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"Deserters will be shot!"
by Brent (movies profile)
May 28, 2008
8
of
10 people found this review helpful
"Enemy at the Gates" is a stunning film in my opinion, with an excellent depiction of the Eastern front in World War II, which is typically not depicted in Hollywood.
The key to enjoying the film is having a little background knowledge of the events leading up to the horrific battle of Stalingrad. Stalingrad was the "Detroit" of the Soviet Union, and symbollically important to the Russians as it bears the name of the Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin. By September of 1942 (when the movie starts), the invasion by Nazi Germany is 14 months old and the Germans have not suffered a major defeat (only a few "setbacks".) The movie correctly depicts how the average Russian soldier was minimally equipped and often had a short career--the Russians were notorious for sending "human tidal waves" into machine gun fire and firing on their own men if they retreated.
Stalingrad witnessed massive casualties by both sides--especially the Russians--and the movie correctly depicts this. The crossing of the Volga by fresh Russian soldiers is memorable as their boat gets shot up by German Ju-87 "Stuka" divebombers. The movie is bleak and looks like hell on Earth--which is exactly how German and Russian veterans describe the Eastern front.
Snipers were important in urban battles and crucial to the propaganda machines of the Nazi and Communist governments. The movie correctly plays into this, although it seems to favor Soviet embellishment on Vassili Zaitsev's sniper career as actual fact.
Perhaps a weakness of the movie was that the movie forgot the bitter cold that was homologous to the Russian front. For a while, the movie appeared to be a Russian summertime, and the producers should have played on this historical fact better.
Overall, though, "Enemy at the Gates" is a thrilling World War II movie with moderate historical accuracy, and I would recommend it to anyone with some appreciation of the Eastern or Russian front of World War II. |
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