But, this is the Russian army, not the U.S. Army. Stalingrad, the city being saved, bears the leader's name. Fear, therefore, is not an allowable privilege. The soldiers sent into the fray appear to be gunned down en masse as they cross the threshold to a German firing range. Those who succumb to instinct and flee in terror are executed, in short order, by their Russian comrades who are trained to show no tolerance for cowardice.
Bodies fill the landscape, and the city itself is the very picture of death.
Yes, war is hell. But in this picture, as any movie-goer will come to find, that's not the point. Make no mistake. Of course, gaining one's historical knowledge and perspective at a movie theater is a questionable practice. Vassili is, in American terms, the consummate hero.