Comrade Kruschev is sent to stiffen the spines of the Red Army.....

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2009)

Less than twenty years after these events,Premier Kruschev was taking off his shoe and banging it on his desk at the United Nations Building. Always a consummate actor,Kruschev terrified half the world,put the first man in space,built the Berlin Wall and forced Kennedy to remove US bases in Turkey by deploying missiles in Cuba.He debunked the myth of Stalin when it suited him and gloried in the image of the ignorant peasant who had fought his way to the top of the heap.People who bought that fatally underestimated his political genius. A crumbling Red Army was re- vitalised by his dynamism and dialectic. Sniper Vasily Zaitsev certainly had his mind concentrated wonderfully. His exploits were broadcast throughout the Soviet Union,making him a legend amongst the defenders of Stalingrad. In order to eliminate him the besieging Germans employed Major Konig,their best man."Enemy at the gates" tells the story of their duel. Both adversaries were cunning and ruthless,but also respectful of the other's ability with a rifle. Along with the operators of flame throwers,snipers were the most hated of opponents and could expect absolutely no mercy if captured by the enemy.Neither Zaitsev nor Konig had any intention of being captured. The siege of Stalingrad was definitely not won on the playing fields of Eton.The Russians were systematically slaughtered by the Wermacht and the Luftwaffe to whom they were "untermenschen".Hardly surprising then when the roles were reversed very few German soldiers returned from Russian Prison camps at the end of the war. I will mention Mr Ed Harris who gives the standout performance as the cold - eyed Major Konig,seeking revenge for the killing of his son. All the other actors are more than adequate without really breaking into a sweat. There is a quite unbelievable and absolutely unnecessary "love" scene where Miss R.Weiss struggles to get into Mr J.Law's pants and when she does it seems hardly worth the effort. The raison d'etre of the movie remains the battle of the two marksmen which is resolved finally in a bit of an anti - climactic scene where Major Konig removes his hat and stands still whilst Zaitsev shoots him at close range. But to me the shadow of Nikita Kruschev looms large over this movie,as it did over the world at the height of the Cold War which remained Cold not least because Kruschev had no intention of ever letting it become Hot.