Enemy at the Gates

My critic also goes in a similar way to that I made to "Saving Private Ryan". With the exception of the time devoted to Ed Harris -the german sniper- this is more or less a one-sided view of the battle and here Annaud losses a great opportunity. Anyway this is a film that I strongly recommend not only to those who like me have beed interested in the battle of Stalingrad during a life but specially to the young people. They must know about this madness and realize that without two dictators (Hitler and Stalin), this tragedy would never happened.


Enemy at the gates a great movie   June 20, 2001
 1 out of 5 found this review helpful

Enemy at the gates is a great movie that was really done and i cant wait til it comes to dvd cause its one that i will definitely buy.bill from international falls,mn


Some theatrical licence taken, but still worth getting.   June 18, 2001
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Although the movie appears to take a fair amount of theatrical licence with the story line, it still manages to capture much of the essance of the battle of Stalingrad. Besides there aren't 2 books out there that agree on a lot of the details either so who knows......... I would have liked to have seen the ending of the sniper battle done a little more historically and the love triangle plot line detracted more than added to the story but over all it is a great movie. The other thing going for this movie is that it helps to show the American audience that there was more to WWII than the US vs Ger. or the US vs Japan. If you like war movies, or action movies, or suspense movies, You will not go wrong buying this movie.


overall a great movie   June 13, 2001
 10 out of 14 found this review helpful

About a year ago I had to do a school project on a book of my choosing, and I read the book "Enemy at the Gates", about the battle of Stalingrad from 1942 to 1943. I found this book to be enthralling and would have rated it 5 out of 5. I was absolutely thrilled to find out that it was being made into a movie, but from the beginning I knew there would be trouble. First of all, the story: Enemy at the Gates (the book) is about the battle of Stalingrad during the winter of 1942-43 when Adolf Hitler turned his attention toward the city of Stalingrad in the Caucasus on the southern steppes of Russia. The war between Russia and Germany by this time had lasted for 1 year. Although the city of Stalingrad held no strategic importance, if Joseph Stalin lost the city which held his name, he, along with the rest of Russia, would be devastated. Adolf Hitler assigned General Paulus' 6th army to take the city, and in August of 1942 the 6th army attacked. By October they had cleared the whole city, save the Northern factory district, off all resistance. It seemed the battle was over, all the Germans had to do was clear that district and the day was theirs. But the Northern Factory District was on the West bank of the Volga river, across that river there were no Germans, only Russians, and so the Russians ferried across entire armies straight into battle. Autumn wore on into Winter, the thing the Germans had learned to dread from the appalling losses at the battle for Moscow in the winter of 1941. German equipment wasnt meant to take the brutal cold of "General Winter", engines froze up, guns jammed, men died. On the other hand, the Russian tanks were designed to operate in sub-zero conditions, Red Army soldiers were equpped with Winter clothing. The tide turned. Slowly the Russians pushed out of the factory district and forced the Germans back. Russian armies reach around and encircle the 6th army on the steppe by early December 1942. On Christmas day the Russian bear attacks the beleaguered men of the 6th army, by late January 1943 the 6th army is virtually destroyed, in early February Field Marshal Paulus and his staff surrender, the battle is over. The difference between the book and the movie is that the book focuses on the entire battle, while the movies focus is on the duel between the two top snipers, the Russian Vassili Zaitsev and the German Major Koenig. This angered me slightly because there were so many classic movie shots which could have been achieved in the book. I also noticed two mistakes in the movie. First of all, Major Koenig wasn't killed in the open, he was shot while still under the scrap metal. This I think was the biggest sacrifice for movie moments over historical accuracy. Also, in a few scenes you see Russian tanks which appear to be either T-34/85s, KV-85s, or JS-2s, yet these tanks were not developed until late '43 or '44. But these flaws were redeemed by the fantastic action sequences and amazing sounds and computer imaging. I found the movie thrilling and wonderful and, out of 10, I would give it a 9.5. Great job Annaud.