Lame Version Of A Well Known Story

Rating: 5/10 (28 February 2006)

Zaitsev and Chernova are historical figures: both became Heroes of the Soviet Union. The duel between Zaitsev and the German übersniper is a well known part of the Stalingrad story, even though its authenticity is strongly disputed. David Robbins's 1999 novel War of the Rats is a much better fictional telling of the tale, and much truer to the details of the sniper's craft.
The producers of Enemy at the Gates either couldn't or wouldn't buy the rights to Robbins's novel, and much of the script appears to have been written to avoid infringing the novel's characterizations and incidents. The German's death at the climax of the story suffers in particular -- it reminds me of nothing so much as the "clever girl" scene from Jurassic Park.
As written, Enemy of the Gates follows pretty closely the standard boxing movie of the 1930s and 40s. Think of Zaitsev as the Fighter, Commisar Danilov as the Scrappy Manager, Chernova as The Girl Who Comes Between Them, Khruschev as the Sinister Promoter, and the German as the Brutal Adversary In The Big Fight, and it all fits.