Just saw "Stalingrad 3D"
Directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, who made the very good 2005 movie "9th Company," about the last days of Russia's war in Afghanistan. Bondarchuk's father directed the epic 1956 Russian version of "War & Peace."
OK, if you're looking for a sweeping historical movie about the battle of Stalingrad, this isn't it. This is about a small group of human beings caught up in the meat-grinder of that battle and trying to survive it.
Basic plot: a young Russian woman, Katya, has personally buried 14 members of her family in the back garden of her apartment building in Stalingrad - everyone from her mother and sister to her aunts. Katya's building is blocking a German army unit from reaching its goal, the Volga River. Katya will not leave her home and is soon joined by a ragtag group of Russian soldiers and sailors who dig in to stop, or at least slow down, the Germans. A German officer with a Russian mistress is ordered to take the building by his sadistic (to put it mildly) commander.
For history buffs, the movie is loosely based on real events at "Pavlov's House" during the battle of Stalingrad. And if you saw "Enemy At The Gates," the scenery will be very familiar - it takes place in the same Stalingrad city square, with the same "crocodile fountain" prominently displayed.
A modern-day prologue and epilogue are set in Japan during the recent earthquake/tsunami. A group of Russian rescuers are trying to save some trapped German tourists. Nice touch of irony, since the rest of the movie is about Russians and Germans eagerly trying to kill each other, not so long ago.
Special effects are great and make it worth seeing, IMO. One fantastic shot has a German He-111 bomber crashing at our eye level.
