simply awesome war movie - one trying to capture the human emotions

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2005)

I must have watched this movie more than 10 times and every time I have started liking it even more. First half hour of the movie is as stunning (or horrifying) as can be for a war movie, with young soldiers just out of their teens, moving towards an unknown destination, unaware of their fate/destiny, most of the times even unaware of the cause they are fighting for, forced to fight an enemy with superior arms.
The way the human emotion has been portrayed is simply amazing - Danilov's liking (or lust) for Tania, for the same reason his envy and jealousy towards Vassili who was once his best friend, Sacha's believe in Vassili's victory, König's one eyed focus to get rid of Vassili.
Generally, war movies lack in the thing that they show just story of one side. This movie prominently deals with the story of Russians, but there is a genuine effort to tell about Germans too. Definitely, this is a story of real people (and heroes) in a real war.
An amazing performance by all the actors - Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz and young Gabriel Thomson - and above all by director Jean-Jacques Annaud. Kudos to all of them.