Enemy At The Gates DVD > Reviews > A good war film without an american in site

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Brilliant story line
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Brought to you by Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Name Of The Rose), this film is based on the true story of the WWII Russian soldier Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law…The Talented Mr. Ripley), a former farm boy from the Urals, who develops a knack at killing NAZI officers, and soon is raising both up the ranks and the admiration of the Russian Army. This kind of hero is exactly what they need to make them take back Stalingrad………the capital of the Russian war effort.

*******CAST*******

Jude Law : Vassili Zaitsev
Joseph Fiennes : Danilov
Rachel Weisz : Tania
Bob Hoskins : General Kruschev
Ed Harris : Major Konig
Ron Perlman : Koulikov

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******************SPOILER-ALERT********************

Vassili’s amazing rears it’s head when in the aftermath of a battle in an amass of Russian bodies, Vassili emerges unscathed. Beside him a nervous propaganda officer Danilov (Ralph Fiennes…Shakespeare in Love), stands poised to shoot a NAZI officer but instead Vassili takes the rifle and calmly shoots each of the five officers without the others knowing, every time there is an explosion (to disguise the sound).

This amazing talent does not go unnoticed…in fact…Danilov thinks Vassili could be the hero that will raise the army’s hopes and win the battle of Stalingrad. Assigned his own sniper squad, which rapidly grows Vassili amounts a huge amount of officers dog tags…each representing an officer he has killed, the Germans do not take this well, as Hitler himself sends the country’s best sniper Major Konig (Ed Harris) to kill Vassili and destroy the hopes of the war tired Russian Army.

As Vassili and Konig fight in a battle of wits, position and luck, an interesting love triangle appears. Both Vassili and Danilov fall for the sultry educated soldier Tania, she captures both their hearts and Danilov tries to prevent her from fighting, but after the death of her friend Sasha (a young shoe shine boy), at the hands of Konig she know what she and Vassili should do. Unfortunately she gets mowed down by shrapnel and appears dead and Vassili must do the deed himself.

The final battle sees Vassili and Konig’s final duel to the death but who wins I will not tell you, for that you will have to see the film.

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It is amazing that finally a wartime epic that does not claim that the Americans won the war, its not like many films which are ‘Oh look! Here are the Americans to save us…who cares that they’ve not even entered the war or it was the British who did it…why historical accuracy important”. This is mainly because the film is made in Europe so it shows what really happened and no pro-America hype.

The film is not only dramatically spectacular but visually, the sets are amazing with realistic buildings, bodies, and back drops. The battle scenes are extremely realistic with the aid of computer generated effects. This film boasts a vast array of stars from Jude Law to Bob Hoskins, and is a must see for the avid film fan.