![\"Stalingrad2003\"](\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Stalingrad2003.jpg\")
<\/a>Synapse Films recently remastered the stunning and deeply moving 2003 German documentary Stalingrad<\/a> <\/strong>on Blu-ray, and I\u2019ve paired that release with a 2-disc Soviet propaganda film I picked up on my last trip to Germany a few years ago.<\/p>\nThe battle scenes are often quite extraordinary, Stalin as a benevolent, soft-spoken father figure is amusing (for a while), and Hitler resembles a live-action version of a caricature from a Warner Bros. propaganda cartoon (namely the rug-chewing counterpart in \u201cThe Ducktators\u201d).<\/p>\n Battle<\/strong> is a weird artifact that was part of a series of \u2018artistic documentaries\u2019 proposed by Stalin, which included the monstrous The Fall of Berlin<\/a><\/strong> \/ Stalingradskaya bitva<\/strong><\/a> (1950), another epic that similarly had to be released in 2 parts to cinemas.<\/p>\n Synapse also released a new HD transfer of Leni Riefenstahl\u2019s scary propaganda classic Triumph of the Will<\/strong> (1935), of which a few visual echoes exist within Battle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/a>Released by Icestorm, The Battle of Stalingrad<\/a><\/strong> (aka Stalingradskaya bitva<\/strong> \/ Die Stalingrader Schlacht<\/strong>) was a 1949 propaganda epic \u2013 3 hours in bloated length \u2013 that presented the battle from a more executive level, with Joseph Stalin shored up as the mastermind who saved his namesake city.<\/p>\n