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During the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43, Russian peasant Vassili (Jude Law) shoots down five Nazis, and political officer Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) elevates him to folk-hero status to inspire the local populace during their seemingly never-ending struggle. Vassili's fame becomes so great that the Germans send their top sniper, Major Konig (Ed Harris), to end his career and deal a crushing blow to the Russians' morale.

Despite the film's massive scale, director Jean-Jacques Annaud keeps the story firmly grounded on a human level, focusing on the characters' lives and emotions rather than military strategies and battle sequences. Overall, the technical achievements are impressive, but the actors are allowed to dominate, making this a unique war story about an almost mythic battle of wills.

Grade: A-
Kinsey Scale: 1 (Law was the object of Matt Damon's affection in The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Fiennes was the apple of Gwyneth Paltrow's eye in the cross-dressing romance Shakespeare in Love. The connection between the two men is so strong that it looks like they want to kiss each other whenever they share the same tight close-up, but unfortunately that becomes so much wishful thinking.)