NipPierce Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Leon Smoothy For those interested in WW2 or not, this movie is a masterpiece and for a change not made by Hollywood, but a high budget film made by one of the the nations that has had to deal with the madness and suffering of this pointless slaughter at the eastern front. It may frighten American/British viewers not used to subtitles, but do not miss it because of that. It has among the greatest younger generation of German actors in their early roles before Hollywood careers (Thomas Kretschmann!). This really brings out the futility of this campaign and focuses mainly on the Wehrmacht, not psychotic Waffen SS-stereotypes.It is painful to watch, yes, mostly focused on a platoon, certain character portraits from the German side, not the Russian side, but is in no way glorifying or justifying the Nazi ideology. It's just a very realistic, gruesome portrait of the insanity of war and waste of human lives.Do not miss out on this one!

GeeZee117 Gives the true side of the German soldiers for once in a feature film production. Goes to in war only the few benefit, not the people. Many may attempt to downplay the film due to being filmed by Germans and showing humanity in the average German soldier, almost always glossed for in any other Hollywood flick for the masses to consume.

Rawal Afzal You could literally say that it was, well, frozen hell. It is a brilliant depiction of the horrors of a war, the Battle of Stalingrad, and how the reality is far different to the concept of heroism, the glorification of war and all that nonsense. It is a great example of how the army generals, the heads of the state rest in their homes and give directives to do this and that, and see it all is some sort of sacred and holy undertaking, but on the battlefield it is bloody, it is scary and not to be glorified in the first place.The film is a very sad one.... It hits you with reality. It revolves around soldiers who are tired of the nonsense, want to go home, be with their families and are looking for ways and excuses to escape from the horror. Their conscious does not bother them, it does not call them cowards, for above all they are humans first, like us, they do not want to be killed and tortured, they do not want to play with blood all the time. This is the reality, heroes-like soldiers is greatly imaginary. The ending scene where they die in the cold is one of the saddest scenes that I have ever watched. It had such sever after-effects on me that I thought of this all night. A brilliant scene!A great film overall but the blot on it had to be that it took too long to materialise and get to the main point, the point mentioned above. The battle scenes last for too long and that is something that I do not appreciate much.

James Turnbull This is a worthwhile movie and I have it on DVD in original German/Russian with subtitles. That certainly creates a certain atmosphere. I have also got Anthony Beaver's excellent historical book on the Battle Of Stalingrad. I understand what the Director was trying to do with the movie; the whole men are just men, the inhumanity of man, there are no winners in war etc. but to me the film didn't seem to quite know whether it wanted to be a depiction of the battle or an anti-war morality tale. It's called "Stalingrad" but Stalingrad is really just a stage set where the "Band of Brothers" theme can be played out. Some have said Enemy at the Gates is a better movie; I would say it is a complementary movie and between both movies we get a strong feel for what it must have been like to have been there and died. On a more general level I have the view that Cross of Iron is the best movie I have seen on the war on the Eastern Front while Downfall remains for me the best war movie of all. But put those 4 together and you have IMHO an comprehensive package regarding Hitler's folly in Russia.