For fans of war movies and Russian cinema, this weekend sees the release of the Russian war film Stalingrad, Russia’s top grossing movie of 2013 and the first ever to be presented in IMAX 3D. Set in the fall of 1942, a group of Russian scouts travel over the Volga river in an attempt to disarm explosives that will allow their comrades to cross the river and ambush the occupying Germans. When things go wrong, the small group of Russians that survive take control of a strategic building, eradicating the Germans from it and are prepared to do everything necessary to make sure they don’t get it back. Inside the building there is a young female civilian named Katya who has managed to survive and live within the building despite it being occupied by both friends and foes. She refuses to leave her home and soon becomes the woman the men want to fight for.
On the other side of the destroyed square, the Germans have set up their camp and are determined to take the Russians out before they can set up a link with their troops and request reinforcements. Unfortunately, one of the German officers, Peter Kahn, has fallen for a Russian woman, Masha, and has lost his focus. Stalingrad, directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, follows the two groups of soldiers, their leaders and the women that they now live for.
When Stalingrad ended I couldn’t help feel a bit disappointed. I was expecting the Russian version of Saving Private Ryan, a dramatic story wrapped within large scale and intense battles since, well, Stalingrad is one of the bloodiest battles in history and was a major turning point in WWII. The film basically ignores all this and instead focuses on a group of soldiers attempting to hold a strategic building, initially for the motherland but eventually for a woman. The dramatic pull towards the important female characters is kind of a detractor from what the focus should be. Furthermore, the fight sequences, some of which are cool, are a lot smaller in scope than you’d want or expect from a big film like this which is why I felt so disappointed. When I compare this film to something like Enemy at the Gates which is a dramatic sniper film, Stalingrad doesn’t even come close even though its cast and focus are broader in scope which should translate to bigger and more suspenseful fights.
Yes, Stalingrad is pretty awesome on a big screen and the IMAX 3D treatment is pretty damn cool but, I’ll be honest, I don’t feel 3D is necessary in a war movie. I was concerned that the 3D would be nauseating because it’s a war movie and there tends to be a lot of shaky camerawork, but instead director Bondarchuk made the film a bit more stylistic and used a lot of steady shots and slow motion as an alternative, making it much more easygoing for my head. That being said, it was a nice effort and a good idea to try something new but while the 3D was good it simply felt pointless.
The one big detractor from the action sequences was the overuse or misuse of slow motion. Initially I liked the intriguing minimal use of the style, but as the film progressed there were times it was used and it didn’t make sense and others where it significantly took away from the intensity of the action. Slow motion in a WWII movie doesn’t work well and the only reason it worked on occasion, especially with a few tank explosions, was when Bondarchuk wanted to slow down the pace to exploit the 3D technology.
In terms of quality, there is no denying that Stalingrad takes advantage of its large budget to show that the Russians can make blockbuster-type features. Hell, even the theatrical movie poster for the film is in typical Hollywood blockbuster, with all the blues and oranges and all the main characters posing on the front. Unfortunately, this well acted film falls short of expectations and focuses a little too much on the soldiers’ relationship with the two women, drastically increasing the runtime, and not enough on how difficult it was for the Russians to reestablish a stronghold across the Volga.
Rating: A grandiose action film with some redeeming qualities that focuses less on the war and more on the woman (5/10)
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