We’re all different and share different opinions, ones that some kill over. If you truly wanted peace you’d have to tsk out the part of us that makes us human...
2:44 "...You don't have to worry about sunburn... Have you been to the desert...? I hated it... you're always sweating. You'll melt like butter. The desert is shit..!" "But the stars, they're so close... you know, Hans?"
The Russian girl could have guaranteed them a decent treatment as prisoners of war, especially as one was an officer and they both helped her to break free, no counting the fact that they allowed Russians to save their wounded soldiers during the battle of Stalingrad. We don't know if she would have been considered a traitor to Russian or not and a huge part of the army surrendered in Stalingrad already, meaning they probably wouldn't have been executed.
I mean man, say whatever you want but Fritz Reiser has been the most loyal and exemplary corporal a German officer could have had. Imagine being so loyal that your last act of war is try to cheer your officer up as he's dying in your arms while you are freezing to death.
@Rune Willem No. Not really technically the people who created The Treaty of Versailles caused it to happen because the treaty abused Germany and the land Hitler invaded in Poland was originally theirs but taken away by the treaty. If you think about it if that treaty never happened or even if WW1 never happened there is a high chance WW2 would have never happened and Hitler would have had a very low chance of rising to power.
To those who doesn't know German: Lieutenant Hans: The best thing about cold weather is you feel nothing, everything freezes, it is too cold to cry. Get out here Fritz, I mean it, just go! (Tears start to come out every time I see this part. Even tho death is coming close, Hans is still thinking of his comrade, his brother in combat!) The good thing about cold is......... Corporal Fritz: You don't need to worry about sunburns,ever been to desert?You'd hate it, its so hot you're always sweating
2:44 "...You don't have to worry about sunburn... Have you been to the desert...? I hated it... you're always sweating. You'll melt like butter. The desert is shit..!" "But the stars, they're so close... you know, Hans?"
@breaking the 4th wall like I allways start crying watching this scene and hearing the last sentence .... I remeber in cinmea, we went out on a Saturday night, starting with this movoe and wanted to go out dancing after ... but we where so sad and confused, so we just went home after this movie ...
My grandad was a German soldier in the battle of Stalingrad. His arm was ripped of from artillery fire and he was captured by Russian troops. He didn’t come home to Germany until 1958.
Greetings. I am researching on German history and would appreciate if you could give more inputs. I think the world needs to know the German perspective also.
That is terrible - 15 years in prison. We never hear about that in Hollywood movies. It was terrible what was done to the Germans. At least Britain and the United States are stuffed now.
@@hermanhedning4220 "what was terrible was the german invasion and their genocide of the soviet people." Yes, but to keep soldiers for so many years even after the war finished is also not okay.
I don’t remember who made this quote, but I remember a little part. “If at the end of a war story you feel relieved or happy, then it is not a true story.”
I remember seeing this movie for the first time, I had never seen German soldiers being portrayed as people, I was stunned. I'll never forget how I felt and how it opened my eyes to both sides.
@@jaylitebmgo7189 That is actually incorrect. If you think that only the SS committed war crimes or were connected to the holocaust. You are in the wrong.
@@Lobos222 I didn't say Wehrmacht didn't commit war crimes, they did commit some but no comparable to the SS. However, if you are ordered to commit war crimes by a superior, you can't defy their orders otherwise you'll either get sent to penal battalions or probation units or be executed. In the Holocaust maybe there were some Wehrmacht guards but that doesn't count being ordered to guard a concentration camp as they were being ordered to. It was the head and leaders of SS fault. You can't even blame the SS tbh because some of them were just following orders.
That is why I like watching those German movies.They show us the other face of the war , not the one which is depicted by the Allies.My grandfather fought in the battle of Stalingrad .He was among the few who survive the Russian offensive north of Stalingrad and rejoin with his division.He fought from 1941 up to 1944 and survive the war only to see the Russians` revenge on the civilians.There is no word which can express my respect to these men and women who fought and died for their country.
+Alin Bogdan There was a chap who lived in our village in the 60's & 70's called Charlie Bunghertz who had a smallholding, lived on it, and grew vegetables for a living. He had fought at Stalingrad and was one of the ones who escaped the Russian pincer and walked home to be taken prisoner by the British and was a P.O.W. in England. Because his hometown in Germany ended up in the Russian quarter, he never went home after the war. We used to buy our veg from him and he once told my father that on the retreat from Stalingrad, they had to eat their dead just to survive. I remember him as a really nice chap who always used to have a few treats around the place for us kids, and I stopped seeing ordinary German soldiers how they were portrayed in the sixpenny war books they used to sell in the local newsagents.
+Brad Brassman What's sad is that these people spent all their lives trying to forget when they really should have written down their histories for future generations. Too many messages from the past like this are being lost in time and are gone forever.
True enough. I often think Herman Goring should have been kept safe for what he knew, especially as other high ranking Nazis were spirited away by the U.S. for their technical expertise.
I rented this very good movie for the very first time back in the mid 1990's at one of the old Blockbuster stores not long after it was released to home video. It was in German with English subtitles. It was one of the few movies that made me cry. Especially in this ending scene when the last of the band of soldiers we had accompanied through the horror that was the conflict at Stalingrad, died and we the viewers who were right there alongside them through it all, from beginning to end, were the only survivors. It makes me shiver to think of it even now all these years later. As an American, I should have been thinking the Germans got what they deserved here and throughout the rest of the war. They after all were the enemy. The evil ones that we had to vanquish. But I couldn't think or feel that. Instead, I realized the men in the feldgrau uniforms and all too familiar coal scuttle like helmets (That we use now), really were no different than the men on our side. Thrown into a hell not of their own choosing, filled with pain, death and human suffering. At that level, ideology isn't even a thought. Rather just surviving the carnage and getting back to ones home and family is the ideology. And while we say today they could have disobeyed orders and said "I'm not going," that really wasn't an option. For their side or for ours. The enemy face of war is exactly the same as our own. It's exactly the same miserable slaughter. War is hell and something to be avoided, no sought. The only good thing about war is indeed its ending.
Jeffrey Hunt. I totally agree. As a WW2 historian I am more then aware of the horrors of the Eastern Front and the atrocities committed by both sides. When I first watched this movie I looked beyond these crimes and saw the men in the uniform. To be thrown into this living hell with no way out, knowing you will never see home again, what a terrible situation to be in. This movie looks beyond the nationality, there is no glamour in war for any side just misery, grief, suffering and dirt. I have watched this film countless times and it always brings me to tears. All these men were brothers in arms fighting for an evil regime who cared nothing for their lives. We must all make sure such a terrible war never happens again.
The closing titles read: In the Battle of Stalingrad more than one million people died in combat, froze to death or died of hunger: Russian, Romanian, Italian, Hungarian, German and Austrian. Of the 260,000 trapped men of the 6th Army 91,000 were taken prisoner, of whom, years later, only 6,000 returned home.
I´m German,and i´m ashamed for some of the answers here ,especally when people say,that all soldiers were nazis,or that it was a war for higher reasons. my great-grandfather fought in russia and many of my relatives too. no one asked them,they were forced to fight,or had go to prison-to save there familys they do what they are forced them to do.Most of my relatives were farmers,in every letter(i have nearly over two hundreds of them from this time) they are always worry about the war,to leave their familys alone with the hard work-if they could ,they ended the war imeditly. but there was no chance as a little normal soldier. they even wrote what they have seen in russia,and about the cruel of the war,about the cold,to have no food and so on.but they even say,that they have to stop the russians before reaching the german borders,because they knew what will happend to their people caused of a war they didn`t start and never wanted.They only fought untill the end to protect their family,not for politics.... I´m sure in that time,without the knowledge we had today,or the possibility to get informations like the internet or satelite tv,we all had done the same... Sorry for my english...
Daniel Kick my grandfather fought in WW2 on the Americans side he and his platoon was ambushed by Wehrmacht forces and he was the only one who survived. He hates talking about what happened during World War 2 and i can see why..
+Daniel Kick Das Problem , mein Freund , liegt auch beim Sprache Lernen; wenn die Leute wirklich wüßten,was der gewöhnliche Deutsche, der Alltagsdeutsche wirklich vor den Massakern fühlte, würden sie ganz Meinung ändern, aber sie wollen kein Deutsch lernen und so treffen sie wirkliche Schwierigkeit, beim Verständnis der Wirklichkeit der anderen Völker
It's sad that today so few acknowledge the immense tragedy wich was Stalingrad. The Soviets recovered 250,000 German and Romanian corpses in and around Stalingrad, and total Axis casualties (Germans, Romanians, Italians, and Hungarians) are believed to have been more than 800,000 dead, wounded, missing, or captured. Of the 91,000 men who surrendered, only some 5,000-6,000 ever returned to their homelands (the last of them a full decade after the end of the war in 1945); the rest died in Soviet prison and labour camps. On the Soviet side, official Russian military historians estimate that there were 1,100,000 Red Army dead, wounded, missing, or captured in the campaign to defend the city. An estimated 40,000 civilians died as well. Many historians classify it as the greatest battle ever fought in history.
At least they didn't die alone... I can't even imagine sitting there, with one of your friends freezing to death in your lap. And also knowing that you are the next in line... Poor souls :(
I think it was 16 years ago I saw the full movie. I think it is the saddest movie I have ever watched, the only possible competitor would be Das Boot. And I never ever ever forgot that ending. Ever.
I cry every time when watch this, especially at 2:19 when Lieutenant Hans says: Get out here Fritz, I mean it, just go! Even tho death is coming close, Hans is still thinking of his last remaining comrade, Corporal Fritz, his brother in combat. Corporal Fritz, gave up walking further, but stayed there with his commanding officer, his brother, together, they became part of the snow-covered land. What a heart-breaking ending!
Spielberg films tend to be an upgrade at least, he's Jewish and wants to show how absolutely horrific the war was on everyone and he tries to get it right.
Because Germany has guilt. I honestly say "we can't blame most of you now because most of you weren't born. I can't blame Rome for the roman empire because everyone from that era is dead.
John Bandow ya it really is. I know I’m four years late to reply but they’re still someone that froze delivering bread, someone who was transporting ammo and collapsed from exhaustion and people they these men that just died in the movie.
Фильм очень сильный, испытал много эмоций от просмотра. Очень жаль и немцев и наших, погибших в этой войне и пострадавших от неё. Жаль что у нас сейчас не снимают хороших фильмов
By far one of the best war films I have seen, it gives us a feeling of not what the Germans went through but also the Russians. So many young men lost in a pointless battle very tragic and sad movie.
The one war movie where you don't care about who wins or loses. Or who is a hero or a coward. You just want them to get out of that hell. But you also know that is not going to happen....
I remember watching this movie when i was 8, i never forgot it, it made me very sad and i did not understood why, compared to what i saw at the cinema at the time, Hollywood and happy endings, this movie was the FIRST realistically brutal slice of life that i witnessed in my young years, the sound of the snow and they just lying there being covered slowly, i mean it just so terrible and sad and a testament of how Brutal war is how pointless...i thank my father for making me watch this sad depressing story.
The best movie EVER!! No doubt about that, Hollywood can't remake this it is just not possible. To all the soldiers that fought, died or got wounded during the battle of Stalingrad are heroes and deserve respect in eternity. No matter what country you fight for you will always be remembered as the heroes of that moment, that battle.
Man, this Movie gets me every time I watch it. That dialogue in the end, in combination with this beautiful soundtrack... I can only recommend everyone who hasn’t watch this movie to watch it!
The shot that lasted for longer than 40 seconds of them frozen is very strong: It shows how they're going to remain there for a very long time. Though alive at one point, their bodies probably won't even decompose and they become literal time capsules.
Ich kann bis heute nicht verstehen, warum der Film keinen Oscar erhalten hat. Die Amis sollten sich mal ein Beispiel daran nehmen, wie man Anti-Kriegs-Filme dreht. Und nicht so einen Schrott produziieren wie Fury und den ganzen anderen Scheiss. Für mich ist das einer der großartigsten Filme überhaupt. Episch und lange noch nachhallend.
Sorry that I need to say this, but in my opinion you are totaly wrong: There is no good and no bad in this film. There is only the reflection of war reality in behavior and experiences in soldiers and the internal conflict, every individual soldier has to deal with on its own. That this is shown from the german soldiers perspective makes no difference.
Fengris I know, but the germans get not to be portryed as evil racist slaughters. You know that DAs Boot was not to be filmed int he USa ebcause ti did not show the germans as evil guys? The americans watned SS officers shhoting sailors in life boats. That's waht I meant, germans are not evil enough in the movie.
Got it and agree with you. One more reason why this film is so important from my point of view. It shows that also the german soldiers were individual human beeings.
Fengris But we lost the war, so we are the evil guys. You know what kind of education we get about WW2 here? That it is our fault and only our fault and that we have to feel bad for hit. Forever. And being patriotic as a german is the same as being a nazi, and being a patriot, or nazi in other words, isolates you.
when i saw this movie i was so bond with the characters i truly cried at the end, it broke my heart to know this was a reality for allot of soldiers in those days, we cant imagen when they went trough, im sitting here guilty typing this with a hot stove next to my feet...
@@ydoemanimagiraffe3719 that’s technically false. In 1942 there were no major winter offensives, as, naturally, the Russians attacked during that period. You must be confusing it with the offensive of 1941, which was actually against Hitler’s wishes. Guderian had overlying command of that whole op. Hitler however did refuse the Wehrmacht the ability to retreat in 1942, which is why things ended so badly for them.
No plot armor, no Hollywood cliche, no hidden political message. Just the sad, realistic anti-war story of civilians and soldiers in that hell the eastern front was and during war in general. In top of being an excellent movie. One of these few movies, with Tuntematon sotilas, Das Boot, Schindler's List, Come and See or the series The Pacific, generation war and Band of brothers , that can be excellent without having to use anachronism, CGI fest, political correctness and so on.
Da kommen mir jedes mal die Tränen wenn ich den Film gucke...unsagbar traurig das traurigste Ende was ich je in einem Film gesehen habe und der Abspann tut sein übriges.
The worst thing about Friedhelm's death not only did he die three days before the end of the war not only did he leave Wilhelm his big brother an only child he robbed Wilhelm of being able to work through his trauma with the one person who would be able to understand him his little brother and Friedhelm's death meant that Viktor and Charly not only lost their best friend but the closest thing they had to a little brother and that fact just DESTROYS me whenever I dwell on it
I conflicted , these men fought for a nation that would’ve gladly saw my people slaughtered like pigs, yet they died a miserable death that no man should die of.
People are brothers. Politicians make us enemy. Not only German or Russian side suffered from the war. Lots of other nationalities suffered too. Respect for all them.
Some of my German family visited back in 1977-one of them a veteran of Russia and the Afrika Korps. My GI Dad asked him about Russia and all he said was "Sehr, sehr kalt."
Depressing indeed. What's left of the unit led by von Witzland, freezing to death, sharing what happy memories they have and accepting the fact that they're gonna die, escaping from a hopeless battle that their army couldn't win. Oh, how the suffering and the misery continues.
4:27 "In the Battle of Stalingrad, more than a million people died. They either froze or starved to death. This included Russians, Romanians, Italians, Hungarians, Germans, Austrians. Of the 260,000 trapped soldiers from the German 6th Army, 91,000 were captured. Only 6,000 of them returned later to their homes."
@@matztz_4560 Go watch some Lazorpig videos. Nothing the Nazis used in ww2, in this regards, came from Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany relied on what the more open society had fostered of scientists and such BEFORE they took power. Another aspect is that the stuff the Nazis had did not work as well as Neo Nazis and Wermachboos make it seem.
I also had a great uncle who fought in Russia with the Wehrmacht though not in Stalingrad but in the countless miles of its endless country. His horse stepped on a land mine while he was transporting a letter and my grandmother never got to see him again. It was shortly before he died that my entire family on my grandmothers side escaped the nazi regime and came to live in America where they could not speak the local language and had to learn English despite the pure hate coming from the Americans surrounding them despite the fact that they left their home country because they openly denounced the nazi regime and were almost killed for it
The best thing about the cold.. is that you don't feel anything. Everything freezes. It's too cold to cry. Get out of here, Fritz. I mean it. Go! The best thing about the cold is.. you don't have to worry about sunburn. Ever been to the desert? You'd hate it. It's so hot. you're always sweating. You think you're melting, like butter.
This movie perfectly encapsulates the true reality of what really happened in Stalingrad, this movie didnt end on a cliche ending or dramatic moments but it ended in despair and showed real human moments, it showed us that even though the Germans were invaders, everyone suffered, and behind every gunsight and under every uniform, was a human, to say all Germans were Nazis or the Nazis deserved to freeze there is EXTREMELY one sided...no one deserves to go through hell, and thats what Stalingrad was, a freezing hell where millions people met their demise. The ending of this movie didnt make me feel that the Russians or Germans were bad but felt empathetic and disgust of what happened almost 90 years ago. That is history, this movie is history
@breaking the 4th wall like I've heard that "excuse" too many times to cover war crimes or something nasty to believe it. People always blame somebody - politicians, weather but not themselves and their abhorent behavior.
RIP to both sides of this bloody conflict, it will soon become a faded memory like the way you feel about the Romans wars they fought 2000 years ago...
Not many months before this battle, the Germans were marching triumphantly, shattering all Russian resistance, smiles all around. Little did they know that Stalingrad would be their grave and the beginning of the end of their Germany.
Corporal Fritz (at 3:06 ): You think you are melting like butter, the desert is shit! Except for the stars, they are so close, you know? So, after all this, I shed tears even tho I'm a guy but this film is just way too powerful!
A heart wrenching movie that perfectly depicts the suffering and death of young German men, who were so vibrant and confident, ground up in the horrors of Stalingrad.
The contrast in this movie is sad, they all were friends in Italy enjoying there break from the war in Africa then Stalingrad pocked each of them off one by one until two friends remained Only to die with each other in a frozen field outside of Stalingrad...
Was für ein film, eigentlich ist er ein zeitloses beispiel, für immer gültig...ein wirklich gelungenens Werk von Vilsmaier, einer der großen Regiseure unserer Nation.
No enemies to shoot, no enemies to shoot at you, there is a gun but it's pointless , there is no combat, no sacrifice, no honor, the only thing that awaits you is death how futile the war was.....
It really is a shame, all the the brave men who died in ww2 because if ideologies. When I see the men in germany today it seems like only a hand full of guys would have the format to fight like this.
A lot of men in WWII never actually fired their guns at the enemy and surrendered quickly. While modern soldiers in modern armies, all shoot the enemy in much higher numbers in battle. Dont underestimate today's men.
Dialogue betwee the freezing soldiers: "The good thing about the cold is... you dont feel anything anymore... everything is just frozen. It´s even too cold to weep... get lost ... you... come on get lost! The good thing.. about the cold..." "At least you won´t get a sunburn. You ever been to the desert? It sucks. It is so hot that... that you're just dripping everywhere. You think you are melting away like a piece of butter. I'm telling you the desert is shit! Except for the stars... they are so close. You know that, Hans?" End Card: During the Battle of Stalingrad more than a million people died, either killed, starved or frozen to death. Russians, Romanians, Italians, Hungarians, Germans, Austrians. From the 260.000 enclosed soldiers of the 6th army, 91.000 Soldiers were captured, of whom only 6000 returned home over the years. What an unneccesary and brutal war.
My mother said that my Grandfather (born 1908) was in Stalingrad and could leave with one of the last transport-planes, I couldn't check it, but I saw picture's of him from WW2. He died at the age of 61 in 1970
Extremely depressing and sad, too bad most war movies have a protagonist with plot armor and always has happy endings, germans need to make more war movies like this, maybe even a film set on the western front
This is one of the best war movies ever made. Another great German war movie, is " Das Boot ". Like this film, is shows the absurdity of war. Will we ever learn ????
Lois Trencker has produced movies about another war zone with arctic conditions: the battle betweeen Austria and Italy in the Alps above 3000 meters. Sometimes more men had been lost to avalanches than to bullets. In the movie "Berge in Flammen" (mountains in flames) two friends are fighting as officers on different sides. The final scene is much better than in the "Stalingrad" movie: Both friends climb again together.
One of the Germans had a chance to fly out on one of the last JU-52's out of Stalingrad but chose to stay with his comrades. Talk about loyalty. About 35,000 mainly wounded German soldiers flew out of the pocket.
Been several years, but I remember watching this movie, think I still have it on vhs stored away. As an american, I hate the sanitized blubber that the war profiteers in hollywood put out. Though generally realistic, saving private ryan isn't as strong, good but lacking. The closest america has to the stalingrad ordeal would be valley forge in the american revolution, a quote from the civil war general William T. Sherman, "war is hell" and I need to look it up cause I've forgotten it, but something along the lines of"any attempt to civilize it is folly." War, after surrender to tyranny, the worst thing authored by humanity.
Wow! The comment section, LOL! ..... A pissing war about which side was the most brutal in a totally brutal war.......Get a clue, everyone's brutal, and the more desperate people are the more brutal they get.
so sad. Even though the Germans as a whole did unspeakable things to the Soviet people. I still feel on a person level for the ones that were forced to fight and didn't commit any atrocities of their own will and never made it home like any other soldier. in this case I'd be at least grateful to be able to die in embracing my best friend rather than alone. war is evil.
