A fair beginning; Hopefully the first of many films of the Russian front.

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2005)

The story of a duel between a Russian peasant enlisted man sniper and a Prussian aristocratic Nazi officer sniper during the WW2 battle of Stalingrad. Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, the Russian sniper, was very real; but some doubt has been cast over the historical truth of the personal duel. Because it is a member of a much too rare breed; movies about the most momentous land battle in history, the Russian front, this movie falls short on many levels, it tries to give some sense of the scale of events, and early on it succeeds; but it retreats before the sheer immensity of its historical context into a personal story; and in the end it's almost as if the war has stopped so these two can shoot at each other. Other than that it weaves historical content into a human story, the nature of totalitarian regimes and the indifference to human life that the Red Army displayed early on, the Party involvement in morale making, the front line role of women etc; it was enormously refreshing to see a story told from the Soviet side; almost all prior movies on the subject were Nazi-sided (See Peckinpah's - Cross of Iron). It also contains excellent action shots; making the humble bullet a mighty dangerous object again, as it should be. Though it falls down in not being able to devote enough money to huge battle scenes (almost every German vehicle sighted is stationary); and so cheats on a real sense of the battle, it's good for what it is. Those who like historical war films can only hope that the true balance of land fighting of WW2, ie: the Russians with some help from the Western allies toward the end; starts to be reflected in cinema; at least Enemy At The Gates has given a start.