War movies have a ’thing’ going on------uniforms, cool weaponry, skilled action, foes within the same infantry turning into buddies, suave ladies trying their best not to let their emotions run wild, a lot of bloodshed, women crying painstakingly, etc.’Enemy at the Gates’ manages to touch upon all the given criteria without overdoing any of them, vis a vis a sensible war epic minus the melodrama.It’s the year 1942 & the Germans have reached The Soviet Union’s beloved city, Stalingrad.This time the military is taking the German pre-invasion attacks as a slap on their faces since this is a testament to their leader, Stalin.Vassili Zaitsev(Jude Law) is a lowly Ural peasant who was trained at shooting by his grandfather.Vassili later joins the army to aid them in protecting Stalingrad.Meanwhile he gets struck by the beauty of a strange woman he meets on the train.In a certain incident, Vassili & his comrades get into a terrible position when their country hands them very few ammunitions.He along with his teammates use rifles from men shot down by the German army.At a certain point, all the members get shot except Vassili.Feigning death, he looks out for some way to shoot the Germans who happen to be right in front of him.At the same moment, Danilov(Joseph Fiennes) gets knocked off the road under artilery fire & manages to play dead in the same drained fountain as Vassili.Danilov hands him his rifle only to watch in amazement as five German military personnel get shot dead by five bullets.The two men become good friends despite Vassili’s young soldier status & Danilov being a comissar in Lieutenant rank.Nikita Khruschev arrives at the city to commend on the local military over their cowardly beahviour & the manner in which their men prefer being secured under their mum’s blankets rather than protect Stalingrad’s dignity.None of the higher ranked men have the guts to speak out, but Danilov does, recounting Vassili’s valour & suggesting that their fellow men require a ’hero’.Soon under Danilov’s press printing brain, Vassili becomes famous.He’s also appointed to carry out many dangerous tasks.Vassili’s courage reaches the Germans & they enable their best shooter to arrive from Berlin, for a little one-on-one with Vassili.Major Erwin Konig(Ed Harris) arrives that very night from Berlin & decides to tackle Vassili not only with precision, but stealth.The Soviet news is all ablaze with the matchpoint against Vassili & the Major.Meanwhile, the lady on the train introduces herself to Vassili as Tania Chernova(Rachel Weisz) who’s fluent in German & was emplyed by Danilov to assist in analysing German voice-over transcripts.Inadvertently, Danilov & Vassili fall in love with her.The rest deals with the emotional contexts of Vassili, Tania & Danilov separately & also Vassili’s inborn talent compared to Major Erwin who’s gifted in shooting & equally shrewd.Apparently all the characters are non-fictional, albeit there are certain flaws at certain instances criticised by Russians & Western war historians.The acting is beyond what anyone can imagine with the cast members giving their finest scene after scene.Rachel Weisz’s role is tiny comapred to the men, but yet made good use of(Tania’s character is real & wasn’t added to fill the void of a romance angle in the film).Jude Law has always been good at non-commercial movies & gives his all into the performance, which makes us feel as though we’re back in the days of WWII.Joseph Fiennes & Ed Harris stood out to me due their complex emotions.Final grade-A+