Stalingrad: Film 1

In January 1942 Hitler puts Fedor von Bock at the head of Army Group South and assigns him to carry out Operation Blau. The German forces advance in the south of Russia, scatter the Soviet units and approach Stalingrad, which appears about to fall. The film alternates between the view of the soldier at the front and the decisions taken at headquarters, showing the command levels on both sides. The account ends with Vasily Chuikov taking command of the 62nd Army in September and connects to the second film. In Yuri Ozerov’s hundred and ninety six minute Soviet production, Mikhail Ulyanov, Sergey Nikonenko and Boris Nevzorov appear. It was completed in 1990 and continues the Soviet tradition of building war out of large scale scenes.