STALINGRAD - Dogs, do you want to live forever?

Huende wollt ihr?

1950's German cinema, bereft of the cultural contributions which became the "New German Cinema" of the late 60's and 70's, is an interesting period in filmmaking. This Stalingrad opus is a beautiful anti-war film, and historically accurate as you can get. Original Uniforms, actors who were German soldiers themselves during the war, and T-34's rolling over trenchlines. For those of whom love the series 08/15 this is a must. The only historical error that I can pick up would be the MG-42's replacing the 34. But outside of this supply issue (as most of the 34's had been in use in Israel for some time) the film is great.

April 4, 2007

DVD OK

I have always been a fan of this movie and would recommend it to any student of Stalingrad. While the resolution of the DVD works well on a HDTV, I doubt if the DVD contains the original theatrical release version. The DVD contains the 4:3 formated movie, so don't foget to set your DVD player to this unless you want to see it stretched out on your widescreen TV. June 3, 2006

Not very engaging.

This movie is a disappointment considering it was made at a time when so many of the survivors were still alive and recently freed from Russian captivity. The film covers the experiences of a veteran German officer assigned as an advisor to a Rumanian Army Corps on the eve of the Stalingrad encirclement. The film does not go into any kind of depth either in terms of character development or story line to explain the importance and tragedy of Stalingrad. One must think that it even disappointed it's original German viewers of the 1950's who probably desired some kind of explanation for the disaster of Stalingrad and the Nazi era.
As an anti-war film this film is a failure; as a shoot 'em up action war film it is droll. All in all this is less satisfying than a made for TV movie of the same period.
May 12, 2006

The definitive Stalingrad movie has not yet been made

This gets a 4 star under doubt. [German version]

Frank Wisbar spent the 1930s in the States and most of WWII there too. When he caught up on the theme of WWII in Germany in the late 1950's he did so without the causcious guilt many of his politically tainted countrymen posessed.

Where "Enemy at the Gates" is an embarrassing performance tumpets and bravado, "Stalingrad" a show of German theatrical performance, "Hünde, wollt ihr ewig leben" almost comes down to the level of "I say chaps, Stalingrad is awfully chilly, hm?"...

However, as for sticking to historical facts it scores. It touches in on the German arrogance and prejudice even against her own allies. Anecdotes of how things aren't right are sometimes played down to subtile hints which is almost unusual in German films. Modern German directors, please take notes here...

The relatively low budgets on battle scenes in spite, this is a good movie with a even pace towards the end. If you like the old school war movies and would like to see a German view, this is worth the time. But keep in mind that Wisbar didn't make full use of his material - Read Beevor to catch up on events, and "As far as my feet will carry me"/"So weit die Füsse tragen" (Clemens Forell) about life/dispair in the Soviet POW camps after the war. I recommend the 08/15 series for a movie look at the Germans in WWII. Why on Gods green planet isn't it released on DVD to an English language audience?

PS: the German villain is well played by Wolgang Preiss. Oddly enough, as the battle of Stalingrad begun he enjoyed his fame in the role as a dashing nazi pilot hero in "Die Grosse Liebe" (1942).

July 19, 2005

Much better than the PC remake

What is interesting about "Stalingrad: Dogs, do you want to live forever?" (1958) is how much better it is than the color remake "Stalingrad" (1993) made by the producers of "Das Boot."

I saw the latter film first and was deeply disappointed by it. It is an excruciatingly long and depressing antiwar screed choked with post-war self hatred and guilt, and the last hour is almost unwatchable. The producers obviously had a political agenda and carried it out at the expense of such minor things as the historical truth or watchability. I'd rather watch "Born on the Fourth of July" a half-dozen times than sit through "Stalingrad" again.

"Dogs" is a superior film in almost every way, and I would recommend it over the remake despite the outrageous price of $45 bucks (maybe you can get it used). It tells the story of an officer named Wisse who has just recovered from a slight wound and has been assigned as the liason to a Rumanian division north of Stalingrad. Wisse is tough, able, honest, humane and cool-headed under fire, and quickly earns the respect of both his Rumanian allies and his German subordinates. Unfortunately, his timing is bad: it's November, the the Red Army has just launched the offensive which will trap the German Sixth Army inside Stalingrad.

"Dogs" alternates the story of Wisse's struggles with his men's morale, the Russian winter, the Red Army, and his cowardly and devious superior, Col. Linkmann, with scenes from Hitler's headquarters explaining the Fuhrer's "rationale" (if you can call a completely irrational decision by that name) for refusing permission for the Sixth Army to break out. It also details the attempt by von Manstein to relieve the city. The film relies a bit too much on newsreel footage to pad out its limited budget, and there is a rather obvious sub-plot involving a cute Russian female, but the battle scenes are very well executed and the acting is better (in my opinion) than some of the other reviewers here indicate.

Unlike the "antiofficer" films and books which became so popular after the war, "Dogs" puts Wisse in a heroic light as a man who leads by example and cannot be turned away from what he percieves as his duty, even when common sense tells him all is lost. It is this attitude that separates "Dogs" from "Stalingrad," where the moral and ethical collapse of the soldiers is complete (for a firsthand account that vindicates "Dogs'" version of events, read the unpublished memiors of Col. Dingler as reproduced in F.W. von Mellenthin's seminal "Panzer Battles" available on this site, q.v. my review of that book if you care!). Interestingly, the film seems to take a certain amount of pride (in a subtle way) with German military accomplishments and dciscipline without endorsing the war or Nazi ideology: the basic message is that these men were just doing their jobs as they saw them, and Hitler committed the ultimate betrayal by exploiting their sense of duty and squandering their lives. One could argue that it glosses over the atrocious German treatment of Russian civilains, but "Dogs" is meant to be a war story and not a cinematic expiation of national guilt. On that level it succeeds. If you saw "Stalingrad" you should defintely give "Dogs" a try; if you didn't, you might want to watch this version first.








April 28, 2005

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