Enemy at the Gates angers vets

[Andy Blackadar]

An interesting article I found on Johnson's Russia List.

Veterans angry over Stalingrad battle movie

MOSCOW, May 8 (UPI) -- As moviegoers in the Russian capital bought tickets

Tuesday to watch a Western-made movie depicting the crucial World War II

battle, war veterans from the southern Russian city of Volgograd demanded

Russian legislators ban the picture.

Labeled Europe's most expensive film ever, French director Jean-Jacques

Annaud's "Enemy at the Gates" definitely struck a wrong chord with survivors

of the historic Stalingrad battle.

On Tuesday, a group of veterans from Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) sent

a letter to the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma,

demanding that the screening of the movie be suspended, the official

Itar-Tass news agency reported.

No official comments regarding the demand were available from the Duma

Wednesday.

The veterans were offended by what they called distortions of real facts

that eventually depicted the city's defenders as cannon fodder who blindly

obeyed orders of Red Army officers and played a miniscule role in

Stalingard's defense.

According to the letter, Soviet commanders, in turn, were described as

ruthless tyrants, always ready to kill deserters or officers with miserable

records to boost soldiers' morale.

One such scene shows the character of Nikita Khrushchev -- who later

became the general secretary of the Communist Party -- ordering a Soviet

general who failed to drive back the Germans to commit suicide to encourage

his fighters.

The 84-million-dollar movie opened in Russia on March 30. The premiere was

held in Russia's third-largest city of Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga River.

The movie received relatively good reviews from film critics, mostly owing

to the star-studded lineup of actors including Jude Law, Rachel Weisz,

Joseph Fiennes and Ed Harris.

At the same time, it was a commercial success at the box office,

collecting as of April 22 a total of $46.3 million in the United States and

$48.3 million elsewhere.

Nevertheless, its portrayal of events that reversed the course of World

War II has angered Russian battle survivors who fought against the Nazi's

for six months.

The Battle of Stalingrad was fought from July 1942, until February 1943,

when Germany's 6th Army under the command of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus

surrendered to Russia, virtually ending the German offensive in the Soviet

Union.

[Mattias]

I have no trouble what so ever in understanding their frustration.

The environment surrounding the plot was filled to the brim with stereotypes and judging from the result no real effort was made to portray the action as it really happened.

I can imagine what it would be like to fight, struggle and die for whatever reason made you fight, struggle and die, and then have that struggle done over by an ignorant and uninterested posterity.

Mediocrity and stereotype thinking are a scourge of our time. And this poorly executed drama is a good example of both.

M.

[David Aitken]

And so begins the latest Enemy At The Gates thread on the CM forum...

It would give BTS more time to work on CM2 if this thread, and other off-topic threads like it, were left to disappear, or simply not started in the first place.

Those interested in the film might consider doing a search for the earlier threads on the subject, or discussing it in the General forum if they must.

[Mark IV]

I know, every time I see a Soviet movie about the great American battles I get the same feeling...

Hi, Nikita!

[click.wav]

[Mlapanzer]

Does anyone know what the general forum is for.

Back up the moving vans.

[Ralph Beaman]

I have no sympathy for the High Russian cammand in WW II. Remember Stalin killed over 40 million people for nothing. Nobody cares about the ten thousand polish officers that were murdered at the hands of the russians when the Germans over ran the country. They did use personel that way in the war and it is documented. :mad:

[Terence]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mlapanzer:

Does anyone know what the general forum is for.

Back up the moving vans. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yeah, im sure this thread will make a sudden move.

But I have to say I don't think banning the movie is the solution. Let the outrage serve as the impetus for a movie that does it right...

Banning a Soviet/Stalinist answer -- if you don't like what someone says, shut them up -- but if Russia is ever going to be a democracy, then it should become clear to people there that a multiplicity of voices is a good thing, and that even idiots who make bad films should be able to have a say.

[The Commissar]

I think they have every reason to be pissed off. I can also see why they want in banned - for millions of viewers all over the world, this movie could create an image of what the battle was actually like.

Lets face it - as long as a movie is directed by anyone who wasnt there to witness it, and the fact that no 80 year old man would be able to direct a high budget movie, we will almost never get an accurate depiction other then from war footage.

Oh, and the Soviet command was not always like this, like someone said in thsi thread. I imagine they didn't have mass wave attacks in a city. The Soviets were mostly on the defensive, with small attacks to regain positions once in a while.

Anyway, just my 2 cents before the thread goes down.

[Battlefront.com]

This forum is for CM releted topics.

Topic moved to the General Forum.

Deputy Moderator