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Enemy at the Gates
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Wikipedia article
'Enemy at the Gates' ('Stalingrad' in France and 'L'Ennemi aux portes' in Canada) is a 2001 war film directed, co-written and produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on William Craig's 1973 nonfiction book 'Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad', which describes the events surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 194243. The screenplay was written by Annaud and Alain Godard. The film's main character is a fictionalized version of sniper Vasily Zaitsev, a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. It includes a snipers' duel between Zaitsev and a 'Wehrmacht' sniper school director, Major Erwin Knig.
The cast includes Jude Law as Zaitsev, Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova, and Ed Harris as Knig, with Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Marshall Thomson, and Matthias Habich in supporting roles.
Plot
Vasily Zaitsev is a soldier in the Red Army and is sent to the front line of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Forced into a suicidal charge without a rifle, he hides while a tank shell incapacitates a car. The occupant, Commissar Danilov, hides among numerous bodies, coincidentally next to Vasily, who uses his exceptional marksmanship to kill the German soldiers nearby.
Nikita Khrushchev demands ideas from his subordinates on morale. Danilov, now a senior lieutenant, suggests that the people need "an example to follow" and recommends Zaitsev for the job. Soon after, Danilov begins publishing heroic tales of Vasily's exploits in the army's newspaper.
Vasily is transferred to the sniper division and becomes friends with Danilov. Both also become romantically interested in Tania Chernova, a private in the local militia. In fear for her safety, Danilov has her transferred away to an intelligence unit, ostensibly to make use of her German skills in translating radio intercepts.
With the Soviet snipers taking an increasing toll on the German forces, German Major Erwin Knig is deployed to kill Vasily and crush Soviet morale. When the Red Army command learns of Knig's mission, they dispatch Knig's former student Koulikov to help Vasily kill him. Knig, however, outmaneuvers Koulikov and kills him, shaking Vasily's spirits. Khrushchev pressures Danilov to bring the sniper standoff to a conclusion.
Sasha, a young Soviet boy, volunteers to act as a double agent by passing Knig false information about Vasily's whereabouts. Vasily sets a trap for Knig and manages to wound him with help of Tania, who has come to rescue Vasily. During a second attempt, Vasily falls asleep, and his sniper log is stolen by a looting German soldier. The German command takes the log as evidence of Vasily's death and plans to send Knig home, but Knig does not believe that Vasily is dead.
The German general takes Knig's dog tags to prevent Soviet propaganda from profiting if Knig is killed. Knig gives the general a War Merit Cross that was posthumously awarded to Knig's son, who was a lieutenant in the 116th Infantry Division and killed in the early days of the battle. Knig tells Sasha where he will be next, suspecting that the boy will tell Vasily. Tania and Vasily have meanwhile fallen in love. That night, Tania secretly goes to the Soviet barracks and makes love with Vasily. The jealous Danilov disparages Vasily in a letter to his superiors.
Knig spots Tania and Vasily waiting for him at his next ambush spot, confirming his suspicions about Sasha. He then kills the boy and hangs his body to bait Vasily. Vasily vows to kill Knig and sends Tania and Danilov to evacuate Sasha's mother. Tania is wounded by shrapnel en route to the boats.
Thinking she is dead, Danilov regrets his jealousy of Vasily and expresses disenchantment over his previous ardour for communism. Finding Vasily waiting to ambush Knig, Danilov intentionally exposes himself in order to provoke Knig into shooting him and revealing his position, sacrificing his life. Thinking that he has killed Vasily, Knig goes to inspect the body and is then in Vasily's sights.
Accepting his fate, Knig turns to face Vasily, who shoots him squarely in the eye and takes his rifle. Two months later, after Stalingrad has been liberated and German forces have surrendered, Vasily finds Tania recovering in a field hospital.
Cast
* Jude Law as Vasily Zaitsev
** Alexander Schwan as young Vasily
* Joseph Fiennes as Commissar Danilov
* Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova
* Bob Hoskins as Nikita Khrushchev
* Ed Harris as Major Erwin Knig
* Ron Perlman as Koulikov
* Eva Mattes as Mother Filippova
* Gabriel Marshall-Thomson as Sasha Filippov
* Matthias Habich as General Friedrich Paulus
* Sophie Rois as Ludmilla
* Ivan Shvedoff as Volodya
* Mario Bandi as Anton
* Gennadi Vengerov as Starshina
* Mikhail Matveyev as Grandfather
* Clemens Schick as Voigt
* Hans Martin Stier as General Prudius
* Gennadi Vengerov as Kushnir
* Robert Stadlober as Spotter
* Holger Handtke as Baumann
* Werner Daehn as Anosov
* Birol nel as Kuklin
* Valentin Platareanu as General Arthur Schmidt
* Tom Wlaschiha as Soldier
* Lenn Kudrjawizki as Comrade in Train
Production
The filming of 'Enemy of the Gates' took place in Germany. The crossing of the Volga River was shot on the Altdberner See, a man-made lake near the village of Pritzen, in the south of Brandenburg. A derelict factory in the village of Rdersdorf was used to recreate the ruins of Stalingrad's tractor factory. The massive outdoor set of Stalingrad's Red Square was built at Krampnitz, near Potsdam. It was a former 'Wehrmacht' riding school that had served as a Soviet barracks during the Cold War. Set construction began in October 1999 and took almost five months to complete. The scene at the end with the waving coats is a reference to Sergio Leone.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to 'Enemy at the Gates' was written by James Horner and released on March 31, 2001.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 53% approval rating from 139 critics with a weighted average score of 5.70/10. The consensus reads, "Atmospheric and thrilling, 'Enemy at the Gates' gets the look and feel of war right. However, the love story seems out of place." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, calculated an average score of 53 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that it "is about two men placed in a situation where they have to try to use their intelligence and skills to kill each other. When Annaud focuses on that, the movie works with rare concentration. The additional plot stuff and the romance are kind of a shame."
'New York Magazine's Peter Ranier was less kind, declaring "It's as if an obsessed film nut had decided to collect every bad war-film convention on one computer and program it to spit out a script." Peter Travers of 'Rolling Stone' admitted the film had faults, but that "any flaws in execution pale against those moments when the film brings history to vital life."
The film received unenthusiastic reviews in Russia, but had good box office in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Some Red Army Stalingrad veterans were so offended by inaccuracies in the film and how the Red Army was portrayed that on 7 May 2001, shortly after the film premiered in Russia, they expressed their displeasure in the Duma, demanding a ban of the film, but their request was not granted.
The film was also received poorly in Germany. Critics claimed that it simplified history and glorified war. At the Berlinale film festival, it was booed. Annaud stated afterwards that he would not present another film at Berlinale, calling it a "slaughterhouse" and claiming that his film received much better reception elsewhere.
Historical accuracy
's Stalingrad Panorama Museum. Actor Jude Law (who portrays Zaitsev) uses an accurate version of the weapon in the film: a 7.6254mmR Mosin Model sniper rifle with a PU 3.5 sniper scope.
Vasily Zaitsev (19151991) was a senior sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, 1047th Rifle Regiment, 284th 'Tomsk' Rifle Division, during the Battle of Stalingrad.
The film uses events from William Craig's 1973 nonfiction book 'Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad', but it is not a direct adaptation. The book claims that Zaitsev fought his sniper duel over a number of days through the ruins of the city. It was only after killing the German and collecting his identification tags that Zaitsev discovered that he had killed Knig, the head of the Berlin Sniper School.'Russia's War'
However, there is no record in the 'Wehrmacht' archives of a sniper named Knig in the German Army during World War II. Historian Antony Beevor wrote in his 1998 work 'Stalingrad' that he believed Zaitsev's story to be fictional because no such event is mentioned in the detailed daily battle reports sent to Colonel General Aleksandr Shcherbakov in Moscow.
The film also overdramatizes the role of blocking detachments in the Red Army. Although there was Order No. 227 that became the rallying cry of "Not a step back!" , machine gunners were not placed behind regular troops with orders to kill anyone who retreated. They were used only for penal troops. Detachments were used regularly to prevent withdrawal or desertion by regular troops. As per Order No. 227, each detachment would have between three and five barrier squads per 200 personnel.
In the first three months, blocking detachments shot 1,000 penal troops and sent 24,993 to penal battalions. By October 1942, the idea of regular blocking detachments was quietly dropped; by October 1944, the units were officially disbanded. During the Battle of Stalingrad, the 62nd Army had the most arrests, and executions: 203 in all of which 49 were executed after battle, while 139 were sent to penal companies and battalions.
See also
* American Sniper
References
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