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DIRECTOR: Jean-Jacques Annaud
CAST:
Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins,
Ron Pearlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Thomson, Matthias Habich
REVIEW:
In late 1942, the elite German Sixth Army advanced on the Russian city of Stalingrad. While of limited strategic importance, the city was sacred to both Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin because it bore Stalin’s name. The capture of the city would be a huge propaganda victory for the Germans and a huge blow to Soviet morale. The brutal siege carried on for months, resulting in over a million people killed within the city in some of the most savage house-to-house urban warfare in military history. In the end, the Soviets’ dogged tenacity won out, and it was the Germans who lost, both in propaganda and in military casualties. The German Sixth Army was utterly annihilated, the first time in the war an entire German army had been smashed in the field, and many historians mark this as the turning point of the entire war. Yet few big-budget films have been made portraying the Battle of Stalingrad, or anything about the Eastern Front at all. French director Jean-Jacques Annaud has taken a step towards remedying this, and while not a perfect film, Enemy at the Gates is distinct both for portraying a rarely seen viewpoint and for being one of the only big-budget war movies which has no American characters.
Enemy at the Gates begins with what is arguably its best scene, as scores of insufficiently armed Russian troops are hurled headlong across the Volga into the smoldering ruin of Stalingrad, first enduring bombings and strafing runs by Stuka dive bombers, and then into the city itself as they are sent in a futile charge against dug-in German defenders. When the first lines are wiped out and the others turn to flee back towards their own lines, they are gunned down as cowards by their own officers. During this bloody and chaotic scene, reminiscent of the opening beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan, one Russian soldier stands out. He is Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), an uneducated shepherd boy from the Urals who survives the carnage and impresses another survivor, Jewish political commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes, brother of Ralph Fiennes of Schindler’s List), by single-handedly sniping off five German soldiers. Danilov sees a hero to propagandize, both to save flagging Soviet morale and to appease the bombastic Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins), who has arrived in Stalingrad to whip the demoralized officers and commissars into shape. Soon, Zaitsev has picked off so many German officers that the Germans send an aristocratic sniper, the skilled and tight-lipped Major Konig (Ed Harris) to find and kill him. Meanwhile, both Zaitsev and Danilov are falling for a female sniper, Tania Chernova (Rachel Weisz), whose parents were killed by the Germans. The perfunctory wartime love triangle pops up, but the backbone of the film is the cat-and-mouse duel between Konig and Zaitsev in the rubble of Stalingrad, as one of the world’s most historic battles rages around them.
Technically speaking, Enemy at the Gates is a well-made war film. The action scenes are gritty and fierce, and don’t shy away from graphic violence. The recreation of the devastated city is effective and convincing, taking the audience on an intricate tour of bombed-out buildings, underground tunnels, and huge abandoned tractor factories where Konig and Zaitsev lay in ambush, and the film deserves credit for portraying a rarely shown viewpoint in major war films. The real Zaitsev did not have the pretty boy looks- or the English accent- of Jude Law, but if the accent doesn’t bother you too much Law is actually pretty good at playing Zaitsev both as a steely killer and a naïve and sensitive peasant boy. Unfortunately, the other characters aren’t as developed, with Rachel Weisz and Joseph Fiennes supplying the more soap opera-like elements of the plot. The acting is decent, but this part of the storyline isn’t the strongest. The best by far is the deadly game between Zaitsev and the older and more experienced and professional Konig. Despite his lack of a German accent, Ed Harris is ideally cast. He seems most at home when playing stoic, reserved military types, so this kind of cool and collected character fits him well. Konig is a tightly controlled man, who keeps whatever emotions he may feel deeply buried. We know little about him- it is mentioned that he hunts deer in peacetime, we eventually learn that he has a personal reason to now be hunting Russians, and he seems to follow his own harsh sense of honor- but Harris’ aloof demeanor and frosty blue eyes give him more character than the screenwriters. German actor Matthias Habich has a couple of brief scenes as Sixth Army commander General Paulus, and the young Gabriel Thomson plays Sacha, a young boy who plays both sides without realizing how harsh and unforgiving Konig’s sense of honor can be. Bob Hoskins is suitably gruff and profane- if occasionally a little hammy- as Khrushchev, and Ron Pearlman isn’t bad in a small role as Koulikov, a sniper who studied under Konig in Germany before the war. Overall, it is a well-crafted film, but is weakened by the extraneous love triangle and a random, unnecessary “evil German” scene near the end of the movie. Watch it for the chaotic intensity of the opening sequence and the tense and suspenseful sniper duels.
