Law and Harris Shine in Annaud's Enemy at the Gates

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2019)

The Siege of Leningrad serves as the backdrop for Jean-Jacques Annaud's tenth film Enemy at the Gates (2001), starring Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, and Rachel Weisz. A more grim setting could hardly be imagined, but the movie will have you transfixed as Law and Harris face-off as crack snipers on opposites sides of the siege. The drama is intense and should have received more attention at its release in 2001.
Jean-Jacques Annaud has brought such memorable and truly different films as Quest for Fire (1981) and The Name of the Rose (1986) to the screen. This film is also very different from the usual fare, and that is part of its appeal. Based on the book Notes of a Sniper (1956) by Vasili Zaitsev, in which he recounts his real-life experiences as a sniper during the Siege of Leningrad, Annaud takes us on tour inside that siege.
We witness the Soviet troops thrown into battle with one rifle between each soldier. We see the civilian deprivation first hand and death lurks around every corner. We feel the futility and desperation of the siege that lasted 872 days and resulted in the deaths of nearly two million Russians.
In the center of a spectacular set, ironically built in Germany, we see a recreation of the Barmaley Fountain as it was during the siege. A poignant and emotion-evoking setting to be sure. One wonders if the child-eating Barmaley, the fountain's namesake, has taken the form of the German Army. In true Russian fashion, would that make Jude Law, and his character Zaitsev, Doctor Aybolit (or maybe the Alligator)?
As eluded to Enemy traces the story of Zaitsev, played by Jude Law, as he becomes a bastion of propaganda and hope for the Soviet forces and people. Thrust onto the battlefield without a rifle; he is lucky enough to escape the slaughter of his newly arrived comrades by hiding amongst the dead. It is while hiding that he meets a Soviet Party official, also hiding amongst the dead, played by Fiennes. Fiennes fire and fervor are unquelled by his surroundings. Using a dead man's rifle, he urges Zaitsev to kill some nearby Nazi officers. Zaitsev astounds him by killing five in less than a minute.
Zaitsev quickly is promoted to the sniper corps, and as he racks up kills, the party machinery immediately pounces on the propaganda opportunity. He meets a younger Nikkita Kruschev, played memorably by Bob Hoskins, who congratulates him. Zaitsev becomes a hero to the nation, yet the siege drags on, and so does his grim task.
The Nazi's are being embarrassed, and they bring in their crack sniper Major König, played by Ed Harris. Harris plays König very cooly and with the poise we've come to expect. On König's arrival, the film's actual story emerges as the true-life dual between these two harbingers of death commences.
Rachel Weisz puts in a somewhat forgettable role as a woman soviet soldier, Tania Chernova. Tania's existence is true to history, but the love story is somewhat half-hearted. The film's real interests lie elsewhere. Indeed if you had seen this film in the spring of 2001, I would bet you have forgotten she was even in the movie.
You will not forget Jude Law and Ed Harris' performances and the true-life story of Vasili Zaitsev, though.
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