A Great Portrayal of the Grim Realities of War

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2003)

In World War II during the winter of 1942, the German and Russian Armies meet in the great Battle of the Stalingrad. The fall of Stalingrad will mean the collapse of the whole of Russia. The Germans and Russians are fighting over every block, leaving only ruins behind. The Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law) - a peasant young man with an extraordinary sharpshooting ability - stalks the Germans. He takes out one German officer after another and in doing so hurts the morale of the German troops. The political officer Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) encourages him, publishing his efforts to give his poor countrymen some hope. But Vassili start to feel that he can not live up to these great expectations. He and Danilov fall in love with the same female soldier, Tanya (Rachel Weisz). Eventualy the Germans bring in their own snipper: the war veteran Major Konig (Ed Harris) who comes to accomplishes his mission no matter what the cost. With the Battle of Stalingrad raging around them, these two men must now fight each other to the death.