Enemy at the Gates

	Based on the novel of the the same name by William Craig, Enemy at the Gates is the 
true story about the sniper wars in Stalingrad.  A young Russian sniper and an elite German 
sniper are both on the hunt for each other, knowing that whoever wins will surely win 
Stalingrad.
	Enemy at the Gates was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, who also directed such films 
as Seven Years in Tibet (which got him banned form China) and Name of the Rose, with Sean 
Connery and Christian Slater.  The young Russian sniper, Vassili Zaitsev, is portrayed by Jude 
Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley).  Aside from his "everything-except-Russian" accent, Law plays 
the part of the sniper very well and also very believably.  He becomes so into his role that 
the audience can almost believe that he is being hunted or hunting.  The German sniper, Major 
Koenig, is portrayed by Ed Harris (Apollo 13, Truman Show).  I am not exactly sure, maybe there 
is a good reason for the actors not using the accents, or maybe I just need to do more research 
on this subject.  Harris always plays a great villian.  He is so laid back, relaxed, and yet 
when the time comes he punches into show-no-mercy mode.  He will be having a normal conversation,
 blow some guys head off like it is no big deal, than go right back to whatever he was doing.  
This is why he plays such a good sniper, because sniper need to be calm, yet also have no mercy 
for whoever they are killing.  Vassili's love interest in the film is Tania, a Jewish 
operater/soldier, who is played by Rachel Weisz (The Mummy).  She has a bad grudge against the 
Germans after they killed her mother and father.  A small sub-conflict comes into play as 
Vassili's best friend, Commander Danilov, played by Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), but 
she is only interested in Vassili, which puts the two friends in an awkward position.
	Now for all the cool technical stuff.  The cinematography was straight-up mind-blowing. 
 The first look at Stalingrad is absolutely breathtaking.  You see this in the trailer, and if 
that isn't enough to convince you to see it, well, i am not sure what is wrong with you.  
Anyways, it was as if they reconstructed the whole city for the film, like the buildings, boats,
 and automobiles were all so ... well ... WWI-ish.  Hehe.  The war battles take you back to the 
scenes of Saving Private Ryan, in that they showed the no-holds-bar, unbelievably realistic 
massacre of all the soldier that fought and died for their country.  One of the things in the
 film that especially affected me was when those same soldiers that were fighting for the cause
 became freightened after seeing three-fourths of their regiment killed off, were soon finished
 off by their own comrads as they attempted to retreat back to their lines.
	Many people have complained about the "love sory" overshadowing the rest of the movie. 
 I don't believe that this is true at all.  For example, the "love story" was pretty what 
determined a lot of the events in the film.  If it were not for this factor, Tania would have 
been in love with Vassili or him with her, and than Danilov would have never been so heartbroken
 over her "death" that he would never have sacrificed himself in order for Konig to reveal his 
location.  True, this is not how it ended in the actual occurance.  Actually, a soldier runs 
across the open area and is shot by Konig.  Vassili sees the smoke rise up from the major's gun 
above the tin shack, in which Vassili shoots through, right into Konig's eye.  Also, in the 
actual event, Vasilli never found Tania, he just believed that she died.  They never saw each 
other again.
	So, this is part where I just go off about the cool things in the film.  The sniping 
was sweet, the efeects were cool, and the chick was hot!  The scene where teh guy jumps across 
the building and get tagged in mid-air was just sweet.  It just proved that much more how good 
Konig was.  Also, the coolest scene, in my opinion, was the very first time we see Vassili shoot.
  He kills fiveGer man officers with five bullets.  And the answer that Vasilli gives to 
Danilov's question, "Can you shoot?", "Uh ... a little," adds a bit of humor to the scene.