Original, Top Notch

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2001)

Today's citizens of WWII Western Allied countries are relatively unfamiliar with the details of the Russo-German conflict, which warrants the making for major release of a film such as "Enemy at the Gates." But this superb movie, set in the battle of Stalingrad, the war's turning point, is original in more ways than this.
I have not yet seen "Saving Private Ryan," but am aware of what it accomplished, and "Enemy at the Gates" certainly brings the viewer into the battle. Great staged action, excellent cinematography and camera positioning, using close-ups and distance as necessary to make things very vivid. Charges, German aerial bombings, the Volga river's transportation pipeline, civilian suffering. After introducing us to the horrific street-to-street, house-to-house, factory-to-factory struggle with the massed armies pitted against each other, and showing German successes demonstrating the awesome task faced by the Russian army, a subplot of the battle becomes the plot of this movie: attacking the Germans with sniper fire, not just massed deployments.
The sniper confrontations revolve around the two principals, Vasilli (Jude Kaw) and German Major Konig (Ed Harris). Konig is brought on midstream to provide specialized help, after the sniper successes on the part of the Russians present the Wehrmacht with problems it is not trained to encounter. The psychological drama that develops, with no shortage of excellent acting, is among the most captivating and memorable in the genre.

The Germans' performance in the two World Wars is actually quite amazing, even though they lost, considering their few allies and the size and strength of their opponents. Nevertheless, the analysis is that they plan out every detail with a superorganized approach, but make big errors, major errors of judgment Of course, very basic is evaluating their opponents and taking on more than they can deal with. It is unlikely (actually, more like impossible) the Germans would have won WWI even had they occupied Stalingrad (they blew it the year before, by invading Russia too late), although it would have created more difficulties for the Russians (and the U.S. and U.K., heavily supplying them, heavily bombing the Germans, and fighting the Germans in North Africa).
But in any event, the character of Major Konig is not in the usual vein of the overorganized, rigid-thinking German. He is steely, in the usual German way, but projects a quiet, more genuine confidence, and is trickier still than his opponents. No particular Nazi party man, he is a professional soldier, not a bad guy (in the evenhanded approach demanded of modern movies, toward at least the common soldier) -- when he is obliged to kill a civilian, it climaxes a vignette, without sadism or graphic display. He projects a feeling of command and invincibility so compelling that the viewer actually feels he will win, although knowing otherwise. This is no spoiler, of course, yet we are left with the aura that Konig was the better man. It would be a spoiler to say how it was done, and that is another gold star for Director Jean-Jacques Annaud. Heroism reigns triumphant.
By contrast, Vassili is, yes, more heroic than Konig, but he is a self-doubting hero. He is "developed" more so than Konig, but this is appropriate. Brilliant in his initial successes, he begins to question how he fits into the prodigious circumstances, whether he is up to the challenge to Konig and in general, and whether and how things can be carried on. This is played out in his relationships with fellow Russians and a romance with woman soldier Tania (Rachel Weisz), providing an interesting and unusual, though uneven in intensity, love triangle (the other party is the other main Russian character). Compare "Pearl Harbor"; in fact, compare the triteness of the characters there to the much different depth of the Russian soldiers here, and civilians too--much of the story centers on a Russian publication, on the theme of hero-seeking. Vasilli ultimately gets by, with a little help from his friends.
Later-to-be chief of state Nikita Krushchev, more familiar to older viewers, is prominent in this movie, in line with his noteworthy role at Stalingrad. But most of all, "Enemy at the Gates" is about one of filmdom's best and most original confrontations between military protagonist and antagonist, and bringing the viewer into the experiences of World War II's most dynamic battle.