Visually complex, intelligent film

Rating: 9/10 (27 November 2007)

I personally do not know much about the Russian Theatre of war in WWII, or about the Rusian Communist party at the time. So while watching this film, issues that have been raised on boards on IMDb (such as inaccuracies, etc.) really didn't affect me that much. So keep in mind, my opinion of this film is of the film's artistic merits, not historical accuracy.
Having said this, I loved this film. Ed Harris, Josph Fiennes, Ron Perlman, Racheal Weisz, and especially Jude Law did great acting jobs. The best thing however, is the cinematography and direction of the film. The visuals of the film were beautiful, and the film never looked like a typical Holllywood film. For instance, when a tank enters an area we see it in a wide shot, then a close up, back again, seamlessly. Never: wide shot of town with no tank, close up of tank entering , etc. Everything looks like it is thoroughly rehearsed, then shot (almost like Children of Men, but obviously not quite like that films genius and originality), rather than : OK, well take a shot of this, then this, then edit it together and bang we got a film.
I enjoyed this movie, and would highly recommend it. 8.5 out of ten.
(I really wish IMDb would let people give a film a .5 value, rather than just going up b 1's.)