Stalingrad

[areaseven]

Stalingrad is an upcoming 3D war epic based on the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. The film is directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, who received an Oscar nomination for his 2006 film The 9th Company (which was based on the Soviet War in Afghanistan). Hopefully, it's much better than that snooze-fest known as Enemy at the Gates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Da3EgZUA0Y

Stalingrad @ IMDb

[Knight26]

I liked Enemy at the Gates, not as a shoot 'em up but as a more psychological movie it was good, well thought out and interesting.

[sketchley]

Me, too. Enemy At the Gates wasn't so much a documentary of the battle per se, but of the duel between two legendary snipers. And the one thing that that movie hammers home is that sniping is a tactic that requires patience.

[Bri]

I thought Stalingrad (1993) was an interesting movie from the German perspective. Hope this one from the Russian side delivers. I'm a bit worried as the summary reads a bit like Bay's Pearl Harbor.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Bri

[Mommar]

Actually, the real life story of that sniper duel Enemy At The Gates was based on is far more interesting and suspenseful.

[the white drew carey]

Yeah, read the non-fiction book Enemy at the Gates, in which the story of Vasily Zaytsev is just a small portion of an amazing historical account.

Still, this could be interesting. However, considering how difficult it is to go see movies with a 1-year-old, this one may have to wait until home release...

[renegadeleader1]

Actually, the real life story of that sniper duel Enemy At The Gates was based on is far more interesting and suspenseful.

That would be nice, except for the fact that it most likely never happened, and if it did it wasn't a "major koenig" of some elite german sniper school as nobody with that name existed in the german army as a sniper. Much of Zaytsev's record is questionable given the time frame of his appearence in the battle of Stalingrad. Its possible the red army wanted a sniper to overshadow Finland's Simo Hayha who had embaressed them during the winter war for propaganda purposes.

[Marzan]

That trailer looks pretty interesting. I'll be looking forward to this picture.

[Dynaman]

He got an Oscar nod for 9th Company, they are REALLY lowering standards then. Cliched, predictable, and terribly overwrought that film was. That said I still enjoyed the film and look forward to seeing this one. Enemy at the Gates was a decent movie, not very realistic, but decent. The German Stalingrad movie had too much of that "we are REALLY REALLY sorry for WWII but our troops suffered too..." vibe to it.

[Beltane70]

Funny that this movie should be mentioned. I was just talking about Stalingrad with a co-worker this afternoon!

[electric indigo]

From the look of the trailer - is Bondarchuk Russia's answer to Baz Luhrmann?

[Vepariga]

wow that looks good. Stalingrad is a perfect platform for some fantastic battle scenes. looking forward to this one.

[Ghost Train]

Movies like these are good to educate the general population regarding the scope of WW2. Most Americans think that the second world war was basically:

Hitler invades some countries > Pearl Harbor > D-Day > A-Bombs

All of the above events are significant, but probably due to cold war politics, Soviet and Chinese contributions are greatly overlooked. The success of events like D-Days and the Pacific campaign, can partly be attributed to the fact that Germany had committed tons of resources to fighting on its Eastern front, and likewise Japan had to commit lots of forces to hold on to China.

[sketchley]

Movies like these are good to educate the general population regarding the scope of WW2. Most Americans think that the second world war was basically:

Hitler invades some countries > Pearl Harbor > D-Day > A-Bombs

All of the above events are significant, but probably due to cold war politics, Soviet and Chinese contributions are greatly overlooked. The success of events like D-Days and the Pacific campaign, can partly be attributed to the fact that Germany had committed tons of resources to fighting on its Eastern front, and likewise Japan had to commit lots of forces to hold on to China.

This reminds me of something that was mentioned in the Nat. Geo. WWII special I saw last night - the Soviets learned through spies that Japan had no intention of attacking the USSR, which freed up their Siberian squadrons to help deal with the Germans, who were at that time, fighting at the last bus stop on a line that led right to Red Square!

Nevertheless, I recommend looking up the largest tank battle EVER to get a greater idea of the scope that GhostTrain is highlighting.

[Vepariga]

yeah the core history and the fate of the world was basically at the center of the nazi and soviet battle line. If the Nazi's broke through to the oil fields we would all be speaking german by now. Its also interesting that the Nazi's where shipping Heavy Water before the UK/US even thought of what it was for until their scientists freaked out and knew they where going to make an atom bomb. give or take a month and there would most likely have been no united states anymore. it was that close.

Also if the Nazi's had that extra month or 2 to operate they would have had the Horton flying wing,jet craft in action. long range and would have taken the skys power back from the Allies. The world owes itself to the Soviet Union.

[renegadeleader1]

yeah the core history and the fate of the world was basically at the center of the nazi and soviet battle line. If the Nazi's broke through to the oil fields we would all be speaking german by now. Its also interesting that the Nazi's where shipping Heavy Water before the UK/US even thought of what it was for until their scientists freaked out and knew they where going to make an atom bomb. give or take a month and there would most likely have been no united states anymore. it was that close.

Also if the Nazi's had that extra month or 2 to operate they would have had the Horton flying wing,jet craft in action. long range and would have taken the skys power back from the Allies. The world owes itself to the Soviet Union.

I have to strongly disagree with this concerning the nazi nuclear program, and the Horton. First of all, while the Germans were pioneers in nuclear science the actual Nazi program was a mess. It was underfunded, primitive, and phycisists who should have been involved in it were diverted away into conscription to fight as soldiers on the front lines. By 1942 Hitler was informed it would take 15 to 20 years before they could get an A-bomb, so he cut resources again to go to other weapons projects, and the nuclear program itself shifted its focus to energy production. By 1945 they had one barely working hazardous prototype reactor, that in no way could produce the amount of material needed to make an A-bomb. Much of the heavy water the nazi's were gathering went to said reactor just to make it work as they were using a flawed system. The Germans just didn't have the massive resources in terms of knowledge, manpower, and material to replicate anything near the level of the Manhatten project.

As for the Horton HO 229, two months would not have made a difference. If it went into production, it would have suffered the same issues the 262 had with scarce fuel supplies, unreliable engines, and lack of skilled pilots. It would also be worth mentioning that at this point reliable allied jet fighters flown by well trained experience pilots would also be joining the front lines.

That being said, Soviet Russia did help bring a quicker end to the war through their stand at Stalingrad.

Edited May 18, 2013 by renegadeleader1

[Dynaman]

Yes, the Nuclear program in Germany was never anywhere near making an Abomb. The US and Britain already had working jet aircraft as well, Britain used theirs to knock V-1s out of the sky while the US one was only just going through trials at the end of the war. While neither was as advanced as the 262 that could have been rectified fairly quickly. The US plane in particular was a rush job being designed and built in under 6 months or something, the thing it was really missing was the swept wing design of the 262 (same for the UK plane, it took longer to design and build - the UK was far ahead of most other countries in jet technology before the war but funding lagged during the war)

[areaseven]

[Noyhauser]

Does anybody else think that trailer looks like a modern retelling of 300? I mean I could have sworn there is a scene where a soviet soldier is jumping to stab a guy with the same rolling camera effect as in that movie... just with different uniforms.

I have to strongly disagree with this concerning the nazi nuclear program, and the Horton. First of all, while the Germans were pioneers in nuclear science the actual Nazi program was a mess. It was underfunded, primitive, and phycisists who should have been involved in it were diverted away into conscription to fight as soldiers on the front lines. By 1942 Hitler was informed it would take 15 to 20 years before they could get an A-bomb, so he cut resources again to go to other weapons projects, and the nuclear program itself shifted its focus to energy production. By 1945 they had one barely working hazardous prototype reactor, that in no way could produce the amount of material needed to make an A-bomb. Much of the heavy water the nazi's were gathering went to said reactor just to make it work as they were using a flawed system. The Germans just didn't have the massive resources in terms of knowledge, manpower, and material to replicate anything near the level of the Manhatten project.

As for the Horton HO 229, two months would not have made a difference. If it went into production, it would have suffered the same issues the 262 had with scarce fuel supplies, unreliable engines, and lack of skilled pilots. It would also be worth mentioning that at this point reliable allied jet fighters flown by well trained experience pilots would also be joining the front lines.

That being said, Soviet Russia did help bring a quicker end to the war through their stand at Stalingrad.

Oh it was much worse than that. the German Luftwaffe was basically a shattered force by 1943 due to unsustainably high losses in Russia, Tunisia and in the Reich defence, and completely wrecked in the first few months of 1944. Even in 1943 the quality of their pilots was pretty low. Moreover the vast majority of their aircraft weren't wunderwaffe, but the -109 and -190, which started to get outclassed by newer Western designs ( P-51H, -47N, Spitfire 21, De Havilland Hornet and Vampire.) The 262 wasn't nearly as advanced either. Its greatest advantage was swept wings. However its engine durability was 1/10th of western designs: it had less than 10 hours before needing replacement, but the Meteors could fly for 100 hours. That's a big issue. Actually the Allies were very careful not to use certain technologies over germany in order to prevent them from obtaining them. They included radar fused shells, jet aircraft and certain radar types.

[taksraven]

HANDS UP WHO WANTS TO HOLD THE FLAMETHROWER!!!!

[electric indigo]

Looks like a sequence that was cut from Sucker Punch...

[skullmilitia]

They've often said Hitler's greatest blunder was involving the Russians too soon.

In the scope of WWII, our job on the Western front was basically roadside assistance.

Compared to the amount of work and losses for us in the Pacific.

[ErikElvis]

Id say 90% or more of the US population do not understand the scale of the Ost front. The whole thing just amazes me.

[skullmilitia]

Nearly half of the life lost over the entire conflict were on the Soviet Union.

The second runner up was China.

I believe the Soviets racked up around 30mil casualties

While China ranked around 20mil. That's including civilians.

To compare, our losses were 418K.

[Twoducks]

Kinda looks like Enemy at the Gates but with more explosions...

They've often said Hitler's greatest blunder was involving the Russians too soon.

In the scope of WWII, our job on the Western front was basically roadside assistance.

Compared to the amount of work and losses for us in the Pacific.

Hitler may have been a genius when it came to speaking and being a leader figure but we were lucky that that monster was an ego filled idiot too. Remember reading of how he was advised not to smash his head open againts the soviet wall when Europe was still not 100% in nazi control and the UK was alive and kicking.

Being also another crazy monster, Stalin would have eventually done something. Don't think he would have liked being surrounded by consolidated nazi Europe and Japan. But by then the technologically superior Germany would probably have been better prepared.

I once saw a Russian film about the atrocities done by the nazis in the USSR. Not pretty. The soviet thirst for revenge after that was also something extra that stupid Hitler created against himself.

[Shadow]

The allies were fortunate Hitler had such an ego and rivalry with Stalin. It would have been so much harder to take anything back if the German's were just focused on England and defending their Western front.

[Dynaman]

This is coming to the local Imax theater on February 28th, if anyone wants to see you may want to check your local Imax theater schedule to see if it is coming to your area as well.

[skullmilitia]

The allies were fortunate Hitler had such an ego and rivalry with Stalin. It would have been so much harder to take anything back if the German's were just focused on England and defending their Western front.

It Also helped that Hitler was sending Rommel off to Africa searching for the Spear of Destiny and the Ark of the covenant after

Himmel convinced him it had super natural powers.

Wacko bird.

[electric indigo]

The VFX reel contains everything you need to watch of this movie.