<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by alath:


I loaned my DVD copy to my brother, so I don't have access to the specifics and this may be wrong, but if I remember correctly, I think that like Das Boot, Stalingrad was originally a German-TV miniseries, massively condensed and heavily edited for theatrical release, and then re-released on DVD with some, but not all, of the original footage restored. I do remember my DVD version being quite a bit longer than a theater movie, but not even close to miniseries length.

For both films, I think the 'director's cut' concept really works: they do cut out some material, and they have to tighten it up enough to fit on a DVD, but they can still go a lot longer than a theater release. For both these films, I get the idea there was probably some 'stretching' of the material to fill it out to miniseries length.

As far as the language issue, the DVD version allows you to select the sound-track language and subtitles in any combination. For both Das Boot and Stalingrad, I preferred to set the audio on German and enable the English subtitles -- that way, I could hear the sounds and inflection the director intended, but still understand what was going on.

It is a really great movie, and like Das Boot, the emphasis is on 'what it was like to be there and do that.' Anyone looking for a hoo-ray, glorified depiction of war is going to be extremely disappointed. But if you're interested in the human experience of these events, its hard to imagine any movie doing a better job of it.

PS: if you're shopping, I got my DVD copy from Amazon.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

- In short: Yep, thats probably the reason for the difference in the versions I saw.

Cheers,
Sami