Release Date:
03/16/2001
Ever since Saving Private Ryan set the bar for realistic battle scenes, movies about World War II have struggled to give us something different. Some, like The Thin Red Line, opt for paint-drying-dull philosophizing, while others, like Enemy at the Gates, give you a whole new perspective on the war against the Nazis (check your patriotism at the door, ’cause you’re rooting for the Russian Red Army in this one).
Enemy at the Gates takes place during the Nazi seige of Stalingrad, where a young soldier named Vassili (Jude Law) is literally thrown into the horrors of war without so much as a spork to defend himself. After a hellish opening sequence (the Russian army shooting its own men for cowardice is more distrubing than any of the limbless soldiers in Ryan), Vassili manages to put his grandfather’s hunting lessons to use as a sniper. He befriends Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), a commandant-slash-war reporter, who puts the sniper’s exploits on the front page and in the process makes him into some sort of mythic warrior—as if Vassili were a superhero bent on wiping out the Nazi regime singlehandedly. Incensed, the goose-steppers send in their top pick-off man: Major Konig, played with steely-eyed intensity by the always amazing Ed Harris. (Well, we’ll ignore Pollock.)
Equal parts grit and romance (Vassili falls for a beautiful villager-turned-soldier played by The Mummy’s Rachel Weisz), Gates plays like one of those great old Hollywood war movies. But what makes it worth the price of admission are the mano-a-mano face-offs between Law and Harris. Oh, and the fact that Bob Hoskins appears playing Nikita Krushchev as some mad cross between Perry White and Louie De Palma.
Enemy at the Gates takes place during the Nazi seige of Stalingrad, where a young soldier named Vassili (Jude Law) is literally thrown into the horrors of war without so much as a spork to defend himself. After a hellish opening sequence (the Russian army shooting its own men for cowardice is more distrubing than any of the limbless soldiers in Ryan), Vassili manages to put his grandfather’s hunting lessons to use as a sniper. He befriends Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), a commandant-slash-war reporter, who puts the sniper’s exploits on the front page and in the process makes him into some sort of mythic warrior—as if Vassili were a superhero bent on wiping out the Nazi regime singlehandedly. Incensed, the goose-steppers send in their top pick-off man: Major Konig, played with steely-eyed intensity by the always amazing Ed Harris. (Well, we’ll ignore Pollock.)
Equal parts grit and romance (Vassili falls for a beautiful villager-turned-soldier played by The Mummy’s Rachel Weisz), Gates plays like one of those great old Hollywood war movies. But what makes it worth the price of admission are the mano-a-mano face-offs between Law and Harris. Oh, and the fact that Bob Hoskins appears playing Nikita Krushchev as some mad cross between Perry White and Louie De Palma.