Works more as fictionalized history than as historical fiction

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2008)

Vasilli Zaitsiev(Jude Law,rugged features and green eyes a-blazing)becomes a folk hero in be-sieged Stalingrad,1942-43. And it seems perfectly reasonable:the de-moralized and starving locals and Soviet army dispatch is facing the brutal,relentless pressure of the advancing NAzi armies,so a deadly effective sniper who has the German's guessing their ground strategy is naturally gonna be greatly needed. Of course,this walking hero/legend is also all flesh and blood,as he is both being lionized by a local patrician/officer(Joseph Fieenes,looking more and more like Ralph all the time)and carrying a growing torch for a local girl(RAchel Weisz,still radiant through mud,muck and blood)who happens to work the infantry and is fluent in German.
That happens to be exactly what an ace marksman and officer in the SS named KOnig(ED HArris,fantastic as the coldly determined,not altogether inhuman German menace)is hoping for,as he scans and scours the streets of the war-torn central Russian town to finish off.
HAving just read(More like scanned)a review that had a very dim view of the re-telling of actual historical fact,I think I can say that this movie is(without being nearly as EAgle-eyed as that reviewer)probably more intended to be sheer entertainment rather than a particularly close examination or documentation of the very pivotal and important battle that has by many been thought to be one of the key turning points in WWII. That will leave people who want to see more studious retelling in the cold,and even as pure entertainment will seem a little flat. Still,the characters and situations are just fleshed-out and kept compelling enough that a lesser invested viewer(like myself,for instance) will come away feeling reasonably satisfied,if not "wowed". Director JEan-Jacques Arnaud seems to be content making a much larger pieced of World history a much more intimate and human struggle,and it doesn't make for TOO uncomfortable of a film experience. If one feels much desire to see this at all,it would probably fall pretty safely in the category of "Renter".