Review of Enemy at the Gates (2001) by Deb S — 05 Nov 2010

Enemy at the gates is an entertaining edge of the seat adventure that never gets boring. It has everything you'd want in a good war movie: great action sequences, great sets, great costumes and an intriguing story.

The movie is about a Russian soldier named Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law) with incredible shooting skills who manages to pick off many German officers and becomes a hero, courtesy of a Russian officer, Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), who seizes the opportunity to raise morale of the Russian army by printing elaborate stories about Zaitsev's daily conquests.

Ed Harris is terrific as the Sniper who arrives from Germany to kill Vassily in order to counter-act the Russian propaganda. The result is a deadly game of cat and mouse where the lines between predator and prey blur. Rachel Weisz also turns in a strong performance though her character is totally superfluous to the main story. And they managed to sneak a sex scene in. I don't know how they did it, but it was there, and for me, distracted all the tension and emotion they had built up so well. Lord knows how sex fits in with the Battle of Stalingrad. Oh well!