this movie basically be a very well make production and give a good impression of a war situation and it effect on those involve . it always interest to see the story from the other side for a change . this movie concentrate on a group of german soldier who after fight in the north africa campaign be send to stalingrad and russia and where one of the most notorious and bloody battle of ww ii be be fight . it interest to see the other side of this battle and since we mainly just always see the german simply a the villain . in this movie those villain be give an humane face and voice and it sort of make you realize that the only true enemy in war be war itself and not necessarily those who youre fight against . at first it kind of hard to concentrate on the movie because you always just have in the back of your mind that the german be the evil villain . but of course you get accustom to it quickly and you soon adapt the german a the main character of the movie and you even start to care and be interest in them . the way this story be tell isn not however the best . it hard to keep track of the story at time and a it jump from the one sequence and location to the other . the movie isn not always logic in it storytelling and feature a bit too many sequence that remain too vague . it also be most of the time pretty hard to keep the character apart and see who be who . it doesn not always make this movie an easy on to watch but than again on the other hand and there be plenty enough sequence and moment present in this movie to make it worthwhile and an interesting one and just not the most coherent one around . in that regard hollywood movie be always good than european movie . the production value be high and feature some good look set and location and though the movie wasn not even shoot in russia itself . it help to create a good war time situation atmosphere . the character be mostly interesting although perhaps a tad bit formulaic . but i do not know and for some reason formulaic character always work out fine in war movie and strenghtens the drama and realism . it also help that theyre be play by well cast actor . all of the actor aren not the best known actor around ( thomas kretschmann be also at the time still a fairly unknown actor ) but each of them fit their role well and give it character an unique face and personality . all in all not the best or most consistent ww ii drama around but definitely worth a look and due to it original approach of the german side of the battle of stalingrad and it good production value . positive .