A decent movie with so much more potential...

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2002)

Enemy at the Gates is an intriguing film, as much for its concept
as for the product that has been turned out. It's a look at World War
II that tries to be purely Russian, looking at the European conflict
without any participation by or even any mention of American
involvement.
However, I don't think the film went as far with this unique
perspective as it could have. It tries to represent the Russian point
of view, but its view of Russian culture is so blatantly non-Russian
that it fails to be truly convincing. The story of the Russian
resistance is unique to World War II, and the reasons for it are
complex. The reasons for the communist struggle, the desire for a
truly classless society, the magnitude of change that had to be
implemented for Stalin's government to exist at all could have
been effectively portrayed by a couple conversations between Jude
Law's shepherd boy-turned sniper and Joseph Fienne's intellectual propaganda minister. Their friendship is an unlikely
one created by war, and a couple of conversations on the insanity
they're involved in could have been really illuminating and
contributed to the atmosphere of the film. I'm not asking for a
treatise on Marxism, but most non-Russian audiences are about
as ignorant of the workings of WWII-era Russian society as Jude
Law's character probably was. A little bit of political
chitchat/argument would've been interesting.
A lot of people have argued against the integration of the romantic
subplot into the story. Again, I feel it's something that could have
been more effective if it had been depicted more completely. The
Russian army was the only one (as far as I know) to routinely have
female soldiers working alongside men within the ranks. This
again was reflective of the Communist government's posturings of
equality, and could have been addressed. An environment where
women worked, fought, and were killed on equal terms with men
would have had a strong effect on male/female relationships, and
would have been fascinating to explore a little more deeply. The
fact that Joseph Fiennes and Rachel Wiecz's characters were both
Jewish, while Jude Law's was not, could also have added an
extra, interesting dimension to the love triangle portrayed, but this
element is ignored. Law is better looking, more simplistic in his
approach to the war, and is easier to understand. Therefore
Wiecz's character falls for him. He's the guy most of the female
audience will root for anyway, he's the hero, so it's kinda a
no-brainer that he'll get the girl, at least for a while. But the journey
towards this event could've been a lot more interesting.
On the whole it's the performances that end up making this movie
work for me. Jude Law is a phenomenal, incredibly natural actor,
and the rest of the cast backs him up quite well. I can sit back and
enjoy the movie for what it is, decent escapist warfare drama, but I
can't help but be constantly aware of how much better it could have
been.