Enemy At The Gates is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Rating: 9/10 (13 April 2001)

Enemy At The Gates: THEATER SEE RATING!
This movie, unlike Saving Private Ryan, is a movie for the thinking movie goer. Not that Saving Private Ryan is at all a bad movie, because my review of it is nothing but nice, but everything in that movie is S-P-E-L-L-E-D out for you. Some of the critiques I have read on `Enemy' actually say that they should have built(S-P-E-L-L-E-D) the characters more in this movie for it to be compared to and as good as S.P.R. WHAT?! They're people with `class' differences in a war! Pretty Easy! I don't want the movie to deal with character building that I can figure out on my own.(also it makes an already long movie, too long) So actually Enemy At The Gates is a welcome breath of fresh air. Not only do I like it for the symbolisms and messages (possibly hidden to the layman movie goer) , but it has lots of action and twists(both physical and mental.),and finally because it has a `real Feeling' to it. First lets cover the messages and/or symbolism, hidden or maybe not so hidden as long as you can... think. I don't want to give it away but one of the `hidden' features has to do with the fact that some people that saw this movie and then see my review will say `What does he mean, he likes the `real feeling' of the movie? They don't even have German or Russian accents!!' BINGO For those of you who say this, you are a `As long as its entertaining' moviegoer(layman) and although you will also think this is an excellent movie, guess what ? You didn't get it!! Or maybe you didn't understand the use of, or think it was right to use women and children in this movie, well all I can say is `strike two. Do you want to go for strike three?' This is just 1 example of a hidden message that is present throughout the movie.( not even the major one) So anyone reading this, like a friend said to me `Al, You don't go to a movie just to watch it, do you?' I will say to you, `neither should you!! And if you do, shame on you.' Now as I stated before the action and twists will have the layman moviegoer enjoying this movie as much as I did. You know how you turn to someone your with and say this is going to happen and that is going to happen and then boast `how do I know? because I wrote the script. Ha Ha' well you'll end up with egg on your face like I did! Even the part with the boy, which becomes semi-predictable, is at first hard to figure out.(At first I thought he was going to do what they tell the mother he does at the end) Yes that's right, just when you think the movie will end one way or another, it doesn't. There is also lots of shooting and shells blowing up and bodies everywhere (in fact the beginning is very similar and comparable to `Ryan' , which is of course important in a war movie. But remember girls this is not just a `war' movie so please don't miss it. But truthfully ladies this also is NOT A ROMANCE as I have sometimes seen it wrongly billed. I am not a critic that likes to tell you the movie while critiquing it(DON'T READ this next line if you don't want to know one part of the movie) but the relationship between Jude, Fiennes and Weisz is another symbol of the class struggle going on throughout the movie(oops gave up 1 of those `thinking' aspects of the movie) and is NOT A ROMANTIC ONE, ie, the part where Jude is writing letters back to his `fans' and is being corrected his misspellings by Fiennes as we find out Weisz is an ex university student and owns hundreds of books.(where will she fall? On the side of the proletariat/fascist(Fiennes,Harris,Hoskins) or with the bourgeois(Law). It is a great war movie that has symbolism and meaning which happens to put you through a lot of emotions, and therefore, is for one and all. And as for the part earlier where I said this movie has a `real feeling' to it, due to not wanting to give away any more of the symbolisms of this excellent movie, I wont elaborate on the reality of war.(hint, hint)
In fact the only criticism I have for this movie is that there could have been a better script(only for dialogue sake) written. But if you want dialogue go rent `The English Patient.' This is a `Theater see' rated movie.
Theater See: good enough to spend the extra
Matinee See: Good enough to see on a rainy afternoon
Video See: Don't `set yourself up for disappointment' at the Theater
Maybe see: Don't waste your time, it'll be on T.V. someday....or not.
Don't see: Don't even think about it!