‘Masterpiece’ war film ‘better than Saving Private Ryan’ on Amazon | Films | Entertainment

Watchers have hailed an epic war film as better than several other major players in the genre. Stalingrad is a 1993 German anti-war film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. It follows a platoon of German Army soldiers transferred to the Eastern Front of the Second World War, where they fight in the Battle of Stalingrad. The film is the second German movie to portray the Battle of Stalingrad.

The film’s synopsis reads: “German soldiers (Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel) go from victory to survival mode as their army suffers its first major defeat of World War II.”

The film has received a high 88% rating from audience reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. 

One said: “Brutal, heartbreaking, yet a realistic version of the (One of) bloodiest battles in WWII. I would rate this as one of the three best ever war movies made out of true events.”

Another added: “A sickening glimpse into the horror of the Stalingrad battle, seen through the eyes of a handful of Wehrmacht soldiers. Soon after the successful invasion of the city, the now-trapped German main characters quickly realise that desertion is the only way to make it out alive. The storytelling is immersive, to the point of causing despair and nausea.”

One Google reviewer said: “A difficult and harrowing film. As a graduate of modern history, I have a library of books on Barbarossa and Stalingrad, and this has to be the most realistic of films on the subject – if not all war movies. The settings, uniforms, weapons and day to day life of Deutsch Soldaten are captured perfectly.”

The user wrote in their review: “The Finest Ambition of the Soldier is to prevent war from ever happening, but it has always been out of their hands. It is in the hands of men whom they do not even know.” Saving Private Ryan, Das Boots, Thin Red Line, When We Were Soldiers. Then there is Stalingrad! It is a perfect masterpiece. The acting and filming in this movie are top-notch!”

Stalingrad is available to stream on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.