Review of Enemy at the Gates (2001) by I Don't Know W — 25 Jun 2011

Ever since I became a movie buff last year, I wanted a full on war film that had great action scenes as well as a great story. Saving Private Ryan had great action scenes, but the story could have been more detailed and just all around better.

Paths of Glory was great in both categories, but the action scenes were pretty short, and you wish the movie was longer for more great action. The Thin Red Line had wonderful special effects but the story sucked, and the less I say about The Hurt Locker, the better.

Well, those are some of the most critically acclaimed war movies ever, so my hopes for a war movie with great action scenes like Saving Private Ryan and a great story like Paths of Glory both in the same movie basically went down the tube.

So, when I was recommended this film by my friend who works at a movie rental store, I didn't have high hopes, but since I rarely get recommendations from a person face-to-face, I decided 'Why Not"? Little did I know this movie would answer all my prayers.

Not bad for a movie I rented just to make a friend happy. The story is amazing, the action scenes (Excluding the airplanes) were awesome, the characters had noticeable personalities, the actors did well, the atmosphere was wonderful, and the director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, made a movie I didn't think could be possible.

This movie did have some flaws though, like sometimes, a character either acts stupid, does something stupid, or should have died but didn't. One thing I liked is that they try to keep things simple, they don't keep a huge secret locked up for the whole movie and announce it at the end, it just tells you everything you should have to know at that moment, which I liked, it spares me half a movie trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Even though this film does everything right, I almost never see a 5 star rating on this website, and I don't know why, because it's an excellent film that deserves more attention.