Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben

Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben (Dogs, do you want to live forever?) Is directed by Frank Wisbar and adapted to screenplay by Wisbar, Frank Dimen and Heinz Schröter from the Fritz Wöss novel. It stars Joachim Hansen, Wilhelm Borchert, Wolfgang Preiss and Carl Lange. Music is by Herbert Windt and cinematography by Helmut Ashley.

It was a hell hole pocket.

A little cracker jack of a war movie, coming at things from a German's point of view during the Battle of Stalingrad. Through the eyes of our protagonist we come to be part of his disillusionment with the Nazi ways, we witness cowardly majors and obstinate leaders who left the German troops and their allies ill equipped to fight the battle.

A bitter Xmas present.

As Hermann Göring preaches from his pulpit, many miles away from the battle, he's celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Third Reich, all while Stalingrad burns and his army lie dying or limbless in a makeshift grungy hospital. The impact is enough to sicken you to your stomach.

Away from the anti-war thematic thrusts of the narrative, battle scenes are niftily constructed (though some of the spliced footage is incorrect to this battle). While the monochrome photography is in turns gorgeous and then potent to the horrors of war. Splendidly performed by the principals as well.

As has been noted by others who have reviewed this little seen film, the subtitles are poor. Too fast to read sometimes while any language not in German (Eastern Europeans) isn't catered for. A shame, but in the wake of what a very good film this is, it's a small price to pay. 8/10

Made soon after the few survivors of Stalingrad returned home, wounds were still fresh & deep when this film was released just 14 years after the unconditional surrender. This film is important because was one of the first German post-war films to critically examine some very difficult & painful areas for the Germans.

Interestingly we never see Hitler's face - I'm sure there are a few reasons for that. The film addresses the lie that the Allies of Germany, Rumania (and Italy et al for that matter) were poor troops. They were good soldiers but were indeed poorly equipped & supported.

There have been criticisms for mis-matching of stock footage, incorrect tanks (T-34/86 instead of T-34/76) & subtitling. Most of this is minor, for example mistaking "Oberst-Leutenant" (Lt-Col) for "Oberleutenant" (Snr Lt) and mis-spelling General Hoth's name (as "Hooth"). The translating of "break-out" as "break ranks" is trivial. The actual footage spliced in may be of different battles but given the time & place this was made it seems a reasonable thing to do. In the end, getting squashed by a Russian tank or disintegrated by high explosive shells is much the same experience wherever you do it.

No, 14 years was not long enough for a deep introspection but this film made a solid start down that path. Well worth seeing. Look out for the exceedingly & implausibly beautiful Sonja Ziemann.

A lot of times I read here by IMBD, that there are only three war-films on the eastern front (Cross of Iron, Stalingrad and Enemy at gates). There are a lot of other european films with this topic and for me this one is the best of all. There are war films better than this, but no one at the eastern front.

Wolfgang Preiss, a 2nd reason why i got this plays solitaire while his men die for nothing. I love this movie and watch it every winter on our coldest blustery blizzard day. Unless we have an ugly winter it does not get watched at all. It shows how human the Germans were, how they were not all Nazis. Hitler & the uppers all deserved to die. They had banquets while these men starved & froze. I can't watch it for long usually because it breaks my heart to see them suffer. However i got this for Horst Frank, Wolfgang Preiss, Wilhelm Borchet, Joachim Hansen and Rev. Busch later became a goon after i saw this. He's so sweeet. Somehow garnished the nickname Busch-Busch but one of my sweetest German actors.

The truth scene between Germans and Russians is alone a masterpiece, because authentic and of course never showed in JJ Annaud's crap, made in 2001, ENEMY AT THE GATES, a Hollywood garbage junk supposed to show the real face of war, but only a warmonger feature, not an anti war one. I HATE most of American movies about WW2, not every one, but at least 90 percent. This one deserves to be discovered again. It is available on you tube. A real masterpiece. Both sides provided real heroes. BOTH SIDES. And the thing I admire the most is that the Russian soldiers, the enemies of the lead German characters, are not shown as bad guys, as German soldiers are shown in Russian war features. See? THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT A F...PROPAGANDA CRAP. That's why I love it. Truly, definitely. Absolutely.