We all know how great Saving Private Ryan is as a movie. It's a technical and cinematic masterpiece. But on other aspects it came across quite mediocre to me. The movie adds nothing narratively or thematically and takes no risks. The entire plot is much of a PR campaign which many dies for the sake of Private Ryan cause... it's a great story and military big shots had some feelings which are sort of justified. In one acronym, as the characters describe; FUBAR

I added this clip out of respect to the pure technical excellence of the movie and as a prelude to something that achieves even greater or at worst, similar level of excellence regarding the narrative and themes.

As you can clearly see the movie isn't some melodramatic art stuff. It's full of good action sequences and though the trailers doesn't capture it, there is a whole lot of strategy and tactics involved. In The Battle of Stalingrad the Russians were outnumbered and were facing a yet undefeated enemy. The end of The Battle of Stalingrad was what turned the tides of WWII. The movie is set 3 months into the battle. It had a tiny budget for the largest battle in history; just $30 million. The effects are at the level of high budget television production despite being a 3D movie which was the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.

So what's special about Stalingrad (2013)?

First let me tell you that it's not an exaggeration to say that compared to the losses of the Russians, USA left the WWII with a slap on the wrist. The movies and mainstream media may have led you to think otherwise by only showing one aspect of the picture. Now think of all that you have seen about USA and WWII and think if it were just a slap in the wrist. Imagine what the real blow would have been. The people from the receiving end of that blows makes and release this movie mainly for the domestic audience.

Now imagine a movie starting with a Japanese narration and a bunch of Russians helping a bunch of Germans and one of the Russians talk to a German girl (in her native tongue) telling her about his 5 fathers. The movie also takes absolute Zero attempts to demonize the Nazi soldiers. (Again, remember that slap in the wrist parable)

That alone should be enough for some people. but let me dive in further. The movie is told from multiple perspectives including the Germans and the most important part is the way the movie create a web of context. Instead of war is terrible and bad stuff happens melodrama, Stalingrad builds a web of cause and effect driving the characters and incidents of the movie. Instead of the general stuff about the horrors of war Stalingrad talks about aspects like a famous singer turning into a soldier or loving an enemy woman with resemblance to one's late wife or the grudges being built on top of tragedies.

When scenes are better to describe characters, the scenes work. When narration works better, it's an exposition dump. Instead of following some storytelling rules the movie builds up certain elements and let them fall into place like a tactical-thriller or Sherlock Holmes mystery. Everything makes sense. The ending makes perfect sense.

Getting the ending done right for a movie like this is like getting the ending done right for a time travel movie. When I was watching it, I had the idea of a perfect ending and Stalingrad (2013) delivered just that. It was just human beings in the Matrix of a War Machine with their stories of Love, Hate, Hope, Despair, Celebration, Courage, Sacrifice, Vengeance, Tactics, Leadership and a lonely girl in a battlefield who grew up to tell a tale of five fathers to her son. Even the sexual aspects were deeply human and carry a lot of profound weight beyond just some biological thingy between men and women.

The movie has it's flaws. It's technically not that great. CGI is just meh. The flaw of the story isn't well constructed as something like Saving Private Ryan. But if I turn blind eye to all of the technical aspects of the movie, Stalingrad (2013) becomes my favorite modern military movie ever far eclipsing Saving Private Ryan or Platoon.