hard and gritty and grisly

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2012)

Since the film is based on true events, the reality of the film is not in question, I consider the first 20 minutes of the film to be the equivalent of the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" or the battle scenes in "We Were Soldiers". They are hard and gritty and grisly and not for the faint of heart. The pace of the film is quick and steady, and the action builds perfectly, like a well crafted symphony. Fiennes and Law are the perfect halves of the whole, the sniper with the deadly aim and the propagandist with the leader's ear. Hoskins portrayal of Khrushchev gives us an insight to the man he would become, the man who stood in the United Nations pounding his shoe on the podium screaming "We Will Bury You". Rachel is a fine actress and performs well in this film, for a part that is totally unnecessary. But without a love story, we would never get the women into a war film. Anyway, violence alone will keep the kids away, or should, and there is a small and very discretely performed sex scene, but it doesn't last long and doesn't show much. Collectible if you enjoy great war films, as this one certainly is.