The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest siege in modern history: Over a million people eventually died in a battle that spanned well over a year and hit its peak in the frozen cruelty of the Russian winter. This German film focuses on a small detachment of Wehrmacht stormtroopers who are thrust into the thick of the fighting in Russia. As the war and the winter drag on, the reasons for fighting become less clear-cut and increasingly absurd, and the violence more personal and senseless. Eventually, the few remaining soldiers are numbed and frozen, not only by the weather but by the duty-bound incongruities of the German military mind. Although Stalingrad isn't as immediate or action-packed in its portrayal of war as, say, Gallipoli or Platoon, it explores aspects those films didn't touch: the horrible confusion of the "fog of war"; the excruciating horror of constant waiting; the unwillingness of beaten leaders to accept defeat; the suicidal, almost mechanical adherence of soldiers to soldiering when all other structure seems gone. It's this attention to grotesque detail that makes Stalingrad take two and a half hours to tell its story, but not one minute is wasted. Not one minute is pretty, either. But it makes Stalingrad one of the best anti-war films ever.