Stalingrad 1  DVD
Director: Yuriy Ozerov  

CZECH DVD RELEASE

Stars: Fjodor Bondarcuk, Powers Boothe, S. Nikonenko, F. Allende, M. Uljanov, B. Nevzorov, V. Lobanov
Audio: 2.0
Duration: 87 min
Lang: ruská, ceská
Subtitles: ceské

No English subs

EAN kód: 8594067060661

The WWII pivotal battle of Stalingrad is shown through the eyes of the soldiers and officers on both sides of the war.

A sequel of "Bitva za Moskvu" (1985). The film is set in the Russian city of Stalingrad on the river Volga in 1942-1943. The Nazi Armies are over one million strong, when they reach Volga at Stalingrad, where the WWII pivotal battle is unfolding. The battle becomes the biggest military event in the history of WWII. Despite the immeasurable human losses on both sides, the battle is going on for many months, fueled by the draft and military propaganda from the leaders. After having the big city totally destroyed, the invading Nazi Armies are defeated and reduced to one hundred thousand POWs. The battle is shown through the eyes of the soldiers and officers on both German and Russian sides of the war. 

Trivia
Due to the harsh economic conditions in the late 1980s Soviet Union, Yuriy Ozerov was unable to secure funding for his film inside the USSR. After deliberations, he approached the American Warner Brothers for assistance. The company agreed to provide financial support, but demanded that American actors would be given representation. The reluctant director had to cast Powers Boothe for the title role of General Vasily Chuikov. The film was the first Soviet-American co-production in the Perestroika era.

Don't confuse with 1993 film
Judging by the commentary, everyone is confusing this movie with Stalingrad (1993) by Joseph Vilsmaier. This is NOT the story from German perspective. This is a soviet-style epic, typical of Ozerov's work. This means we are shown a Soviet textbook illustration, nothing too emotional here, even the scene of NKVD officer shooting the soldiers who lost their guns in Kharkov retreat.

The year of production is 1989, the times of "perestroika", so Ozerov goes a little bold here, depicting briefly something that Brezhnev times did not like to mention, i.e. the tremendous defeat under Kharkov, due to total incompetence of Stalin & co. Nevertheless, the rest of the approach is still the same old beaten one - see 'Osvobozhdenie', etc.

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CONDITION EXCELLENT
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