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Enemy at the Gates (2001)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
January 12th, 2008
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'Enemy at the Gates' is a war film that does not involve Americans, who expect to see themselves shown in every depiction of WWII, which was, in many ways, a titanic struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with the other participants all playing secondary roles, including the United States and Great Britain.
The spectacular opening sequences, which merit comparison with Saving Private Ryan, show us the rather hopeless situation of the Soviets, as soldiers arrive by train and are transported across the Volga to Stalingrad, a city that must not fall, must be defended to the very last man, because of its symbolic significance. It lies in ruins, a sprawling maze of rubble, with impressive shots that verify the totality of the destruction. Vassili (Jude Law) is a shepherd boy from the Urals, who has been recruited into the Red Army, and has very good marksmanship, his skills honed from defending his flock from wolves and other predators. After killing five Germans with alarming speed and precision, he is turned into a hero by Danilov (Fiennes), a political officer who believes that Vassili could be successfully exploited as propaganda, and boosts the sinking morale of his fellow countrymen. Danilov presents this idea to Nikita Khrushchev (Hoskins), who is in charge of Stalingrad's defense, and he approves, but gets disappointed when Vassili cannot live up to the reputation ascribed to him in Danilov's newspapers. Vassili is also worried that Danilov has built him into something he is not, and this is especially true after the Germans bring in their best sniper, Major Konig (Ed Harris), a Bavarian nobleman who, in peacetime, hunts deer.
The movie, after this point, narrows its focus and becomes a cat-and-mouse game between Vassili and Konig; Konig always seems to be one step ahead at every turn, he doesn't fall for the standard tricks, and never reveals his position, Vassili falls into his traps time and again, but displays remarkable resourcefulness in escaping them and staying alive. There is a boy named Sacha, who funnels information back and forth to Vassili and the Major, working both sides, putting up an expertly crafted façade, though it does not last, and is bound to end badly for him. Through Sacha, Vassili meets Tania (Rachel Weisz), a well-educated Jewish woman, whose parents have been murdered by the Nazis.
Danilov falls for her, and wants her to work the safe job of translator and decoder, but she is determined to fight, preferably at Vassili's side. The romance stuff is not necessary, and Tania is there only to complicate things with a love triangle, which leads Danilov to become jealous and drives him to betray Vassili and smear him as a traitor. Vassili and Tania have sex, in the middle of crowded sleeping quarters, and no one wakes up to disturb them. This seems out of place, too, but if anything, Tania provides an effective emotional scene where she describes what happened to her parents, and the camera gradually moves closer to her face as she tells her story, showing the anger and sadness.
Harris has a commanding presence, as Konig, the cold professional, who displays little emotion, and Law is convincing as the reluctant Vassili, who lacks self-confidence and stands in awe of Konig's superior abilities, at least for a while. Weisz gives us the character for which we have the most sympathy. Fiennes, in his first major role after Shakespeare in Love, is overwrought and unlikable. Hoskins bears a superb resemblance to Nikita Khrushchev, who, of course, succeeded Stalin as Soviet premier in the 1950s. He perfectly captures his crude, overbearing nature. It is disappointing that the standoff between Konig and Vassili, which has its share of suspenseful moments, ends predictably, with Konig making a mistake that he should have avoided, one that facilitates his defeat, which he accepts with dignity. This is a competent and compelling war drama, and what I found perhaps most striking about it is the way it depicts, very accurately, the appalling Soviet practice of shooting soldiers who try to retreat or run away from battle. These so-called punishment battalions were initially designed by Trotsky, who led the Red Army in the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution. Men with machine guns ready to mow down their fellow soldiers, for cowardice and treason, if they tried to save their own lives. Law, Fiennes, Weisz, and Harris don't bother with Russian or German accents, but this is a minor gripe, especially since there is plenty of Russian and German to be heard, and even Russian writing, which, when important, is subtitled for us.
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