Review: Enemy At The Gates
- Jul 10, 2017
- 2 min read
Released in 2001, Enemy At The Gates is a strange tale indeed. Combining the "true" (Communist book keeping was not known for its honesty) story of Vasily Zaytsev with a slew of wholly fictional elements, it is in and of itself an accurate representation of the afore mention Communist histories and the historical butchery of Hollywood.
Vasily Zaytsev (Jude Law) is serving in Russia's Red Army during the Second World War. His deployment is at Stalingrad, a place soaked with the blood of thousands. But Vasily does not serve on the front lines for he is a sniper, spending his days hiding beneath rubble and firing at Nazi commanders. While on a large scale his effect is small, it is enough that the leaders of the enemy deploy Major Konig (Ed Harris), a man regarded to be one of the greatest marksmen in the Reich. And so a tense duel ensues, one fought across many hundreds of metres, over many days, one which the opponents rarely see each other, a duel which will only end with the death of one of them.
Enemy At The Gates is a decent enough movie. That acting and action is as solid as most other war films of its time and the camera work and directing is really well done. Truly the only real negative aspect, aside from the muddled history, is the accents. One might expect Vasily to speak with a Russian accent, Major Konig to speak with a German one, but this is not the case. Every actor, including Bob Hoskins and Joseph Fiennes, speak with their native accent, which is jarring to say the least. Ron Perlman sounds almost Australian an is unbearable to listen to. While the director claims that no one would notice it would seem that quite the opposite occurred.
Other than these accents the romantic triangle between Law, Fiennes and Rachel Weisz is bizarre and utterly necessary, adding very little to the plot. But the action, particularly the sniper standoffs make it all worth it. The opening scenes of the Battle of Stalingrad are some of the best since Saving Private Ryan and the elements of Stalin's not steps backward policy are openly displayed.
Enemy At The Gates isn't a perfect but when it's good, it's really good. The battle scenes are well done and the acting is solid, accents aside. It's worth watching for the sniper scenes alone.
Comments