Nice change from other war films

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2001)

As a WW2 buff I wasn't particularly expecting anything great from this film because Hollywood is known for embellishing any historical event they can get their hands on. I went in knowing it would be a good movie but whether it was accurate I was not sure until the movie began. The way Enemy was filmed showed the horrors of war to the extent that we saw in Saving Private Ryan which also was a modern masterpiece. Though parts of the movie are embellished it is still one of the best war films I've seen since U571 and Saving Private Ryan and quite a few others.
The movie portrays the battle of Stalingrad, which was Hitler's attempt to conquer Russia and also his undoing. During the conflict, a hero surfaces in the form of young Sniper Vasilli Zaizev who has an evident talent for killing the enemy with deadly accuracy. A political officer makes him a national hero after witnessing young Zaitzev's skill and places him into the Soviet sniper devision. After losing too many men to Zaitzev's deadly aim, Major Konig, a german sniper equal to Zaitzev is sent to search him out and kill him and the conflict begins.
Enemy at the Gates shows not only the horrors of war but how sniper combat is in real life and how much patience and disipline is actually required to be a marksman. However there is only one problem with Enemy and that is the love triangle that develops when the political officer and Zaitzev fall in love with the same female sniper. It was completely unnessesary and uncalled for. The love triangle takes away from an otherwise great film. All in all it was as brutal as SPR but not as poorly made as The Thin Red Line.