Chiens, à vous de crever !

This unfairly obscure early German World War II movie has a lot going for it. For one, it has a solid cast with a lot of recognizable German actors who went on to be in a lot of international productions (namely Preiss and Frank) and put in some solid performances here as soldiers trapped in a hopeless battle.

There's a solid share of action with everything on display from the Romanian units crumbling under tank assault to General von Manstein's attempt at relieving the pocket to the bitter street fighting up to the end. Actually the street fighting comes off even better than in STALINGRAD and ENEMY AT THE GATES and feels quite authentic and realistic despite the low budget. Maybe it's because a good share of the actors in the film actually served in the war? I assume the producers were able to find a section of a German city still devastated from the war some 14 years later or else it's some very good set design. Either way I'm impressed. Amazingly, they even managed to round up some real hardware with at least two real T-34's and a PAK anti tank gun for the battle scenes.

The film takes the ingenious step of using authentic stock footage to supplement the battle scenes as was possible only back when films were black and white. This trick also worked well in ITALIANI BRAVA GENTE which also managed to often call into doubt whether the combat footage was original or stock.

The only main detractor is a lot of mismatched stock footage often from entirely different battles (including some now-famous shots of the retreat from Moscow) and during different times of the year (winter to summer and back again). The film tries to play it off by making it look like snow doesn't hit until after the Russians cut off Stalingrad, but anyone with a basic knowledge of WW2 history should know better. Also the tanks are off, with T34/85's appearing too early in the war as usual and a rare case where an IS2 briefly subs in for a German tank of some sort. Mostly minor nitpicks considering that the film's budget was so low. It's amazing what they were able to pull off with such scant resources.

This black&white picture deals mainly with the german armies on the eastern front- starting with all the glamour of third reich parades and the comradeship even in russia´s tough winters - then finally collapsing into Stalingrad, the major breakdown of all hopes for a german victory...

Some of the acting from todays point of view seems melodramatic and the perspective towards General Paulus and other officers in high ranks is a lot different from how historians of the nineties would describe them. The movie gives an impression of a group of men, who keep fighting though they have already lost. I like the movie, still thirteen years was probably too short to get the point really...

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.

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.