I haven't seen the movie--although now that you tell me it's nothing like the book, I might be interested. The incident on which the movie is based (as I remember from the trailers etc. when it came out) is covered in about two pages of Craig's book.
And--I should be fair--he is not unsympathetic to the Russians. But he seems to have been seduced by the Tragic Grandeur (that's my irony there, not his; Craig seems to be devoid of a sense of irony except in the broadest and most brutal sense--of which there was plenty to go around for the Germans) of the fall of the Sixth Army; he's much more interested in the Germans falling apart than he is in the Russians holding it together. And once the counter-offensive starts, he deserts the Russians' POV almost entirely. The division in his head that seems to be important is East vs. West, rather than Nazis vs. non-Nazis. It's very weird to read.
no subject
And--I should be fair--he is not unsympathetic to the Russians. But he seems to have been seduced by the Tragic Grandeur (that's my irony there, not his; Craig seems to be devoid of a sense of irony except in the broadest and most brutal sense--of which there was plenty to go around for the Germans) of the fall of the Sixth Army; he's much more interested in the Germans falling apart than he is in the Russians holding it together. And once the counter-offensive starts, he deserts the Russians' POV almost entirely. The division in his head that seems to be important is East vs. West, rather than Nazis vs. non-Nazis. It's very weird to read.