| jumjum | September 8th, 2007 03:03 PM | Drat, it's too old. Here: Saw two foreign language (to me) WWII dvd's recently. The first was a 1993 German film, "Stalingrad" (English subtitles). Outstanding. Follows an experienced assault squad from their rest camp in Italy in August 1942 to the ernd of Stalingrad. It's fairly historicially accurate, but aimed more at telling the story of the squad than in telling the story of Stalingrad. It follows the typical Hollywood formula in characters: the new lieutenant who is afraid to be afraid; the grizzled older sergeant; the jokester; the kid, etc. Ity's the typical "good German" squad (were there ever any Naziz?) The squad (Wehrmacht) of course are really good guys, despise Hitler, buck the system to do the right thing. You can't help but like them. It's the feldgendarnes who are the monsters of the film. Does an outstanding job of showing hpow cold hungry and desperate the Germans became. A little unrealistic in having what looks like a platoon with a small PAK, a coupe of mgs and some AT grenades/mines destroy 6 T-34s and about a company of supporting infantry. But still far better and more accurate than a Hollywood Rambo special. Amazon.com: Stalingrad: DVD: Dominique Horwitz,Thomas Kretschmann,Jochen Nickel,Sebastian Rudolph,Dana Vávrová,Martin Benrath,Sylvester Groth,Karel Hermánek,Heinz Emigholz,Ferdinand Schuster,Oliver Broumis,Dieter Okras,Zdenek Vencl,Mark Kuhn,Thorsten The Russian film, "Come And See", is actually the more powerful of the two. While "Stalingrad" is a fairly standard "buddy" war film, "Come and See" follows one teenage boy, about 15, into the partisans. It can be tiresome because the director spends alot of time trying toi make an "art film", with plenty of symbolic scenes and imagery But what is fascinating is that it shows the Eastern Front's partisans in camp and at war. There is a terrible and brutal final segement which shows how a small, simple Belorussian town is ravaged by an SS SonderKommando detachment. It has to be one of the most cruel and terrifying things ever filmed. It puts into focus the absolute inhumanity of the Nazis to the Russians. lt's not an enjoyable fim, in that there is so much wretechedness and pain, but I think it's a vital film for anyone interested in the Eastern Front. I would make it mandatory watching for anyone who has some sort of twisted fascination with the SS as some sort of knights of warfare, or who is fond of Nazis in general. It shows what the Nazis were all about. Come And See http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...n=130&v=glance I meant to add about "Come And See", it was produced I think in 1985, while Russia was the USSR, and Communism reigned. That probably explains the fact that, while the SD are shown in their full brutality, the partisans are shown to be morally superior persons, incapable of treating captured SD in the same fashion they had earlier treated Russian peasants. History actually showed the partisans to be just as capable of savagery as the Germans, capable even of cruelty against their own members or countrymen. Still a powerful and affecting film, which suggests something of a context for the brutality to German civilians Russians displayed in the advance on Berlin. |