Historically inaccurate may be but a powerhouse of a movie

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2019)

I delayed many years for this superlative movie. It may seem not accurate and being perfunctory towards the book, and the real battle of St. Petersburg and the Russian fightback and eventual win, but it touches the right chords of your heart. Any war is gut wrenching and might even be fruitless, but people have had to gone through many of them. And more people will in future. I don't really bother who wins and who loses anymore, at this age. There are many aspects. Many point of views. Many short term goals and manh long term eventualities which negate or substantiate the points. This movie only takes out a small chunk of a historically significant battle which all of us have read about and focuses on four main actors. Three of them from the russian side and one on the german side. I have read the reviews of my fellow russian friends, they have every right to get irritated as this movie doesn't accurately point out their brilliant victory. I sympathize with them. But think about hundreds of brilliant wins and losses over the long human history-what does it matter? What matters is the conflicts should not be the focus, but peace should. Anyway, the scope of this film didn't really covers all those things. This is not supposed to be a docu-drama. It's a war-drama.
It does show that almost all the russians are fighting under duress. Nobody wants to. And surely this is not all true. It's shown in all it's sad heartless glory.
Jude law fascinates the country when he bursts forth in his pin point accuracy at sniping out the german soldiers out of nowhere. He becomes the pin-up. Many follow him. So does his love interest Tanya. Whereas his buddy but politically shrewd friend, Fiennes, who also loves Tanya , tries to promote Jude as the Hero who will single handedly overcome the Germans and win the war for the Russians. Hoskins as the brutal and vicious Khrushchev is shown as a robotic war monger. Joseph Fiennes does a great job at his acting of a cunning man saving himself but trying to gain out of another's skill, also trying to win the love by betraying and also doing the ultimate sacrifice. I liked him.
Jude law has the author backed role. He does justice to it. Somehow the love making scene between rows of exhausted soldiers, was unbelievable. Also unbelievable was the peculiar position of the young boy, easily moving between the two camps, feeding the German Major, Ed harris, in a small but brilliant portrayal, hundreds of mis-informations , and again coming back to the other camp easily. That simply is impossible. He could be easily followed and the sniper's den could be easily found out. But that's another matter. Ed harris acted in a soft resolute but classy manner with a delicate dialogue throwing-loved that. A different side from his other american avatars.
Tanya was very young Rachel weisz was perectly cast as the vulnerable lady in love but with tremendous love for the country to fight in a combat. I have a small grudge towards the screenplay, Tanya could be shown as torn between the loves two different personalities with two different types of live, but that opportunity was wasted.
The tension built up gradually by the cat and mouse game of the two tremendous snipers with different styles, was a magnificent cinematic moment. I was holding my breath many times. And finally the last scene might be unnecessarily dramatic but acutely hits the viewer.
I am truly affected by the movie. I remembered many russian stories and dramas I read about in my childhood which affected me similarly and became nostalgic. It uplifted me. Very well done and a must see.