Stalingrad (2013)

Directed by: Fedor Bondarchuk
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Shot in 3D for IMAX format, Russian WWII blockbuster “Stalingrad” is excessively graphical and noisy, relying on a deficient narrative to depict the drama lived in 1942 by a group of Russian soldiers in order to keep a strategic building in their possession, after the German onslaught. Some images are grotesque and completely out of reality, like angered soldiers in flames shooting incessantly, and constant use of slow motion to depict the battle scenes, where extremely saturated colors and an ornate composition give a non-natural air to the picture. Through silent ambushes or explosive offensives, the war scenes conveyed fierceness but not exactly reality. At certain point, soldiers from both sides were fighting over the two women stuck inside the building, and not even the story about the five fathers of the narrator, or the explanation on how a famous tenor became cold and cruel after volunteer himself, were interesting enough. Filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk preferred the elaborated methods, so misleading and exhaustive, to the simple ones capable to create a suspenseful atmosphere. I also can’t choose a performance that has stood out, since everybody seemed lost among the debris. The score composed by the acclaimed Angelo Badalamenti, widely known for his work in David Lynch’s movies, did its part without surprise. Assuredly, “Stalingrad” doesn’t make justice to one of the most important and bloodiest battles of WWII.