Snipers in Stalingrad

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2009)

I didn't know much about this film before I watched it other than it was about two snipers playing cat and mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad. While that is correct as a very basic summary it doesn't do justice to the excellent film set in a part of the war rarely featured in movies that tend to concentrate on engagements involving Commonwealth or US forces.
The film follows Vassili Zaitsev, a young soldier played by Jude Law, as he goes to Stalingrad and it thrown into battle without even a rifle, he is just told to take one from his comrades when they are killed. After the battle he hides in a fountain where he meets political officer Danilov. Danilov wants to shoot the Germans who are in a nearby ruined building but can't do it so gives the rifle to Vassili who dispatches five of them without them returning a single shot. The political officer sees that Vassili can be used as a propaganda tool, both to inspire other Soviets and to demoralise the Germans. As he kills more and more senior Germans he does indeed become a hero and the Germans send their top sniper to Stalingrad to kill him. What follows is a cat and mouse game where each tries to lure the other into a trap so that they can kill them.
In the background to this action there is a love story between Vassili and a female soldier called Tania, the situation is complicated by the fact that Danilov also fancies her and as she can speak German he gets her transferred to his department.
The story is well told and exciting with great performance from Jude Law, Ed Harris (German sniper Erwin König), Rachel Weisz (Tania) and Joseph Fiennes (Danilov). While the love story wasn't strictly necessary it didn't distract from the main story and was well executed. While it only tells one small story amongst one of the largest battles of the Second World War it is still a film that most fans of war films will enjoy.