Germans were doomed from the beginning and they knew it, the Soviets were proud at how hard they fought. Interspersed between these accounts the narrator presents some trite dialogue about Hitler, von Paulus, Stalin, and the other major players. This entire documentary is essentially a rehash of platitudes about WWII with no information. Given the generally favorable reviews, there are obviously many who liked this, but I think for a serious student, this documentary is a waste of time. Ugh. I wouldn't recommend anyone spend 2+ hours watching this, and I certainly wouldn't recommend that anyone spend their own money buying this to add to their collection. You're better off picking up one of David Glantz's books on the Eastern Front.