Omar Sharif is excellent in this film. The fact is that the film needs to be restored to its widescreen version and released on DVD.<br /><br />The acting is fantastic throughout and the locations are perfect.<br /><br />The point I wanted also to make is that, unlike your "factual errors" there were in fact several Regular German Army units and soldiers who were later brought into the Waffen SS. Several of the foreign volunteer units were brought into the SS as well.<br /><br />There were foreign volunteer units that were in the Leningrad area in 1941-42 and later became Waffen SS in whole or in part.<br /><br />The movie does a great job of making almost perfect copies of German material and when it gets to France even has a shot of tanks made up to look very much like Panthers, in addition to the many kubelwagons and schwimwaggons.<br /><br />Grau is one of the best characters in cinema and he should have had more screen time. A great film! A great indictment of the Nazis.