A human story in a harsh battle environment. Superb!

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2001)

Enemy At The Gates is a film that I have gone to see, not because I have heard rumours about its budget, not because I was bombarded in the media about how it is filmed, how many great co-stars and stars were in it, but simply because I happened to go see it with my friends and it was on the Battle of Stalingrad, with no great expectations. I knew Jean-Jacques Annaud was a good director but I didn't know how he could manage to make a war film, as all his previous stuff were human stories (yes, even L'Ours was) and didn't involve too much action; I mean, Name of the Rose is hardly in the same league as your average Steven Segal film, is it? When I walked out of the theatre, though, I was stunned. I was so absorbed in the film that I didn't even notice how the time passed. I felt the Battle of Stalingrad, I was there, I shared the terror in the faces of the army recruits when they see the battle for the first time when they open the train cart's gate, I felt the Soviet soldiers' dilemma when they were either killed by the Nazis if they went ahead or by their own commanders if they returned. It was the best film set in war that I've seen in a long time, and is surely in the same level as with Tora, Tora, Tora. Besides, I was sort of right, as Annaud had made a war film based heavily on a human story which made it even stronger. The Enemy at the Gates may be compared to the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, but while that film then becomes a classic Spielberg film in the latter stages, this one remains that tense for the whole length of the film. The acting of Jude Law and Gabriel Marshall-Thompson (the informer kid), Bob Hoskins, and of Rachel Weisz are very neat and makes you be part of the story, but it is Ed Harris that makes the greatest impact. Harris has charisma leaking down his trousers, something that can be equalled only by the likes of Sir Sean Connery, Bob DeNiro, and Jack Nicholson. Besides, the script is very well-written and very well-fitting, plausible, and convincing. This film which shows us how to do a film that represents the war is heads and shoulders above the $270m flop Pearl Harbor and surely is one of the best films of the year, along with Hannibal and Shrek who lead, to my opinion, their own genres in the past season.	Anyone who is interested in World War II, or in films that show the human condition, must watch this film. It's a must-see. Really!