It would be all too easy to dismiss Enemy At The Gates as being an attempt to cash in on Saving Private Ryan’s success, but in my opinion, it is a very worthy competitor. In fact, it is a better film. I say that primarily because I am sick to death of Americans using World War II as a basis for films that generally amount to little more than propaganda. Of course, Enemy At The Gates comes off as being somewhat fantastic due to its attempt to balance entertainment with historical fact, and it came as a surprise to me to learn that Sergeant Vassili Zaitsev was a real person (whose sniper rifle is still an exhibit in a Russian museum), but this makes it all the more entertaining to watch.

A lot of historians have it that the battle of Stalingrad was the most unpleasant one fought during the second World War, and this film’s set design and cinematography capture that impeccably. When the Russians are battling the Nazis, you get the idea that if the Nazis didn’t kill them, malnutrition, tetanus, scurvy, bubonic plague, or a million other things would. Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes lend authenticity to their roles that makes it even easier to follow them on their personal journey through hell, and Ed Harris is scarily convincing as a high-ranking Nazi. The real surprise here, however, is Rachel Weisz as Sergeant Tania Chernova, and the very heart and soul of the film. When she describes the reasons why she decided to take up a gun and battle the Germans, it all makes so much sense that you just want to buy the poor girl a beer and give her a good warm embrace. Not that such things would erase the scars that her character bears, but one would feel obligated to try.

Writer/Director Jean-Jacques Annaud, writer Alain Goddard, and cinematographer Robert Fraisse treat the subject matter with great care towards authenticity and entertainment value. It’s very tricky to get these two things in proper sync, but they more than manage here. They also don’t rely on any hokey photographic effects to tell the story, simply letting you see everything as clearly as possible, letting your imagination do the rest. Anyone who’s read anything credible about the inhuman suffering the Russian soldiers endured during this battle will have no trouble filling in the gaps that the narrative leaves about their living conditions. The blood and gore shown during the battles is also very conducive to the atmosphere. Rather than just expecting you to believe that a solider gets his stomach spread all over half a kilometer of pavement by enemy bullets, they show you so you can get a feel for how bloodthirsty both sides in the confrontation were. Even the sex scene doesn’t look out of place here.

To make a long story short, this is the first film I’ve seen in a long, long time that I haven’t been able to come up with a list of criticisms for. It is simply excellent, and the 7.1 rating it is currently stuck with does not do it justice. It is easily superior to the likes of Platoon, the equal of more esoteric war films such as Three Kings, and it is miles above the likes of Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbour. Vassili Zaitsev would be very happy that his struggle has inspired such a commendable piece of art – it is exactly the sort of thing he and millions of others like him (on both sides of the planet) were fighting for.

A gut-wrenching and impressive hide-and-seek thriller that uses the bloody battle of Stalingrad (during the second World War) as the clever disguise here for a real battle of courage and determination. The film follows a young and highly talented Russian sniper from the Urals, Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law – “eXistenZ”, “The Talented Mr. Ripley”), who gains national fame from the help of Danilov (Joesph Fiennes – “Shakespeare in Love”), a propoganda officer and his true love and fellow sniper, Tania (Rachael Weisz), who is also flirting with Danilov.

However, the Germans have an ace sniper of their own in Erwin Koning (Ed Harris – “Pollock”), a seasoned and out-spoken Major who comes to Stalingrad only to pick off Vassili. And before Koning leaves, his superior officer asks how he’ll find Vassili. Koning says, ” I’ll fix it so he finds me.”

The love triangle that director Jean-Jacques Annaud and co-writer Alain Godard put in the story shows that the pair took a chance and I’ll give them credit for doing it. Plus, the love scene that Law and Weisz have is one of the strangest (no offense to either one) that I’ve seen.

The film’s best moments come when Vassili tries to catch Koning off guard, but the problem is Koning is aware of what Vassili is capable of. I won’t say how it’s done, but the final confrontation is a genuine nail-bitter.

All of the performances here are powerhouse and that includes Bob Hoskins as Nikita Kruschev, a snarling and impatient man and Ron Perlman, who portrays Koulikov, a lieutenant whose teeth are all metal and serves as a guide for Vassili.

Robert Frassie (“Ronin”) handles the movie’s photography with care and the appearrence of Stalingrad itself reminded me heavily of the war-torn cities shown in Spielsburg’s “Saving Private Ryan” and Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket”. Also, James Horner conducts a tender and extremely mournful score that leaves a quiet yet important reminder of how awful war is.

“ENEMY AT THE GATES” is an extrodinary work of raw skill and imagination.

I may say, for those who just want to get entertainment and see a war movie, this will do fine, it is good enough for a nice evening.

For those seeking the historical truth, this movie is an outrageous shame, constantly trying to divert the attentions to facts that really didn’t matter at all, if we do a transparent analysis.

The Director spent all his time worried about demonizing the Russians and Stalinism, rather than demonizing the true villains (germans) and emphasizing the glorious role of the red army at world war II. If the Germans had passed Stalingrad, they would hit the Caucasus petroleum fields paralyzing the Russians, and the result would probably be the victory of Nazism, and we wouldn’t probably be here today. Besides, not a single fact about Stalingrad’s importance was shown. Do you know that 2 million Russians died on this battle alone, Mr Director? (That number is, by itself, 4 times bigger than the number of American casualties in the whole Western front). And let’s just not refer that 25 million Russians were killed, close to 80% of the total WWII casualties!

But hell no Mr Director, it doesn’t matter that the invaders were the Germans, it doesn’t matter the brutal massacre of the Soviet people by the Nazis, it doesn’t matter the heroic role at Stalingrad that probably saved the whole world. Those facts don’t matter! Yeah, let’s just show instead how the Russians were brutal and how the Russians forced and killed their own soldiers, because Communism is bad! Such an effort was made to highlight “the Communist assassins”, “forcing and killing their own soldiers”, that it becomes a ridiculous shame:

1) First of all, this turns out to be historically FALSE. All records show that all Russians showed a tremendous will to fight, and they were not forced. Women, elders, crippled, everybody wanted to fight! There are German diary’s telling how they were impressed by the Russian resistance, and numerous reports of heroic civilians. But NO, NO, NO. The Russians just won the war by throwing people in like meat.

2) Second, Killing deserters? Where is the surprise of this Mr Director? Americans did it. Canadians did it. Frenchmen did it… Everybody did it, you know why? IT’S WAR! And we are talking about the most ferocious battle in the history of mankind! Oh, but I guess it is so easy to criticize acts like this when we are sited in a big comfortable Hollywood chair smoking a Cuban cigar …

And not only giving this false image about the Russians turned to be a big lie in this movie, but also the description of the battle. Let me explain this to you, Mr. Director … This was the most atrocious, merciless human fighting ever. Still, you found time for a romance between a pretty boy and a pretty girl, for a hot shot Hollywood stardom for the main character, and in between some lovely chats with lovely families, inside some lovely Russian houses. In true Stalingrad, this just didn’t happened. We are talking about a city in constant street to street fighting, both sides desperately trying to control every possible inch. We are talking about hunger, about sleeping half awake fearing a stab, about temperatures decreasing to -50 degrees, about constant ambushes, constant shooting. This movie doesn’t show 20% of the true image of the battle.

In conclusion: Mr Director: you may hate communism, you may hate Russians, OK, everybody has its own ideology. But you know what? Histoy is history. Distorting the truth is very, very serious, especially to the people of Russia, that have reasons to feel outraged by this. But hey, how am I surprised? After all,this is an American movie.

I really loved this film. It is one of the best movies about war – what it is like, and what causes it. I know some people find the love story hard to take, but it is there to illustrate how jealousy and envy can lead to irrational acts, hate, and even war.

At a time when the world is racing toward armed conflict yet again, this film is a timely reminder of the ultimate futility of war. The opening sequence is one of the most horrific I have ever seen – comparable to that incredible opening scene in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. But unlike “Ryan”, this film does not become a flag-waving one-sided analysis of war. Instead we get an in depth, and very moving, look at the reality of being human in a war situation – whether male or female, German or Russian. And Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz and Ed Harris all give superb performances. I was a bit hard-pressed, though, to believe Bob Hoskins as Krushchev.

Jean-Jacques Annaud is a remarkable director, with a strong visual style, and deserves to be recognised as one of the contemporary masters of cinema. Ten out of Ten.