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 enlarge | Actors: Matthais Habich, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, Eva Mattes, Ron Perlman
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $0.87
You Save: $9.11 (91%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  375 reviews
Sales Rank: 2275
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 131
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.5
MPN: 097363386247
ISBN: 0792172760
UPC: 097363386247
EAN: 9780792172765
ASIN: B00003CXRA
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
Release Date: August 14, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: **NO ARTWORK - NEW BLANK CASE** Guaranteed to play. Normal case wear with stickers, very slight scratches. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Bob Nikitavitch August 31, 2005
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
If anyone ever does a picture about Khruschev, Bob Hoskins must play the lead role. And it wouldn't be typecasting either, because he only shows up for a total of, say, ten minutes in this film as Khruschev in his Stalingrad position as the senior Political Comissar. (What, you ask, is a Political Commissar? Read on.)This was a much sweeter assignment,apparently, for Nikita Sergeievich than his previous one, which was to surrender Kiev.
But back to Mr. Hoskins. This, my friends, is acting. Never mind the make up job that turns the star of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Mona Lisa, and the Cotton Club into the star of the Cuban Missile Crisis and The Secret Meeting About Stalin. Never mind the set-up by excited crowds whispering about "Stalin's envoy" (didn't they know he'd surrendered Kiev?). In one sweeping scene, Hoskins manages to convey Khruschevian brutality (throwing a pistol at his predecessor with a gruff, "You might want to avoid the red tape"), fearmongering contempuousness as he slowly inspects the political officers, and his propensity for odd witticisms: "I want our boys to stop [expletive connotating defecation] their pants." "This isn't Leningrad. It isn't Moscow. This is Stalingrad. This city bears the name of [leans into trembling officers face ominously] the boss." Does he raise his voice? No, he doesn't have to.
Then we see him shift, chameleon like, in response to a suggestion an officer Danilov gives when Khruschev demands one. "Hope. They need hope." When Danilov tells Khruschev that yes, he knows a hero who can provide such hope, a sharpshooter who was able to kill five Germans one right after the other in order to save the officer and himself, a smile literally creeps across the senior officer's face. It's clear he's decided this is information he can use.
Brilliant performance. Five minutes to show emotions and characteristics that run the gamut with a character who's been diagnosed posthumously as being something less than mentally balanced. Mr. Hoskins, I salute you! Jude Law does well too, although he's a young'n here with room to grow.
"Enemy At the Gates" tells us,on one level, about one of the most brutal battles of The Great Patriotic War. But the main character in this story isn't the people of Stalingrad or the Soviet army, it's a rifleman named Vassili Zaitzev (a real guy, apparently, who has his own monument someplace) who is touted as an expert marksman after killing the five Germans Danilev mentioned above. The information about this, as a result of the Commissar's little machine, gets out all over the USSR, and before you can say "Nastrovye!", Vassili is like a Soviet Frank Sinatra, getting fan male from Minsk to Pinsk. No dummy, Vassili realizes quickly he's being used, and protests. To no avail, however. Khruschev and Danilov are not above putting the child of a friend in mortal danger to continue the sniper exploits and the positive press they bring.
So, apparently, this is what Political Comissars do: they run around creating and putting out propoganda about the great work other people are doing while these other people actually do the work, perhaps even risking their lives.(The scary thing is, given Stalingrad's remarkable victory, its Comissars' propoganda may have actually done some good.) Danilov et al, in the film, continue to use Vassili as agitprop to spruce up morale among soldiers and citizens alike. In an art-meets-reality spin, Annaud himself creats a final duel between Zaitzev and his German counterpart in the film that never occurred.
Annaud's theme of someone just trying to do their job, only to have someone else exploit it for the good of "the collective", with sometimes tragic results, could be reflective of a minor scale of a certain seventy year experiment with a nation full of workers. Or, arguably, of the perceived need in any conflict for the folks on the home front to believe their boys are doing well.
And historically inaccurate though it may be, the sniper duel scene pretty much rocks the free world. Or the Communist world. Whatever.
Hollywood Advances To The Eastern Front!!!!!!!!!!! August 16, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've seen a lot of WW2 movies examples: "Saving Private Ryan", "Pearl Harbor", "The Thin Red Line", "The Longest Day", and "Patton", which covered the war in the Pacific, as well as The Western Front of WW2!!! Now Hollywood has finally opened up The Eastern Front of the WW2!!!
The movie kicks off at the battle of Stalingrad, as troops cross the Volga River, awaiting on the other side is the Nazi war machine crusing any resistance!!!When they reach other side, they are welcomed by chaos, death, and destruction, and are sent to press the attack!!!
An, ordinary soldier named Vassili Zaitsev(Jude Law) only with a clip of ammo is sent in with hundreds of others, on a suicide charge, in a hoppless attempt to break the German lines!!! They move forward and are mowed down, and if they retreat they are shot by their officers, a lose, lose situation!!! Vassili some how survives the battle and is met by Danilov(Joesph Fiennes), a political officer, who becomes his best friend!!! When he sees, Vassili Zaitsev take out 7 German officers!!!
Meanwhile, Kruschev (Bob Hoskins) comes to Stalingrad to take control of the situation. Danilov, tells him a different way of motivating the soldiers instead of giving them the choice of bullets, he suggest that they encourage them and make examples, or heros!!! From their on, Vassili becomes the center of propaganda, and the Red Army forms the sniper division, and form a brave counter offensive against the Nazi army, in the ruins of Stalingrad!!!
Vassili and Danilov, are best friend, but then get caught in a love triangle, between the beautiful Tania (Rachel Weisz) and things start to heat up!!! Meanwhile, the Germans send in their best sniper Major Konig(Ed Harris), to kill the great Vassil Zaitsev that is reaking havok among the German Army!!! As, the struggle for Stalingrad rages on, a private war rages on, playing cat and mouse in a fight to the death, in the vast ruins of the great city!!!
Sounds like, a great movie huh, well it is more than great!!! This movie tells about how the Russian snipers, the greatest being Vassili Zaitsev (242 kills total), played an important in the battle of Stalingrad, which was a turning point in the war!!! THis has to be the best WW2 movie since "Saving Private Ryan",!!!
Everything was perfect about the movie, especially the cast of actors, along with the realistic feel, and sheer visual genius!!! The special features are woth checking out too!!! This movie is an instant classic that you will savor every minute of action packed excitment, along with realistic combat!!!
Overall, I will give this a 5/5, for being a fantastic war movie about the great sniper war going on during Stalingrad!!! THis opens up The Eastern Front for the first time as well as WW2 sniper theme going on!!! This is a tale of the Legendary Vassli Zaitsev!! This is great for any action fan or anybody that loves great war movies!!!
I will suggest that you buy this immediately!!!
If you like this you may also like:
"Saving Private Ryan" or "Patton", and any other WW2 movie!!!
A Great Movie July 4, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the first amazon movie review I have written, after reading many reviews for other movies for quite some time.
The criticisms I read about Enemy at the Gates are, by and large, correct! And, as a rule, I do not like war movies. So why on earth do I think this is a great movie?! I did happen to read the account of the sniper duel at the heart of the story, many years ago. (The story has been made more marketable, the love story is silly, but it is in essence truer to history than other much hyped movies...)
Well, the performances are great. The movie tells of a battle that was central to WWII.
I think I rate this movie so highly because it focuses on the brutal win or lose nature of total war. That's what it came down to. If the Russians lost they were going to be massacred en masse - that was Hitler's plan to make room for German expansion to the East. No 'earn this' like at the end of Private Ryan. WWII was about the life and death of vast numbers of civilians. The upbeat ending is bogus - yes I agree. But if you can just tune out those parts - this movie is like 'Paths of Glory' - it gets to the guts of war - either I kill you or you will kill me (and my family as well.)
This is a very smart and romantic movie. May 10, 2005
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie shows a pivotal moment in Russian history. It shows the Russian military during a very important moment in World War II. The music is sublime. This movie is very good. It shows love, war, and politics in a way that people can understand how it relates to national interest.
 Please Hold Onto the Bar May 5, 2005
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
"The Enemy at the Gates" is a war movie like few others ever made. It's promotional "hook" is the lethal, real life cat-and-mouse game between a German sniper and a Russian sniper during World War II. But the abject, brutal Power you are going to feel - the blow to your chest that will have you aching all over comes from the setting - the incredible squalor and waste of the siege/defense of Stalingrad.
Every sight is overcast, dark, dingy, dirty, cold and deadly. The people, if you can believe they are still people, seem most like maggots scurrying about in a cold, dank tomb, day after grinding day.
Every mindless, ghastly horror of War you can think of, from the total Dehumanization of young and old - to the pointless mass reduction of lives to gore and stench - to the total Avarice of politicians - to the total Malignancy of Greed and Power - is hurled straight into in your face. And yet... when you have long since decided those wretched pawns could never ever be live people again you will suddenly find yourself watching a lovemaking scene so totally Erotic yet so totally Human, and, somehow, so genuinely Artistic you WILL be absolutely spellbound. And that will be the point you finally feel some precious shred of hope you will actually be back in the light of your "real" world when the movie ends. "The Enemy at the Gate" is a slow, excruciatingly dismal trip across the River Styx - and back. Use your own discretion.
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