Newcastle Herald (Australia)
27 July 2001

Rating: 1/2
WORLD War II rages, a city lies in ruins and a love triangle unfolds. Sound familiar? Almost a book-end to Michael Mann's Pearl Harbor, Enemy At The Gates is another film that takes a defining World War II battle (1942's Nazi invasion of Stalingrad), whacks a love story in the middle and fiddles with a few 'facts' to make the film big screen-friendly. And although it comes with a huge budget like Pearl Harbor's, a few inaccuracies and larger than life historical figures (As Kruschev, Bob Hopkins hams it up ridiculously), Enemy At The Gates is a superior film. This comes down to the script and the cast.

Despite no attempt to hide his British accent, Jude Law is cool, charismatic and convincing as the celebrated Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev (he really existed) while Ed Harris and his steely blue eyes prove perfect as Zaitsev's German opposite Major Konig (he, apparently, didn't exist). Director Jean-Jacques Annaud also manages to recreate the bloody and muddy hell of war-ravaged Stalingrad in a most disturbing and effective fashion.

The film centres on Joseph Fiennes' Russian propagandist Danilov elevating the gifted marksman Zaitsev to hero status to boost morale. The pair become close friends and their plan works so well the Germans call in specialist killer Konig to take out Zaitsev and both snipers are soon engaged in a city-wide game of cat and mouse. Enter Rachel Weisz's beautiful militia member with whom both Danilov and Zaitsev fall in love and we have ourselves a tight, if not overly cerebral, war flick.