Stalingrad

Name: Stalingrad
Genre: Action, War
Released: February 28, 2014
Duration: 131 min
Rating: 49
Cast: Aleksey Barabash, Andrey Smolyakov, Dmitriy Lysenkov, Mariya Smolnikova, Oleg Volku

2014

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Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 68 Ratings

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4.4

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4.4	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 68 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 28, 2014 | R

Starring: Aleksey Barabash, Andrey Smolyakov, Dmitriy Lysenkov, Mariya Smolnikova, Oleg Volku, Pyotr Fyodorov, Sergey Bondarchuk, Thomas Kretschmann, Yanina Studilina

Summary: Stalingrad is an epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War II. A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected a Russian woman who has been living there. Presented in IMAX® 3D, the scale of theStalingrad is an epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War II. A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected a Russian woman who has been living there. Presented in IMAX® 3D, the scale of the battle contrasts dramatically with the human drama of the Russian soldiers, the few remaining civilians and their invaders into Stalingrad.… Expand

Director: Fedor Bondarchuk

Genre(s): Action, War

Rating: R

Runtime: 131 min

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Critic Reviews

Mick LaSalle

Feb 27, 2014

After a devastating opening, the movie gets sluggish here and there, but it remains interesting throughout, not just culturally, but as a piece of drama. Read full review

Stephanie Zacharek

Feb 25, 2014

Lush with feeling that could easily be mistaken for sentimentality, Stalingrad is more like a 19th-century novel than a 21st-century blockbuster. It's theatrical and intense, sometimes in an overbearing way, but it's never boring. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Glenn Kenny

Feb 28, 2014

It's a mixed bag overall — hence my star rating — but it's worth seeing nonetheless, largely because of the explicitly Russian qualities its sustains. Read full review

Tom Russo

Feb 27, 2014

It’s a brutal bit of screen poetry that’s matched too infrequently by the aching human stories director Fedor Bondarchuk is so anxious to tell. Read full review

Bilge Ebiri

Mar 3, 2014

While the imagery in this retelling is impeccable, the story is strangely lifeless. Read full review

Liam Lacey

Feb 27, 2014

Overall, Stalingrad is a bizarre concoction, part Putin-era patriotic chest-thumping and part creaky war melodrama, all set in a superbly recreated ruined city. Read full review

Jay Weissberg

Feb 25, 2014

Assaults are filmed in ubiquitous slow-mo to better register the way bodies are thrown into the air. It’s all rather confusing, actually, since the monochromatic tonalities and weak script, lacking in any comprehensible battle strategy, tend to meld the two sides together. Read full review

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User Reviews

LiberallyGuilty

Jul 13, 2014

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've been a fan of Fedor Bondarchuk's since I saw "9th Company" a few years ago. Whereas "9th Company" was a gritty, almost cynical depiction of Soviet soldiers fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980's, "Stalingrad" serves as an idealized metaphor of Russia's heroes of the "Great Patriotic War."

My first word of advice is to watch this in the original Russian audio with subtitles. When I purchased this movie, it defaulted to a (in my opinion) poorly overdubbed English audio version, which irritated me. Changing over to Russian audio with English subtitles made a huge difference for me.

Larger than life and more symbolic than historically accurate, "Stalingrad" is a hyperbolic action movie and not so much a war drama. I find that "Stalingrad" works well if the viewers' expectations are set at "cartoonish action movie;" however, those expecting a more serious war drama will be likely disappointed with this film. To paraphrase a review I read on Rotten Tomatoes -- this movie is a lot more like "300" than it is like "Saving Private Ryan."… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

Broyax

Jul 5, 2021

Du grand spectacle pour ce Stalingrad russe et une débauche de moyens à faire mourir de honte Hollywood ! on en prend plein les mirettes et les esgourdes, car la guerre à cet endroit était particulièrement brutale… et pire que ça, elle était enragée…

La réalisation est à la hauteur etDu grand spectacle pour ce Stalingrad russe et une débauche de moyens à faire mourir de honte Hollywood ! on en prend plein les mirettes et les esgourdes, car la guerre à cet endroit était particulièrement brutale… et pire que ça, elle était enragée…

La réalisation est à la hauteur et parfaitement maîtrisée, pas de cut & move, non, non : des plans soignés et même… des ralentis impressionnants ; c’est assurément un régal à visionner avec un pot de pop-corn et un gobelet de vodka. Du pop-corn, car à l’instar des gros films de guerre américains, la propagande pour la gloriole des héros héroïques patriotiques dévoués corps et âme au sacrifice tourne dans ce Stalingrad de 2013 à plein régime !

J’ai repensé d’ailleurs à cet égard à un certain Fury ou même un Soldat Ryan (sans compter les grosses merdes de Michael Bay ou Roland Emmerich), preuve s’il en est que les Amerloques et les Russkofs ont ce point en commun : la propagande propagandiste à fond les ballons sous la forme de divertissements plus ou moins bien calibrés. Mais contrairement aux films hollywoodiens modernes, ce Stalingrad-là est très bien emballé et se laisse consommer avec allégresse.

Notons que l’autre Stalingrad de notre (inter)national metteur en scène Jean-Jacques Annaud est l’un des rares films à offrir un point de vue relativement neutre sur ces évènements terribles… avec bien évidemment des moyens hollywoodiens. Et notons également que les Allemands ne sont pas tous dépeints dans ce film russe comme les pires raclures déshumanisées… certains seulement, certains.

Bien entendu, en dehors de l’action stupéfiante, la romance et le drame typiquement slaves se sont invitées sans sourciller, surtout dans la dernière partie du film : une baisse de rythme notable donc mais également une dramatisation plus ou moins maladroite et/ou… presque drolatique à l’insu de son plein gré… mais quelle belle efficacité globale en tout cas !… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Xerogamer

Jul 7, 2014

Who cares if that isn't what really happened. In my opinion this was a great action/war movie. The cinematography was great, the CGI was good, and the acting was good. I don't care about the history behind it. Have you ever seen Inglorious Bastards, I am pretty sure hitler never got his headWho cares if that isn't what really happened. In my opinion this was a great action/war movie. The cinematography was great, the CGI was good, and the acting was good. I don't care about the history behind it. Have you ever seen Inglorious Bastards, I am pretty sure hitler never got his head shot to bits by Brad Pitt in real life. This is exactly why I don't like critics, your too....critical. Don't get hung about on things as mediocre as the history behind it, who cares. Watch it for what it is...a good movie.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

glomman

Jul 18, 2021

I accidentaly watched this movie because there's also a German movie (a much better one) carrying the same name.
I think it's necessary to mention that this movie is produced by Russia 1, which is essentially owned by the russian government. Make of that what you will, but it isn't aI accidentaly watched this movie because there's also a German movie (a much better one) carrying the same name.
I think it's necessary to mention that this movie is produced by Russia 1, which is essentially owned by the russian government. Make of that what you will, but it isn't a positive in my book.
The movie itself is pretty average, a lot of action with forgettable characters who all, for some reason, want to "hang out" with a young woman (I don't know, if she was underage or already an adult) who is trapped in a building in Stalingrad getting assaulted by the Germans during WWII. It's not really boring, but also not really fun to watch, also it's an intense glorification of war which makes sense in that context I guess, but seeing characters who have no drive other than to "Follow orders and fight for the motherland" gets laughable pretty quickly.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

CineAutoctono

May 30, 2017

"Stalingrad" was a somewhat regular movie, if the photograph was incredible, but the script was lazy, the characters acceptable, and the story was good, although the time scale was somewhat confusing, this is about the Second World War, Among the Nazis, against the Russians in Stalingrad.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

tipar

Sep 30, 2018

It has its quality but I did not like it. I found it boring and I did not see the whole thing.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Thermallator

May 28, 2014

Did Putin write this? Did some Stalin era general direct it? This is a propaganda commercial that is 2 hours long with the worst Russian melodrama that Russians are famous for. The opening where Russian soldiers are on fire - charging the MG42 nests made me laugh out loud. It's so cliche andDid Putin write this? Did some Stalin era general direct it? This is a propaganda commercial that is 2 hours long with the worst Russian melodrama that Russians are famous for. The opening where Russian soldiers are on fire - charging the MG42 nests made me laugh out loud. It's so cliche and so predictable in a Russian propaganda kind of way that if you thinks it's a comedy - it actually works.… Expand

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

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