Enemy at the Gates
Loosely based on the true story of Vassili Zaitsev and his remarkable sharpshooting skill the film Enemy at the Gates takes plenty of liberties with the story behind the man.
Film making 15/25
Cinematography 20/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 13/25
Total 68/100
Vassili Zaitsev, played by Jude Law, is a Ural peasant who is forced to attack the Germans as they invade Russia and Stalingrad. After the treacherous crossing of the Volga river in unprotected barges the soldiers are given either a weapon or ammunition.
Officers tell them when their fellow soldier holding the gun or ammo dies pick up what they had and fight the Germans. The soldiers have a long run through rubble filled empty streets and make it to the front lines where the Germans are entrenched.
Vassili attempts to make it as far as he can but the Germans are much better equipped and well dug in so the attempt at fighting them back is doomed. When some of the Russian soldiers try to retreat their own officers shoot them down as cowards.
Vassili hides in an empty fountain among the dead and witnesses a Russian political officer careening madly into the square in a small car with papers flying. The officer makes it to the fountain and hides from oncoming Germans who are sweeping the area shooting bodies to make sure they are dead.
The political officer, Danilov played by Joseph Fiennes, waits till the Germans move on and sees an aide getting a shower ready for a German officer. Danilov gets a nearby rifle and lines up a shot but Vassili sees he is not proficient with weapons and asks for the gun.
Danilov gives the rifle to Vassili who shoots the officer and several others then gives the weapon back to Danilov who shakes his hand, amazed at the five enemies he killed. Later when Nikita Khrushchev, played by Bob Hoskins, is questioning officers about what they need to do to win the war against the Germans Danilov speaks up and tells him they need to give the men hope.
He tells Khrushchev about the kills Vassili made and Khrushchev tells him to write about the peasant from the Urals who is a hero of Mother Russia. Vassili starts a record kill streak for a sniper and trains others to become killers of German officers and other important people instead of just soldiers.
The Germans fear the snipers will bring ruin to their well laid plans of defeating the Russians not only due to the killing of officers but of decreasing morale. They send in their top sniper, Major Erwin Konig played by Ed Harris to find and take out Vassili.
Konig uses a small boy, Sacha, who is crossing the enemy lines as a source of information but knows he is only getting fed what the Russians want him to hear. He tricks the boy into finding out what he really wants by talking with him and bribing him with food and candy.
Vassili ends up the winner in the ongoing sniping duel after Konig misjudges his talent and skill as a sniper but only after Danilov uses himself as bait. During the film Danilov and Vassili have both fallen for the beautiful multi lingual Tania played by Rachel Weisz but she only wants Vassili.
When Danilov sees she will only love Vassili he takes her to the young boy’s mother after they find out the boy was hung by Konig as bait for Vassili. Danilov and Tania with Sacha’s mother go to the docks to cross the Volga to flee the city and Tania is wounded by artillery fire.
Danilov tells Vassili that Tania is dead and uses himself as bait to have Konig give away his position when Konig shoots Danilov in the head. Vassili moves when his friend is killed to a position behind where he thinks Konig will go after Vassili does not immediately shoot Konig.
Konig comes out from his hiding place and finds Vassili behind him when Konig attempts to see the victim of his shot which he assumes is Vassili. The film ends with Vassili visiting a hospital where he has been writing to Tania and they hold each other and kiss.
Enemy at the Gates is a pretty good movie but a bit over dramatized and very loose with the facts of the general battle of Stalingrad. Many complaints came about from the portrayal of Russian officers shooting retreating soldiers and how they only gave ammunition and weapons to soldiers separately.
The film does a great job of showing the struggle of Russia against the Germans and how snipers became a turning point for the war in Russia’s favor. The cinematic scenes of Stalingrad crumbling under constant siege are very well done and much of the films war torn look is great.
The story and how they took such liberties with the way Russia is shown was a shame as the general idea of Russia and its leaders being so cruel and heartless was overdone in my opinion. The film was pretty good despite that and I do give it a decent rating for being a well made film even though critics in the past did not give it such high praise.
Enemy at the Gates comes in really good audio and video for high definition with some great looking effects and scenery. They did really well with the HD transfer to Blu-ray and the video is clear and sharp with no problems in color.
The sound is also very well done with good 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio in English with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound in French and Spanish as well as subtitles in several languages. The audio is very good with well done positional and surround sound so there is no problems with the high definition audio or video.
The Blu-ray edition comes with a few extras but these are the same as the DVD Special Edition so there is nothing new here unless you don’t have that version. The extras on the Blu-ray are two making of features and deleted scenes along with a trailer of the film that together adds a little fun and entertainment to the film.
The two making of features, Through the Crosshairs and Inside Enemy at the Gates are both pretty good with cast and crew talking about the film, making it and their work in preparation for the film such as weapons practice. The making of features are decent and worth at least a peek but not really much to return to again and again.
The bonus content is a bit lacking but if you like war films and do not have this yet you can be sure that the Blu-ray version is well worth at least a rental if not a purchase. I enjoyed the film and think Enemy at the Gates will remain in my private collection as one of those war movies worth an occasional viewing.