Gripping and gritty war film

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2012)

Enemy at the Gates (2001) was co-written and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. The movie takes place during the Battle of Stalingrad, and is based on true historical events.
Jude Law plays the soldier Vassili Zaitsev, a Russian peasant who has the skills and the bravery to become the chief sniper for the beleaguered Russian army in Stalingrad. Ed Harris is Major König, the German sniper who was sent to Stalingrad to eliminate Vassili. Both actors are excellent in their roles--Law as the intelligent, but unsophisticated, hunter, and Harris as the worldly, arrogant officer who is also an amazing marksman.
All Russian military units were accompanied by political commissars. Joseph Fiennes stars as Commisar Danilov, who befriends Vassili, and who is clever enough to recognize the propaganda value of a heroic Russian sniper. Both he and Vassili are in love with soldier Tania Chernova, played by Rachel Weisz. Bob Hoskins does a brilliant job portraying Nikita Khrushchev, whose career was already on the rise during the battle for the city.
The Battle of Stalingrad may have been the most important battle in World War II. However, movies about battles belong on the History Channel. As in "Saving Private Ryan," a war movie must involve us in the lives of the men and women who fought it. Vassili's story does, indeed, involve us. We are involved even more than in other war films, because the story is true.
The German army, which at one point controlled 90% of Stalingrad, had totally disintegrated by the time the battle was over. Determined Russian resistance and the Russian winter broke Hitler's army the way they broke Napolean's army. In Napolean's case, a tattered remnant of his army struggled back towards France. When the Battle of Stalingrad was over, there wasn't any German army left to return home. Hitler refused to consider retreat, when retreat was still an option. He told the German soldiers to fight to the last man and the last bullet, and that's what they did.
I saw this movie on DVD. It worked well enough, although it would surely have been better on a large screen.