Movie Title: Enemy at the Gates

Movie Title: Enemy at the Gates
Rating: 8
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens

Review:
It's a peculiar story of a country bumpkin from the Urals who saves the Soviet Union by raising morale during the Siege of Stalingrad during World War II. Enemy at the Gates begins in the early stages of the seige when the Soviets are holding on by a thread to a landing zone in the city (it might help you to know that Stalingrad lies on the west bank of the River Volga). This is where our hero Vassily Zaitsev (Jude Law) makes his appearance. He isn't much when we first meet him, but he soon becomes the one bright spot for a beaten and demoralized Red Army. Vassily becomes the thing that they can all rally around. This is accomplished by Vassily demonstrating his abilities as a sniper in the presence of a political officer by the name of Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Danilov then uses the story of Vassily's feats to help boost morale, get himself a promotion, and gets Vassily assigned to the army's sniper division. Next, after Vassily kills a couple dozen more Nazis, he and Danilov meet Mrs. Filipov (Eva Mattes) and her boy Sasha (Gabriel Thomson). The boys also meet the attractive and educated Tania (Rachel Weisz), who both fall for. About this time the Germans send in their best sniper in Major Koenig (Ed Harris) to deal with the problem of Vassily. Meanwhile Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins), the leader of the Soviet's Red Army in Stalingrad, is trying desperately to push the Germans back in order to save the city and his own hide (generals who fail under Stalin tend to meet an early grave). So as they say, the plot thickens. At this point you have the duel between the snipers Vassily and the major, while at the same time Danilov and Vassily are dueling over the same girl, Tania. Plus throw in the interactions between Major Koening and the Russian boy Sasha and you have a good story. Writer-director Jean-Jacques Annaud does a good job of maintaining the story-lines while showing the horrors of war, especially showing the inhuman tactics of the Red Army on its own troops. Ron Perlman, Matthias Habich, Sophie Rois, Dan van Husen, and Hans Martin Stier also appear in Enemy at the Gates. One thing I found a bit strange was that Danilov was a Jew, and as such there is an obvious need for him to fight the anti-Semitic Nazis, but Stalin's record isn't that much better when dealing with the Jews and other minorities. So it seemed odd that a Jew would have made it as a political officer in the Red Army. That said, Enemy at the Gates has some good acting, a good plot, depth, and a good feel to it (which much to my chagrin was not enhanced by nudity _. I can't say that it is a great film, but it certainly was good. I give the movie eight couches out of ten for the About-Movies.com rating. Goodbye.