๐ฌ Stalingrad (1993)
Stalingrad (1993), which was directed by the German filmmaker Joseph Vilsmaier, follows in the tradition of the better American films about Vietnam. Like Olive Stoneโs Platoon or Stanley Kubrickโs Full Metal Jacket, Stalingrad centers the war on a group of likable everymen trapped in a hell not of their own making. The film opens in sunny Italy. We meet Lieutenant Hans von Witzland, a proper young man from an aristocratic Prussian family, and Sergeant Manfred โRolloโ Rohleder, a veteran of the Africa Corps. At first, we are led to believe that von Witzland is a Nazi. He refuses to pin a medal on the rough-looking Rohleder when the latter refuses to button up his collar during inspection.
โHeroes arenโt late,โ he says to Rohleder and his friend Corporal Fritz Reiser. But once we get to the frozen steppe along the Volga, we realize that von Witzlandโs proper, โby the bookโ Prussian militarism actually means the opposite. Heโs an old school German conservative who violently objects to Russian prisoners being abused. He hates the Nazis. Fritz Reiser, whoโs played by the French actor Dominique Hororwitz, is a tough-minded realist whoโs determined to survive at any cost. That Reiser is played by the very Jewish looking Horowitz sends a clear message. Von Paulusโs soldiers were not all Nazis. Like Americans in Vietnam, they were just soldiers with rotten leaders.