The best war movie I've ever watched!

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2003)

All future war films that I watch will be forced through the sieve of Enemy at the Gates and I will be surprised if anything from America will even remotely touch the power of this film.
I freely admit that I know nothing about the production except that it could not possibly have been made with American money-too many foreigners acting, too few swipes at the Russians and far too many positive comments about the hated Soviets.
The opening war shots of the barges across the river ferrying fresh troops to the besieged Stalingrad was as harrowing as any war sequence that I've ever seen and to think that the reality of the Stalingrad meat grinder was vastly worse gives you chills-the landing on the shore with its inevitable battles shows reasons for the revolvers that officers carry.
The second, but major section of the script, with the development of the mini-war between the German sent to Stallingrad to kill the now famous young Russian sniper provides as good a background for the remainder of the film as is possible to see in a cinema. The drama of the characters trying to play out some semblance of reality against the horrors of Stalingrad would tax the best of the best and the entire cast and crew deserve the highest accolades for their success in bringing this amazing story to the cinema.
If you, as I did, miss this movie in the theatre then make every effort to rent it on video-it is brilliant!