| RATING: | 100% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
In the Trenches
Rather than present war in its political aspect, this documentary series presents the experiences of ordinary soldiers on the ground. This has the positive effect of making all who give their testimony fully human and we quickly forget that some fought for Nazi totalitarianism while others fought for the Marxist variety.
The only background information we get is the unsurprising news that the two great dictators inspiring all the carnage are both obsessed with the idea of fighting to the last man. Stalin because he would not allow the Nazis to capture a city named after him; Hitler precisely because of the propaganda points to be scored from capturing a city named after his Bolshevik enemy. Neither man cared a wit for the hundreds of thousands of men who would die for their false sense of personal prestige. Do they ever? The basic theme here is of men as cogs, lost in a vast military (& political) machine from which they can never escape - save through madness or death.
Many of the soldiers' stories are particularly unpleasant and difficult for them to recall without tears and we feel as though we are reading a great many personal diaries of men in combat. The word "Moving" does not convey the sense of watching and hearing of the inevitable disaster unfold - almost before our eyes. And the old black & white footage still manages to put us there in the sub zero temperatures among the rich brown mud and the bright red gore.
The Battle of Stalingrad was the great turning point in the Second World War and proved the Herrenvolk could be soundly beaten no matter the Nazis' gene supremacist fear of - and will to destroy - untermenschen and juden.
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