Another Hollywood War Failure

Rating: 4/10 (7 July 2003)

Having been a sniper instructer in the Marines and being familiar with the story of the legendary sniper, Vasily Zaitsev, I looked forward to seeing this movie. Unfortunately, I only recently had the opportunity. I was very disappointed.
Although the movie is based on a true story, it deviates considerably from the true story. In true Hollywood fashion there is much more fiction than truth in this movie.
Right from the beginning, it deviates from the truth. It shows Vasily as a 5 year old firing a high powered hunting rifle. It don't happen that way. I fired my first rifle when I was five but it was a cut down .22 using short rounds. It was all I could handle. Just the recoil from the type of rifle Vasily was shown using would have hurt him. He may have started hunting at the age of 5 but not with a high powered rifle. I went with my father on hunting trips starting when I was 5 but I wasn't allowed to use a high powered rifle until I was 15 when I was physically able to use it. But before that I learned much from my father about hunting.
Second was the scenes following when Vasily was in the boats crossing the Volga River in BROAD daylight. The history of the battle of Stalingrad is that the Soviets never crossed the Volga during daylight because of the German planes and artillery observors. They only crossed at night.
Next, was the futile attack by Soviet soldiers, many not armed. At that stage of the battle for Stalingrad, the Soviets were not wasting troops attacking the Germans. The strategy was to defend the City at all costs. It was to make the Germans pay dearly for every inch they took. So it was ridiculous to show a futile charge by the Soviets and then Kruschev telling the general in charge of the failed attack that he should commit suicide. It would be more realistic if the general fell out of failure because his troops retreated from a defense position.
Next, Vasily's story never included a love story. That is pure fiction. It detracted from the true story of Stalingrad which was the ferocious defense the Soviets put up. The movie would have been more interesting if the makers had made that the central theme.
At times the movie makers did do some good battle scenes and at times they did show how snipers really worked at their trade but at times they botched it. A sniper never wore a helmet. Helmets by their shapes or silhouettes are dead giveaways. That is why Marines started wearing camoflaged covers on their helmets during WWII to break up the silhouette.
Nor did snipers ever carry anything that was shiny, that would reflect light such as a nickle plated bolt handle on their rifle or a badge on their hat or uniform. Reflections were dead giveaways.
Lastly, was the way the movie ended. Since the story of Vasily Zaitsev is legendary and has been broadcast many times on the History Channel and in other documentaries, many persons are already aware of how the true story ended. But for that reason I have no qualms about telling the true story of how the German Major who was their top sniper was killed. Those who I talked to about the movie all said that they knew Vasily would eventually kill the German sniper. The only suspense was how it would be done.
Vasily and he were faced off against each other. As the German Major, who hidden, was trying to spot Vasily, Vasily saw the reflection off of the German's telescopic sight. Vasily aimed at that reflection and just as the German spotted Vasily, Vasily fired and killed the German.
But the movie had the German sniper walking in the open when Vasily shot him. That never would have happened in reality. Snipers just did not walk out in the open because it was suicide to do so.