cinemajesty Movie Review: "Enemy At The Gates" (2001)World-premiering on the "Berlinale" on February 7th 2001, "Enemy At The Gates" fulfills under Jean-Jacques Anaud's direction the requirements of finding a suspense-striving showdown of an informal "World-War-II" sniper duel between a Russian and a German sharp shooter chasing from a deserted Eastern front village to an abandoned Freight-train station, bringing supreme actors Ed Harris and Jude Law together into one movie by keeping nevertheless their distances to deadly consequences, when superb supporting characters portrayed by Rachel Weisz over Ron Perlman to Bob Hoskins and Joseph Fiennes, acting as Russian superior operatives in vodka-drinking offices, when this "House of Cards" of a "World-War-II-movie" fails to convince throughout a 125-Minute-Editorial by Noelle Boisson & Humphrey Dixon, who just keep scene-in for too-long at endless tension build-up efforts of emotionally-fading character relationships that come to an end in nevertheless poetic visuals ignited by director Annaud, known for "The Name Of The Rose" (1986) starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater, in further overly romanticized cinematography as accuracy-preaching production design under an minor unexpectedly, impressively-mixed score by unless always-surprising James Horner (1953-2015), when this all despite, flaw-inhabiting war-action-picture, attracts a technically-obsessive audience.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

felsa OK, its not a bad movie, don't get me wrong, but its too much Hollywood for what really happened at Stalingrad, and the other thing, its quite ridiculous to hear Russian commanders speaking in English, if you are doing an historic war film on which you spend millions of dollars, the least thing you could do its to hired Russian and German actors.

Asif Khan (asifahsankhan) "Enemy of the Gates" - Rumoured to be the most expensive European film ever made, Jean-Jacques Annaud's bloated Second World War epic is an audacious but no leaden rehash of "Saving Private Ryan", complete with a lot of flaws and historical inaccuracies surely but not as nearly as it's polyglot miscasting. A British-French-German co-production - Set in Russia but shot in Germany, this attempt to give the Battle of Stalingrad its proper due is commendable. But the director's decision to focus on a widely discredited Soviet anecdote is misguided and undermines the film's credibility from the start.With the Nazis set to achieve a major propaganda coup by overrunning the city that bears the name of their Russian enemy, Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to kick the demoralised army into shape. Intimidation only goes so far, though, so one apparatchik, Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), suggests they find a hero to inspire the troops.That hero is Vassily Zaitsev (Jude Law), a peasant from the Urals who happens to be a crack shot marksman or a Sniper if you play a lot of X-Box, which is no surprise since we're looking at Russia, the largest size-wise country is filled with more of these Snipers than the ambition to actually kill. Danilov builds the unassuming Vassily into a legend, trumpeting his exploits to such an extent that the Germans send their best sniper, Major Koenig (Ed Harris), to take him down.What follows is a series of one-on-one confrontations between the two men at various locales in the bombed-out city, juxtaposed with an unlikely and insipid romance between Vassily and pretty Jewish soldier Tania (Rachel Weisz). The opening scenes of chaos are as accomplished as those in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winner, but unlike Saving Private Ryan, from then on Annaud is not all at sea or at war. In fact he ensembles a pretty decent directional approach and tension-full script along with solid performances from his British leads.While for a war film, it has no notable "extreme level brutality" on display or gores of Saving Private Ryan or any modern day slasher films as one might expect but it is nevertheless a must see for every fan of the genre.

FilmBuff1994 Enemy at the Gates is a great movie with a very well developed plot and an outstanding cast. It's a very intense war film that has some gritty, truly engrossing moments, however, what this movie does that most do not is that it never forgets about its characters or their relationships. There are never any long battle sequences that drag on to a degree that they have forgotten about the characters and are simply giving us effective visuals, it always remains grounded. It did drag on at certain points, there was certainly some hefty, dialogue based moments that went on far longer than they should have. There was a lot of spoon feeding going on at times when they should have just let the plot move forward and leave us to find out for ourselves. The cast is phenomenal, Jude Law shines in the lead role, keeping our attention and care for his character throughout, as he delivers his performance with a lot of depth, his relationship with Rachel Weisz in the film is also a very sweet and effective one. Ed Harris is also stellar as the lead antagonist, portraying the character with a lot of rage, but also manages to display some humanity to him. It is a rare war movie that never manages to forget its characters. Engaging and very intense, Enemy at the Gates is certainly worth the watch for anyone looking for a good war film or drama. During the Battle of Stalingrad, a Russian sniper must fight for his survival in the final days of the war. Best Performance: Jude Law