Enemy at the gates was often staring at me on the shelves in the video section of Spar, but I always seemed to scan past it, then I got sick of seeing it there, and after reading a few decent reviews on the film, decided to give it a try as I like war films, but don’t think anything can be as good as Saving Private Ryan is. However, I’m always one for giving something a try, so off I trundled to the dishy shop assistant who I made a fool of myself in front of. She asked for my video card didn’t she! Doh, I’d left it in the car, so red faced and highly embarrassed I went and got my card, collected the video and shifted my bum out of the shop as fast as I could!
The film is set in 1942, the height of WW2. The premise is that Germany are taking over most of Europe. The Russians want to save Stalingrad, however, the German army is just too strong. That is of course until one hero emerges and becomes the best sniper known to the Russians, and probably the Germans too as they send in their best sniper to try and kill the Russian one. Rolled into all this is a love story (typical eh!). Obviously WW2 isn’t the best time to carry out a big romance, but do they do it successfully or not?!
Vassili (Jude Law) is a young shepherd, taught how to shoot by his grandfather. We open with the vital scenes of Vassili being taught by his grandfather about how to first tempt the bait in, and then, to shoot it quickly and efficiently in-between the eyes. The perfect shot for an instant death. We are then fast forwarded about 20 years to where Vassili is on a train, travelling to Stalingrad with a load of other Russian troops to help fight against the Germans. It’s here that we are first introduced to Tania (Rachael Weisz), a female troop, who Vassili obviously likes, but is a shy person, and doesn’t like her to know that he is looking at her. She is then taken off the train, never to be seen again, or so Vassili thinks.
We are then thrown straight into battle with the Russian troops having to take a boat ride across a river to the other side, the other side being Stalingrad. However, just one problem, the Germans are one step ahead of the Russians and are also much better equipped with better boats, better bombs and also aeroplanes. The majority of the troops are killed by the aeroplanes while on the boat (reminds me of the scenes from Saving Private Ryan) but of course, Vassili makes it (well what kind of movie would it be if it ended here!). They are then given rifles in packs of 3, 1 has a rifle, the other 2 have bullets, when the one with the rifle dies, the one behind picks up the rifle and when that one dies, the one behind uses the rifle. Nice eh, they are told all this, so it’s basically suicide. We are then thrown into a scene full of bloodshed where the Germans are just too strong and ahead of the game for the Germans. Most of them die, accept of course, vassili, who we do actually think is dead at this point.
It is here that we are introduced to Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), a political officer, who witnesses Vassili’s superior shooting skills. He instantly befriends Vassili and prints his name and what he did in the small paper which circulates around the Russian troops and the Russian public. Vassili is soon noticed and upgraded to sniper status. It’s from here that the story really gets going and your really pulled into what’s happening. In a surprise encounter, Vassili bumps into Tania once again. Only trouble is, so does Danilov who has a better brain that Vassili and tries to make Vassili look stupid, but Tania knows what’s going on!
It is soon revealed that Tania is not happy in her job and wants to go out and fight for some personal reasons. She wants to be a sniper, so Danilov asks Vassili to put her off the idea, but after hearing Tania’s story, Vassili gives her a gun and sort of takes her under his wing. In amongst all of this, thanks to the great job that Vassili is doing, the Germans are starting to get a bit worried, so they send in their best sniper Major Konig (Ed Harris), and up himself man treated with the utmost respect by his German counterparts. It is from here that the love story set’s in and also, the cat and mouse game between Major Konig and Vassili set’s in.
I can’t tell you anymore without giving away everything about the film, so I’m going to end it here, but I can tell you that you will be on the edge of your seat if not of it with suspense!
You are shown some pretty disturbing scenes in this movie. I’m not disturbed easily, but some people may find some of the shootings just a little bit overwhelming, but will probably carry on watching the film anyway! There isn’t too much gore, it’s just a bit sudden if you get what I mean! Mind you, you’d be able to tell about the gore level by the films certificate which is a 15, so nothing to much, not for the majority of people anyway. Let’s put it this way, the opening scenes to Saving Private Ryan are a lot worse!
The Love story that goes on, and indeed the love triangle gives the film another angle for the viewer to concentrate on. Instead of it all being war and bloodshed, it’s got that extra something else. It’s got emotion, it’s got suspense, but most of all, the love story provides the viewer with a feeling of warmness and sympathy towards the two lovers. Imagine what it would be like if you found someone you loved, but it happened in the middle of WW2 and every time your lover goes off to fight in the battle, you never know if he is actually going to come back or not. This really pulls you into how the characters are feeling in the film and it certainly is a great a addiction to the film. It would have lacked something if the love story wasn’t there, or indeed if the love story wasn’t as intense as it is. However, the actual sex scene, if you can call it that, is a little weird in the way it is carried out, although probably very realistic in the surroundings it was carried out in.
The special effects are in your face. Not so much special effects as witnessed in films such as The Mummy Returns or Gone in 60 seconds, but the special effects of the actual fighting and battle scenes. There’s things blowing up all the time, there’s aeroplanes dropping bombs, there’s the ruins of stalingrad that the film is carried out in. They are all excellent and the surroundings are all very realistic. If you had a big enough TV, or watched it in the cinema, I can honestly say that you would feel part of the movie, especially since most of the film is carried out in one place, you actually get to know the surroundings. This is a good thing as the sniper cat and mouse game wouldn’t be as good if you didn’t actually know the surroundings.
So overall then, as I don’t want this opinion to drag on too much, this is a first class war film. How does it stand up next to the great Saving Private Ryan? Well I should think it would be standing up at a little bit of an angle as I found just a little bit more in Saving Private Ryan than I did in Enemy of the Gates, but it does come very close to SPR. As a film if you haven’t seen SPR, and like war films, you’ll love it. Even if you don’t like war films, you’d be hard pushed not to find this one enjoyable as it’s not really just about war, it’s a mixture of emotions, glory, love and suspense. Everything you could want from a movie? I think so!