Make just one little mistake and you're dead.....

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2004)

No, I'm not referring to anything in the storyline, or the cast, characters or the acting - all of these were really quite superb (I thought) and have been very well covered in the other comments I've read, although I did have a tiny little bit of trouble with Bob Hoskins for a while...
I'm referring to the technicalities: historical detail, settings, scenery, props, sounds, colour, lighting, camera work, costumes, make-up, weapons and machinery handling - all the things that, if done right, go to make a truly believable and watchable war movie which this most definitely is.
I reckon 'modern' war movies have to be the very hardest genre to get right, especially when they refer (as they almost always do) to real events and double especially when survivors of those events are still alive today. Other than, say, real-life biopics, almost any other genre can get away with minor inaccuracies or fudging the details, but with a war movie - make just one little mistake and you're dead. Get it wrong and the whole effort is reduced to farce or parody. A shot of a modern Coke bottle might make a big, effective and intriguing point in a sci-fi film - a similar anachronism in a WW2 film and the whole thing's straight out of the window, in my book.
Discounting some dodgy CGI (Stukas), EATG was a visual and audible feast of truly epic proportions which you will not begrudge the time taken to watch it. The story, based on real events, is very well done and is set in a phenomenal landscape, littered with a wholly believable destruction and debris of war on the Eastern Front - well up there with Saving Private Ryan for my money. All in all, a tribute to JJ Annaud's continuing production of superior and highly recommendable films. (Watch this one twice - there's plenty more to see, second time around!)
An easy (but rare for me) 9 out of 10 - perhaps not quite perfect, but it don't come *much* better than this.....