Amazon.co.uk Review
Enemy at the Gates opens with a pivotal event of World War II--the German invasion of Stalingrad--recreated in Saving Private Ryan-like epic scale as ill-trained Russian soldiers face German attack or punitive execution if they flee from the enemy's advance. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures this madness with urgent authenticity, creating a massive context for a more intimate battle waged amidst the city's ruins. Embellished from its basis in fact, the story shifts to an intense cat-and-mouse game between a Russian shepherd raised to iconic fame, and a German marksman whose skill is unmatched in its lethal precision. Vassily Zaitzev (Jude Law) has been sniping Nazis one bullet at a time, while the German Major Konig (Ed Harris) has been assigned to kill Vassily and spare Hitler from further embarrassment. There's love in this war, too, as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L Robbins' novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a man-made hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
On the DVD: with a choice of Dolby 5.1 or DTS the sound is suitably spectacular (James Horner's Prokofiev-inspired score comes up well amid whizzing bullets and explosions), while the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture makes the best of the epic battle sequences. "Through the Crosshairs" is a standard 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, which is complemented by "Inside Enemy at the Gates", a 15-minute montage of interviews with the stars and director. There's also a 25-minute French-made documentary (with English subtitles) about the real battle that includes a short interview with the real Vassily Zaitsev. Eight brief deleted scenes can be played separately or neatly inserted into the movie by pressing Enter when the gun sight icon appears on screen. The commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud is as informative as might be expected from a director who always seems passionate about his film projects. Storyboards, posters, a trailer and filmographies round out an excellent disc package. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
audio anorak info.......2007-12-07
just a note to let all you audio anoraks out there with dts playback on your home cinema gear that this disc is one of the very few uk dts discs to have close to full bit-rate audio off its dts track, around double the usual dts rate. i work at a posh audio outlet and when demonstrating all our cinema gear we use this and its audio track is staggering, it gets a sale almost every time !
Waste of money.......2007-09-25
I've seen some bad films in my time, even some very bad films, but 99% of the time I see them through to the end, you might as well if you've got halfway. I even watched both series of `Rome'. Really.
This was one of the very rare times where I just got so bored, and so annoyed at the appalling acting, and total lack of even an attempt to curb strong British accents in supposedly Russian characters, that I turned it off after about 40 minutes and did something else. I knew Jude Law was a bad actor, but he excels himself here, as does Rachel whatshername, they had the chemistry of puddle of tomato soup, and constantly sounded like they were at a English garden party.
I normally like Bob Hoskins, but he was woefully miscast here, he belongs in London based gangster roles that he fits perfectly, not as a Russian general with a cockney accent. I think casting people just put anyone famous they can find in lead roles so they can put their names on posters, not caring whether they will actually work or not.
The opening sequence was not bad, but lacked the intensity of the Saving Private Ryan beach landings, and the action from then on was just dull. I couldnt have cared less who sniped who. Cant comment on the rest of the film as I turned it off like I said. Its going straight on Ebay tonight. Im ashamed to say I bought this at the same time as Das Boot, which is a masterpiece of a war film; didnt deserve to be put in the same envelope as this tripe.
A REAL SHARP SHOOTER.......2007-09-19
The story portrays a crack Russian sniper in Stalingrad during WW11.
Jude Law plays the modest but deadly sniper who plays cat and mouse with Ed Harris, his German counterpart. The action is gritty and well filmed.
Gritty Stuff.......2007-09-12
Just a few words to say how good this film is. One of the most powerful and intense War/Drama Films Ive seen. You'd have to be dead from the neck up not to like it. Recommended.
A tale of love... with a bit Stalingrad and sniping on the side. .......2007-09-02
When you get a war film so inaccurate that veterans of the battle it depicts try and get it banned, you know it's probably pretty bad.
The films' main opening sequence is probably the best bit, the scene of the new Russian conscripts crossing of the Volga river is a very good scene, it sort of goes downhill from there as the ill-equipped soldiers are thrust into a human wave attack against heavily entrenched Germans in the city of Stalingrad (probably trying to get the same effect as the D-Day landing scene in 'Saving Private Ryan' but failing miserably). Despite the amount of action the accuracy in even this early scene may leave more informed viewers with a bitter taste in their mouth.
After that I'd say the film's plot is a conglomeration of three stories, in this order:
1. A love story
2. A story of a sniper
3. A story of the Battle of Stalingrad
At the forefront of the film there is the weak love affair between Vasily (Jude Law) and Tanya Chernova (Rachel Weisz). The backing story of the film totally trivializes the battle into a dual between two snipers, the Russian Vasily Zaitsev and the German Major Erwin Konig (Ed Harris), with the later of those two characters having never actually existed. (Most other supporting characters are very forgettable).
These two stories then use the Battle of Stalingrad merely as a setting and nothing more.
A film about the most terrible and bloody battle in recent history should show the suffering of soldiers on both sides as well as the suffering of civilians caught up in the middle, this film does neither.
Most of the best war films have a group of characters at the centre and depict their struggles through whichever conflict it may be this film has only Vasily at the central role and although this could have made it a very unique and interesting story, in the case of 'Enemy at the Gates' it does not deliver this.
Overall this film is a piece of Hollywood fantasy, there is action and suspense but it is used in the most predictable ways possible for a war film of this brand, it will and does appeal to the mainstream but by no means is this a very realistic depiction of the battle or of Vasily Zaitsev and his duty as a sniper. The only thing that might save it an ounce in the eyes of the more informed viewers is the fact it is loosely based off of a novel.
Maybe there will one day be a modern film about the Battle of Stalingrad par with Oliver Hirschbiegel's 'Downfall'.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Enemy at the Gates opens with a pivotal event of World War II--the German invasion of Stalingrad--recreated in Saving Private Ryan-like epic scale as ill-trained Russian soldiers face German attack or punitive execution if they flee from the enemy's advance. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures this madness with urgent authenticity, creating a massive context for a more intimate battle waged amidst the city's ruins. Embellished from its basis in fact, the story shifts to an intense cat-and-mouse game between a Russian shepherd raised to iconic fame, and a German marksman whose skill is unmatched in its lethal precision. Vassily Zaitzev (Jude Law) has been sniping Nazis one bullet at a time, while the German Major Konig (Ed Harris) has been assigned to kill Vassily and spare Hitler from further embarrassment. There's love in this war, too, as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L Robbins' novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a man-made hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
On the DVD: with a choice of Dolby 5.1 or DTS the sound is suitably spectacular (James Horner's Prokofiev-inspired score comes up well amid whizzing bullets and explosions), while the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture makes the best of the epic battle sequences. "Through the Crosshairs" is a standard 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, which is complemented by "Inside Enemy at the Gates", a 15-minute montage of interviews with the stars and director. There's also a 25-minute French-made documentary (with English subtitles) about the real battle that includes a short interview with the real Vassily Zaitsev. Eight brief deleted scenes can be played separately or neatly inserted into the movie by pressing Enter when the gun sight icon appears on screen. The commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud is as informative as might be expected from a director who always seems passionate about his film projects. Storyboards, posters, a trailer and filmographies round out an excellent disc package. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
audio anorak info.......2007-12-07
just a note to let all you audio anoraks out there with dts playback on your home cinema gear that this disc is one of the very few uk dts discs to have close to full bit-rate audio off its dts track, around double the usual dts rate. i work at a posh audio outlet and when demonstrating all our cinema gear we use this and its audio track is staggering, it gets a sale almost every time !
Waste of money.......2007-09-25
I've seen some bad films in my time, even some very bad films, but 99% of the time I see them through to the end, you might as well if you've got halfway. I even watched both series of `Rome'. Really.
This was one of the very rare times where I just got so bored, and so annoyed at the appalling acting, and total lack of even an attempt to curb strong British accents in supposedly Russian characters, that I turned it off after about 40 minutes and did something else. I knew Jude Law was a bad actor, but he excels himself here, as does Rachel whatshername, they had the chemistry of puddle of tomato soup, and constantly sounded like they were at a English garden party.
I normally like Bob Hoskins, but he was woefully miscast here, he belongs in London based gangster roles that he fits perfectly, not as a Russian general with a cockney accent. I think casting people just put anyone famous they can find in lead roles so they can put their names on posters, not caring whether they will actually work or not.
The opening sequence was not bad, but lacked the intensity of the Saving Private Ryan beach landings, and the action from then on was just dull. I couldnt have cared less who sniped who. Cant comment on the rest of the film as I turned it off like I said. Its going straight on Ebay tonight. Im ashamed to say I bought this at the same time as Das Boot, which is a masterpiece of a war film; didnt deserve to be put in the same envelope as this tripe.
A REAL SHARP SHOOTER.......2007-09-19
The story portrays a crack Russian sniper in Stalingrad during WW11.
Jude Law plays the modest but deadly sniper who plays cat and mouse with Ed Harris, his German counterpart. The action is gritty and well filmed.
Gritty Stuff.......2007-09-12
Just a few words to say how good this film is. One of the most powerful and intense War/Drama Films Ive seen. You'd have to be dead from the neck up not to like it. Recommended.
A tale of love... with a bit Stalingrad and sniping on the side. .......2007-09-02
When you get a war film so inaccurate that veterans of the battle it depicts try and get it banned, you know it's probably pretty bad.
The films' main opening sequence is probably the best bit, the scene of the new Russian conscripts crossing of the Volga river is a very good scene, it sort of goes downhill from there as the ill-equipped soldiers are thrust into a human wave attack against heavily entrenched Germans in the city of Stalingrad (probably trying to get the same effect as the D-Day landing scene in 'Saving Private Ryan' but failing miserably). Despite the amount of action the accuracy in even this early scene may leave more informed viewers with a bitter taste in their mouth.
After that I'd say the film's plot is a conglomeration of three stories, in this order:
1. A love story
2. A story of a sniper
3. A story of the Battle of Stalingrad
At the forefront of the film there is the weak love affair between Vasily (Jude Law) and Tanya Chernova (Rachel Weisz). The backing story of the film totally trivializes the battle into a dual between two snipers, the Russian Vasily Zaitsev and the German Major Erwin Konig (Ed Harris), with the later of those two characters having never actually existed. (Most other supporting characters are very forgettable).
These two stories then use the Battle of Stalingrad merely as a setting and nothing more.
A film about the most terrible and bloody battle in recent history should show the suffering of soldiers on both sides as well as the suffering of civilians caught up in the middle, this film does neither.
Most of the best war films have a group of characters at the centre and depict their struggles through whichever conflict it may be this film has only Vasily at the central role and although this could have made it a very unique and interesting story, in the case of 'Enemy at the Gates' it does not deliver this.
Overall this film is a piece of Hollywood fantasy, there is action and suspense but it is used in the most predictable ways possible for a war film of this brand, it will and does appeal to the mainstream but by no means is this a very realistic depiction of the battle or of Vasily Zaitsev and his duty as a sniper. The only thing that might save it an ounce in the eyes of the more informed viewers is the fact it is loosely based off of a novel.
Maybe there will one day be a modern film about the Battle of Stalingrad par with Oliver Hirschbiegel's 'Downfall'.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Enemy at the Gates opens with a pivotal event of World War II--the German invasion of Stalingrad--recreated in Saving Private Ryan-like epic scale as ill-trained Russian soldiers face German attack or punitive execution if they flee from the enemy's advance. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures this madness with urgent authenticity, creating a massive context for a more intimate battle waged amidst the city's ruins. Embellished from its basis in fact, the story shifts to an intense cat-and-mouse game between a Russian shepherd raised to iconic fame, and a German marksman whose skill is unmatched in its lethal precision. Vassily Zaitzev (Jude Law) has been sniping Nazis one bullet at a time, while the German Major Konig (Ed Harris) has been assigned to kill Vassily and spare Hitler from further embarrassment. There's love in this war, too, as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L Robbins' novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a man-made hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
On the DVD: with a choice of Dolby 5.1 or DTS the sound is suitably spectacular (James Horner's Prokofiev-inspired score comes up well amid whizzing bullets and explosions), while the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture makes the best of the epic battle sequences. "Through the Crosshairs" is a standard 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, which is complemented by "Inside Enemy at the Gates", a 15-minute montage of interviews with the stars and director. There's also a 25-minute French-made documentary (with English subtitles) about the real battle that includes a short interview with the real Vassily Zaitsev. Eight brief deleted scenes can be played separately or neatly inserted into the movie by pressing Enter when the gun sight icon appears on screen. The commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud is as informative as might be expected from a director who always seems passionate about his film projects. Storyboards, posters, a trailer and filmographies round out an excellent disc package. --Mark Walker
Customer Reviews:
audio anorak info.......2007-12-07
just a note to let all you audio anoraks out there with dts playback on your home cinema gear that this disc is one of the very few uk dts discs to have close to full bit-rate audio off its dts track, around double the usual dts rate. i work at a posh audio outlet and when demonstrating all our cinema gear we use this and its audio track is staggering, it gets a sale almost every time !
Waste of money.......2007-09-25
I've seen some bad films in my time, even some very bad films, but 99% of the time I see them through to the end, you might as well if you've got halfway. I even watched both series of `Rome'. Really.
This was one of the very rare times where I just got so bored, and so annoyed at the appalling acting, and total lack of even an attempt to curb strong British accents in supposedly Russian characters, that I turned it off after about 40 minutes and did something else. I knew Jude Law was a bad actor, but he excels himself here, as does Rachel whatshername, they had the chemistry of puddle of tomato soup, and constantly sounded like they were at a English garden party.
I normally like Bob Hoskins, but he was woefully miscast here, he belongs in London based gangster roles that he fits perfectly, not as a Russian general with a cockney accent. I think casting people just put anyone famous they can find in lead roles so they can put their names on posters, not caring whether they will actually work or not.
The opening sequence was not bad, but lacked the intensity of the Saving Private Ryan beach landings, and the action from then on was just dull. I couldnt have cared less who sniped who. Cant comment on the rest of the film as I turned it off like I said. Its going straight on Ebay tonight. Im ashamed to say I bought this at the same time as Das Boot, which is a masterpiece of a war film; didnt deserve to be put in the same envelope as this tripe.
A REAL SHARP SHOOTER.......2007-09-19
The story portrays a crack Russian sniper in Stalingrad during WW11.
Jude Law plays the modest but deadly sniper who plays cat and mouse with Ed Harris, his German counterpart. The action is gritty and well filmed.
Gritty Stuff.......2007-09-12
Just a few words to say how good this film is. One of the most powerful and intense War/Drama Films Ive seen. You'd have to be dead from the neck up not to like it. Recommended.
A tale of love... with a bit Stalingrad and sniping on the side. .......2007-09-02
When you get a war film so inaccurate that veterans of the battle it depicts try and get it banned, you know it's probably pretty bad.
The films' main opening sequence is probably the best bit, the scene of the new Russian conscripts crossing of the Volga river is a very good scene, it sort of goes downhill from there as the ill-equipped soldiers are thrust into a human wave attack against heavily entrenched Germans in the city of Stalingrad (probably trying to get the same effect as the D-Day landing scene in 'Saving Private Ryan' but failing miserably). Despite the amount of action the accuracy in even this early scene may leave more informed viewers with a bitter taste in their mouth.
After that I'd say the film's plot is a conglomeration of three stories, in this order:
1. A love story
2. A story of a sniper
3. A story of the Battle of Stalingrad
At the forefront of the film there is the weak love affair between Vasily (Jude Law) and Tanya Chernova (Rachel Weisz). The backing story of the film totally trivializes the battle into a dual between two snipers, the Russian Vasily Zaitsev and the German Major Erwin Konig (Ed Harris), with the later of those two characters having never actually existed. (Most other supporting characters are very forgettable).
These two stories then use the Battle of Stalingrad merely as a setting and nothing more.
A film about the most terrible and bloody battle in recent history should show the suffering of soldiers on both sides as well as the suffering of civilians caught up in the middle, this film does neither.
Most of the best war films have a group of characters at the centre and depict their struggles through whichever conflict it may be this film has only Vasily at the central role and although this could have made it a very unique and interesting story, in the case of 'Enemy at the Gates' it does not deliver this.
Overall this film is a piece of Hollywood fantasy, there is action and suspense but it is used in the most predictable ways possible for a war film of this brand, it will and does appeal to the mainstream but by no means is this a very realistic depiction of the battle or of Vasily Zaitsev and his duty as a sniper. The only thing that might save it an ounce in the eyes of the more informed viewers is the fact it is loosely based off of a novel.
Maybe there will one day be a modern film about the Battle of Stalingrad par with Oliver Hirschbiegel's 'Downfall'.
UK DVD:
- ER: Complete Season 1 [1995]
- ER: Complete Season 3
- Flood [2007]
- Fortunes Of War (Three Discs) (DVD) [1987]
- Foyle's War - Series 4 - Complete
- Ghost (2 Disc Special Edition) [1990]
- Good Will Hunting [1998]
- Gosford Park [2002]
- Hallam Foe [2007]
- Hard Candy [2006]
UK DVD List
UK DVD
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