Directed by the German filmmaker Joseph Vilsmaier, “Stalingrad (1993)” follows in the tradition of notable American films about Vietnam. Similar to Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket,” “Stalingrad” centers on a group of likable everymen trapped in a warzone they didn’t create.
The film begins in sunny Italy, where we meet Lieutenant Hans von Witzland, a proper young man from an aristocratic Prussian family, and Sergeant Manfred “Rollo” Rohleder, a veteran of the Africa Corps. Initially, von Witzland appears to be a staunch Nazi, refusing to pin a medal on the rough-looking Rohleder when he doesn’t button up his collar during inspection, stating, “Heroes aren’t late,” to Rohleder and his friend Corporal Fritz Reiser.

However, as the setting shifts to the frozen steppe along the Volga, it becomes clear that von Witzland’s “by the book” Prussian militarism actually signifies the opposite. He is an old-school German conservative who vehemently opposes the abuse of Russian prisoners and harbors a deep hatred for the Nazis.
Fritz Reiser, portrayed by French actor Dominique Horwitz, is a tough-minded realist determined to survive at any cost. The casting of Horwitz, who has a distinctly Jewish appearance, underscores the message that not all of von Paulus’s soldiers were Nazis. Like American soldiers in Vietnam, they were simply soldiers with rotten leaders.