BASED ON THE TRUE STORY OF WORLD WAR II RUSSIAN HERO VASSILI ZAITSEV, WHOSE FAME THRUST HIM INTO A PERSONAL WAR WITH THE NAZIS’ BEST SHARPSHOOTER.Like Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gates opens with a pivotal event of World War II–the German invasion of Stalingrad–re-created in epic scale, as ill-trained Russian soldiers face German attack or punitive execution if they flee from the enemy’s advance. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures this madness with urgent authenticity, creating a massive context for a more intimate battle waged amid the city’s ruins. Embellished from its basis in fact, the story shifts to an intense cat-and-mouse game between a Russian shepherd raised to iconic fame and a German marksman whose skill is unmatched in its lethal precision. Vassily Zaitzev (Jude Law) has been sniping Nazis one bullet at a time, while the German Major Konig (Ed Harris) has been assigned to kill Vassily and spare Hitler from further embarrassment.
There’s love in war as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia’s much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it’s not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it’s a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig’s book and David L. Robbins’s novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a manmade hell on Earth. –Jeff Shannon
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March 30, 2008
#1
Watched the movie yesterday…It is an isult to every Russian. It was a great battle between The German 6th army and the Russian 62nd. As the result, 220 thousand German soldiers sarrended with their fieldmarshal. The commander of the Russian 62nd army was general Chuykov. Khruzhev had nothing to with it at all. Russian showned as a bunch of cretins. There is no army, no commanders, just dirty people etc. The movie was made …in Germany. No wonder. By the way, who won the war ? Who took Berlin ?
March 30, 2008
#2
A US pilot strays over “forbidden area” and get great spy pictures of mass graves. Very becoming of US and Horable. But don’t bother to write a negative one like I did for A Midnight Clear because they will not print it. Must have something to do with sales?
March 30, 2008
#3
I’m not that familiar with the true account of the famed Russian sniper, Vassili Zaitsev so I can’t comment on how accurately the script of his accomplishments is portrayed, but as one fairly familiar with the German attack on Stalingrad, ENEMY AT THE GATES is a fair adaptation of the events that occurred there during the 1942 Eastern Front campaign. I do know that Zaitsev did in fact, score 182 kills with his Nosin-Nagant model 1891/30 rifle and did in fact kill the German Major Kulikov, who had been tracking him for 5 days prior to the German withdrawal of Stalingrad.
The story begins when a beleaguered Russian army, on the brink of disaster, and desperately in need of a moral boost. A Russian propagandist (Fiennes) introduces the high command to the story of Zaitsev (Law), a Russian sniper from the Urals wilderness who had successfully killed over a dozen German officers. A local propaganda campaign began and with Zaitsev’s elevated stature among the local populace, he draws the ire of the German high command, who send their best sniper, Major Konig (Harris) (I don’t know why they chose not to use Kulikov’s real name) to engage in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase between the two warriors. Rachel Weisz adds what is likely a fictionalized romance to the film, and Bob Hoskins gives a brilliant portrayal of a middle aged Nikita Krushchev.
Most notable in this film is the presentation to the western world of the events of the Eastern Front during World War II. An epic saga, for the most part, overlooked by film makers. The peasant army of Russia in the 1930′s and 40′s was, for the most part, illiterate. Therefore, when compared to the war in the west and in the Pacific, only a fraction of personal accounts have been written on this theater of operations. It’s good to see what appears to be a fairly accurate portrayal of that sector of the war.
The acting in this film is above average. The filming itself is great with realistic battle scenes and ensuing chaos that was apparent during the Battle of Stalingrad. The horrors of war are graffic in this movie, so parents should be advised.
March 30, 2008
#4
what is this movie about?
-A history movie? but it lacks of the truth of history.
-A love story? but it lacks of characters. The characters are too simple.
What it’s amusing is the Hollywood style bluffing.
March 30, 2008
#5
This movie is so tight man. its like so tight. when i first saw this movie on the plane ride to england it was so tight. peace easy