Customer Reviews

Battle of the Volga/Battle of Russia [VHS]

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This wartime production for propaganda and informative purposes introduced the american public into the horrors and magnitude of the gigantic struggle codenamed "Operation Barbarrosa" by Adolf Hitler himself. When one sees the film over fifty years after its' production, the tone and justified sympathy for the soviet peoples seems so novel by those of us who grew up under the cold war vitriol. That alone and the description of the suffering and valour of the soviet peoples is impressive in itself and gives us an historic dimension along with the dramatism. The military, economic and politcal foreground and explanations delivered during the film have probably never been reproduced and made accesible for the american public in later wars and complicated political moments. If there ever was a time in which the nation, and indeed, the free world strove toward acommon goal it was certainly in WWII. There is an absolute absence of political bias towards the soviets. I can only imagine the reaction of the american public when viewing the imposing panzer and wehrmacht columns at the beginning of the conflict and the destruction they inflicted; the tenacity of the soviets to overcome such a powerful foe; the footage and description of the battle that was to turn it all round: Stalingrad.And from there on the certainty of victory. Battle of the Volga is probably not the best for war documentary buffs;but it delivers the whole scope of the drama and that should suffice for the larger public, even if it is over fifty years old.