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Enemy At The Gates [2001]
![Enemy At The Gates [2001]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DJ829R88L._SL160_.jpg)
On the DVD: with a choice of Dolby 5.1 or DTS the sound is suitably spectacular (James Horner's Prokofiev-inspired score comes up well amid whizzing bullets and explosions), while the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture makes the best of the epic battle sequences. "Through the Crosshairs" is a standard 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, which is complemented by "Inside Enemy at the Gates", a 15-minute montage of interviews with the stars and director. There's also a 25-minute French-made documentary (with English subtitles) about the real battle that includes a short interview with the real Vassily Zaitsev. Eight brief deleted scenes can be played separately or neatly inserted into the movie by pressing Enter when the gun sight icon appears on screen. The commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud is as informative as might be expected from a director who always seems passionate about his film projects. Storyboards, posters, a trailer and filmographies round out an excellent disc package. --Mark Walker
RRP: £5.99
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Enemy at the Gates opens with a pivotal event of World War II--the German invasion of Stalingrad--recreated in Saving Private Ryan-like epic scale as ill-trained Russian soldiers face German attack or punitive execution if they flee from the enemy's advance. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures this madness with urgent authenticity, creating a massive context for a more intimate battle waged amidst the city's ruins. Embellished from its basis in fact, the story shifts to an intense cat-and-mouse game between a Russian shepherd raised to iconic fame, and a German marksman whose skill is unmatched in its lethal precision. Vassily Zaitzev (Jude Law) has been sniping Nazis one bullet at a time, while the German Major Konig (Ed Harris) has been assigned to kill Vassily and spare Hitler from further embarrassment. There's love in this war, too, as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L Robbins' novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a man-made hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Could Have Been Good, But It Ain't.
Review date: 2008-11-11 Rating: 2 out of 10
This film looks very good, the set, cinematography and initially the atmosphere, but the more i watched it the more i was left bemused as to why a posh english couple were fighting for the Soviet Union, allot of the accents are bad in this film but at least they're making some effort.
The film starts to get quite interesting when the German sniper comes on the scene but then the love story starts to develop and thats the point when you want to switch it off.
This film is mildly entertaining ( if you can cope with the dodgy accents ), but i think Jude Law is a terrible actor and if you, like me can't stand the guy then stay well away.
Similar Products
- Stalingrad [1992]
- Saving Private Ryan [1998]
- Black Hawk Down (2 Disc Set) [2002]
- The Thin Red Line [1999]
- Platoon [1987]
Reviews
One of the best war movies
Review date: 2008-09-06 Rating: 10 out of 10
This is one of the best war movies ever, in my opinion, together with 'Platoon' and 'Black Hawk Down'. It is very realistic, conveying masterly how it could be to be a sniper in Stalingrad. It is also very accurate historically, for example, it is true that, at the start of the battle, men were thrown in, on the Soviet side, without weapons. The story itself is also based on real events. Finally, the actors are simply brilliant, from Jude Law, to Rachel Weisz, to the little boy.
A great war movie
Review date: 2008-08-04 Rating: 10 out of 10
A great movie that captures the grim reality of the siege of Stalingrad and the lunacy of the Russian war strategy in the wake of Joseph Stalin's decimation of the military officer classses. Okay, as some reviewers have remarked, the accents are a bit dodgy, but let's face it, fake Russian accents are irritating, and I don't want to listen to Russian dialogue with subtitles. Jude Law handles the role of Vasily fine, though perhaps he sounds a little too refined for a semi-literate Russian peasant. The star turns for me are Ed Harris as the cold, calculating Major Keonig and Bob Hoskins as a totally off-the-wall Nikita Kruschev, who cares far more about keeping 'The Boss' happy and climbing the political ladder than the lives of the troops he commands.
It's great to see a movie that recognises the Russian contribution to defeating the axis forces. I'm in no doubt that D-Day would have been impossible without most of the German army tied up on the Russian front.
2* or 3*?
Review date: 2008-07-05 Rating: 6 out of 10
I hovered over my ranking for this and have finally gone for the generous 3* because there were bits that were genuinely gripping: i.e. Ed Harris' powerful performance of the cold and enigmatic German sniper, and Bob Hoskin's completely left-field Kruschev.
However as other reviewers have said, the rest is a wasted opportunity. Jude Law completely fails to be anything more than inadequate as the reluctant Soviet hero; the normally passionately-intensive Joseph Fiennes has absolutely nothing to get his teeth into, and Rachel Weisz is allowed to be nothing more than the bimbo love interest breaking the bonds of male friendship... The whole love triangle thing is just ridiculous and such an obvious rip-off of Dr Zhivago.
The setting too makes this a skirmish amongst the factories rather than the turning point of Hitler's advance across Europe and lacks any sense of scale or criticality. And the ending is just the most appallingly cliched ever...
This could have been a tense and intense drama but I'm afraid it's just schmaltzy emotions wrapped up in khaki - a severe disappointment.
Good action movie (- if you ignore the yuppie accents...)
Review date: 2008-04-01 Rating: 8 out of 10
Right, I'm not going to write some psycho-analytical critique or some anorak nit-picking 'I think you'll find that they didn't have a mark 3 double-barrelled bazooka in 1943 etc etc'. Just short and sweet.
This is not a History Channel documentary as some here seem to have missed the point. The DVD makes it clear that this is a STORY. (If you want the facts, there is a proper documentary on the DVD extras). The action/CGI is great - the Stukas and Junkers 88's bombing Stalingrad etc. The scenery is great - they built a whole new city and trashed it just to make this film.
My main criticisms are a) the miscasting: Weiss and Law are just too 'nice' and unbelievable as fighting snipers and b) the utterly ridicuolous middle class English Islington 'OK Yah' accents they have - Law's character is meant to have been an illiterate and uneducated Russian peasant boy who grew up in the middle of nowhere. Other characters manage to put on passable accents - so why can't they? They are meant to be the cream of the crop of actors...
So, is it worth getting upset that it is not a 110% historical document? No. Is it worth seeing as a dramatic action movie? Yes.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Bob Hoskins
Ed Harris
Rachel Weisz
Jude Law
Joseph Fiennes
Creators:
Jude Law (Primary Contributor)
Ed Harris (Primary Contributor)
Jean-Jacques Annaud (Producer)
Jean-Jacques Annaud (Writer)
Alain Godard (Producer)
Alain Godard (Writer)
Alisa Tager (Producer)
John D. Schofield (Producer)
Jörg Reichl (Producer)
Director(s):
Recording label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
EAN: 5011531901754
Binding: VHS Tape
Number of items: 1
Format: Dolby, PAL, Surround Sound,
Release date: 2001-11-19
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Running time: 131 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001-03-16
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)
Language: Russian (Original Language)