How to make a video about Stalingrad...wow!

[Sternjaeger]

I'm currently reading through Guy Sajer's excellent "Forgotten Stoldier", about life in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front and it is just bone-chilling.

 

is it good then? A friend of mine has it as well and said it was quite intense. It's very cheap on Amazon atm..

[piper]

~S~

 

Impressive CG, not sure if 'seeing' how it's done adds or detracts from the overall effect though?

 

All that money and attention to detail...especially the 'counter rotating' Heinkel propellers!

 

Anyone else spot that?

 

piper

[Streiff]

I don't think that a movie about Stalingrad could be better than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QlK-l-vpZQ

 

 

That cheesy narrator really ruins it though.

 

Good movie none the less.

[Uufflakke]

Fascinating to see process of all the computer generated images into the movie.

Don't know about this film as I haven't seen it of course but many times I prefer to see the 'making of' than the actual movie.

I can't get enough of it.

 

I also like to see the 'making of' of the BoS trailer. Interesting material too.

 

http://vimeo.com/78565646

[Mogster]

Hmm, all a bit Call of Duty tbh.

 

Also everyone looks too clean and well fed. That's always an immersion killer in films... I've just read a book about Arnhem, guys are talking about being filthy and stinking, physically in a poor state, after only 10 days hard combat without proper re-supply. Imagine what it'd be like after months of a similar situation.

[=38=Tatarenko]

They weren't. The life expectancy of a soldier crossing the river was 24 hours.

 

But overall, yes. I went to a re-enactment thingy this year and only one guy looked the part. The rest were portly 40 year olds pretending to be 20 year old paratroopers. Was hoping for some decent pics but scarcely bothered. This was the one OK pic of the day ...

 

WW2 German Motorcyclist (Actor) by Ian_Boys, on Flickr

[Emgy]

Great picture (again). Was this reenactment in the Stalingrad area?

[Georgio]

Yep a superb read; I bought it as a holiday read and digested it in one day it was that good.

 

is it good then? A friend of mine has it as well and said it was quite intense. It's very cheap on Amazon atm..

[=38=Tatarenko]

Great picture (again). Was this reenactment in the Stalingrad area?

Thanks. No, it was in the UK.

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

At least it's better than Pearl Harbor, in which an American pilot in a Spitfire (wearing POLISH squadron codes) manages to blow the nose off a He-111 with a short burst from his .303s    

ITS A MOVIE!!! DUH!

[=38=Tatarenko]

I think the German film will probably remain the definitive one on the subject. It is fantastic.

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Das Boot is still the definitive submarine movie after all these years. Sorry to say but Hollywood spoils any decent attempt to make a good war movie by the cheesy plots and other things implemented. Even Band of Brothers fell to that trap still being one of the best ones. The German version of Stalingrad was better than the new version. More gruesome and filmed not far from where I live actually In the new Stalingrad I disliked the sniper duel and overall feel of it. Sure had nice combat scenes and all but too much "red glasses on and opinionated" came through. Maybe this is why I prefer reading books.

[Jochen]

S!

 

 Das Boot is still the definitive submarine movie after all these years. Sorry to say but Hollywood spoils any decent attempt to make a good war movie by the cheesy plots and other things implemented. Even Band of Brothers fell to that trap still being one of the best ones. The German version of Stalingrad was better than the new version. More gruesome and filmed not far from where I live actually In the new Stalingrad I disliked the sniper duel and overall feel of it. Sure had nice combat scenes and all but too much "red glasses on and opinionated" came through. Maybe this is why I prefer reading books.

 

All of the above and "Le Soldat Oublié" is definitely the best fictional account I've read about the war on the Eastern Front from German perspective.

[MarcoRossolini]

S!

 

 Das Boot is still the definitive submarine movie after all these years. Sorry to say but Hollywood spoils any decent attempt to make a good war movie by the cheesy plots and other things implemented. Even Band of Brothers fell to that trap still being one of the best ones. The German version of Stalingrad was better than the new version. More gruesome and filmed not far from where I live actually In the new Stalingrad I disliked the sniper duel and overall feel of it. Sure had nice combat scenes and all but too much "red glasses on and opinionated" came through. Maybe this is why I prefer reading books.

 

Band of Brothers plays like a propaganda film (or series in this case). It's like the soldiers are all angels in it... 

 

Agreed, the German Stalingrad is still king.

[Cybermat47]

Band of Brothers plays like a propaganda film (or series in this case). It's like the soldiers are all angels in it... 

 

Except for the guy who murders German POWs... and the guy who kills a German who's surrendering... and Captain Sobel.

 

 

ITS A MOVIE!!! DUH!

 

Geez, calm down.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Cybermat47

[Fifi]

Geez, calm down.

 

Yeah, because had nice time watching it too 

[MarcoRossolini]

Except for the guy who murders German POWs... and the guy who kills a German who's surrendering... and Captain Sobel.

 

 

 

True, but did those guys act like men do when they're all together, they don't swear, barely even in combat, don't talk about girls, etc. Look at a novel like Catch-22 for a contrast, those men behave like men do in that kind of situation. Everything is straight and clean. It's weird also that it's okay to display tons of violence on screen yet a tiny bit of sex and swearing suddenly makes everyone worried whilst violence where you're actually doing damage to other humans is alright.

[Marcomies]

Band of Brothers feels a little dull and Saving Private Ryanish after watching Generation Kill. I really recommend that series for everyone who likes serious war movies/series.

[Cybermat47]

True, but did those guys act like men do when they're all together, they don't swear, barely even in combat, don't talk about girls, etc.

You've got a pretty good point there.

[Finkeren]

Band of Brothers feels a little dull and Saving Private Ryanish after watching Generation Kill. I really recommend that series for everyone who likes serious war movies/series.

'Generation Kill' is in a class of its own. It's practically a filmed documentary. It is so eerily similar to actual documentaries about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it perfectly capures two activities that make up the greatest part of an infantrymans war experience, but which seldom makes it into movies: Moving yourself and your stuff around and sitting on your ass waiting for something to happen.

 

The only thing, where I don't see the similarities between 'Genereation Kill' and documentaries is the extreme amount of specialised jargon used in the former. In GK half the language consists of euphemisms or abreviations, in the documentaries the soldiers speak fairly 'normal' even in combat situations. Well, maybe it's a Marine Corps thing?

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 If you want to read a good book about Eastern Front from German perspective try to find one based on Hans Roth's diaries. 3 of 4 were still kept by his wife, 4th was lost when Hans Roth KIA in Operation Bagration wiping out Army Center. He wrote on almost daily basis about the war since Barbarossa until his death in 1944. Gives quite a grotesque picture what was going on there. Another good one I am trying to find is by Koschorreck (if I recall the name right). He was a machine gunner in Eastern Front and survived it. From the Russian side there is a book called(freely translated) The Icy Hell. It is written by one of the very few survivors from the Raate road encirclements. Author was a Commissar and he experienced the demise of 2 Russian divisions during 1939-40. What makes the book interesting is that he could not publish any of it during or after the war in fear of being killed or sent to Siberia.

 

 The most actual memoirs of fighting Sowjets I heard from my grandfather when he said something about those times. He rarely mentioned anything about the war ever, but sometimes he told some tidbits. He served through 1939 to 1944, never wounded so he was lucky in that part. But emotional scars never healed. From what I gathered the Commissars and NKVD officers were not very liked by either side. The attrocities on POWs committed by NKVD/GRU were well known to Finnish troops and in many cases when a NKVD officer was caught he was shot on the spot. He also mentioned use of female soldiers by Russians in 1944 just before armistice.

 

 Now the numbers of veterans alive is going down faster as they are reaching ages of past 90. Many untold memoirs of the history are going to the grave with them. Luckily a lot has been saved too. The veterans have my respect for saving our country from being overrun by Sowjets and granting us our independence. Many just seem to forget it these days in our society that those men in their 20's gave everything for their homeland making it possible for us to have the level of living we have now, rebuilding the country after the war etc.

 

 Enough of jabbering. Have a great weekend all.

Edited December 20, 2013 by LLv34_Flanker

[Marrond]

If you want to read a good book about Eastern Front from German perspective try to find one based on Hans Roth's diaries.

I believe you mean "Eastern Inferno". Indeed great book! Thanks for the head-up about The Icy Hell, gonna definitely check it out since I've missed that one

[FlatSpinMan]

I just finished "The Forgotten Soldier" yesterday.

It was excellent. I've read a lot of WW2 accounts but largely from the Western Allies point of view.

 

What struck me was just the endless nature of the account. The western ones tend to be more episodic due to leave or just shorter campaigns. But the Ostfront - my god - just an endless, frozen/muddy/dust-covered meat grinder.

 

Next on my list is something from the Soviet

Soldier's point of view. Might check out the above-mentioned one, though there's also another book compiling veterans' accounts that has caught my eye.