Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1811 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-19
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German, Russian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 131 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Enemy at the Gates opens with a pivotal event of World War II--the German invasion of Stalingrad--recreated in Saving Private Ryan-like epic scale as ill-trained Russian soldiers face German attack or punitive execution if they flee from the enemy's advance. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures this madness with urgent authenticity, creating a massive context for a more intimate battle waged amidst the city's ruins. Embellished from its basis in fact, the story shifts to an intense cat-and-mouse game between a Russian shepherd raised to iconic fame, and a German marksman whose skill is unmatched in its lethal precision. Vassily Zaitzev (Jude Law) has been sniping Nazis one bullet at a time, while the German Major Konig (Ed Harris) has been assigned to kill Vassily and spare Hitler from further embarrassment. There's love in this war, too, as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L Robbins' novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a man-made hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: with a choice of Dolby 5.1 or DTS the sound is suitably spectacular (James Horner's Prokofiev-inspired score comes up well amid whizzing bullets and explosions), while the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture makes the best of the epic battle sequences. "Through the Crosshairs" is a standard 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, which is complemented by "Inside Enemy at the Gates", a 15-minute montage of interviews with the stars and director. There's also a 25-minute French-made documentary (with English subtitles) about the real battle that includes a short interview with the real Vassily Zaitsev. Eight brief deleted scenes can be played separately or neatly inserted into the movie by pressing Enter when the gun sight icon appears on screen. The commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud is as informative as might be expected from a director who always seems passionate about his film projects. Storyboards, posters, a trailer and filmographies round out an excellent disc package. --Mark Walker

Video Description
DVD Special Features:
Director's Commentary
3 Documentaries
Deleted scenes
Filmographies
Story boards
Film posters
Theatrical trailer
Audio description
2.35:1 aspect ratio, widescreen 16:9 version
Language: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English Hard of Hearing

Synopsis
September 1942. The German Army has advanced to the gates of Stalingrad. The Russian Army holds on desperately. It is so poorly equipped that every pair of soldiers is given a single rifle--the second man only gets the weapon when the first is cut down. Trapped in no man's land between the opposing armies, Russian recruit Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law) finally acquires a rifle from Political Officer Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Danilov is astonished when Zaitsev picks off several German officers. On their return to the Russian lines, Danilov writes about Zaitsev's exploits in the army newspaper. Zaitsev is assigned to a sniper unit. He kills more German officers and, thanks to Danilov, becomes a hero. In retaliation, the Germans bring in sharpshooter Major Konig (Ed Harris) from Berlin--to hunt Zaitsev. The two snipers engage in a desperate duel, as the appalling Battle of Stalingrad rages.
In ENEMY AT THE GATES, director Jean-Jacques Annaud uses a palate of dull greens, blues, and greys to tell the powerful, true story of Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev. The film is distinguished by fine performances from Law, Fiennes, Rachel Weisz as a female soldier, and Bob Hoskins as Nikita Khrushchev--with Harris particularly notable as the chilly, aristocratic Konig.

Customer Reviews

Good action movie (- if you ignore the yuppie accents...)
Right, I'm not going to write some psycho-analytical critique or some anorak nit-picking 'I think you'll find that they didn't have a mark 3 double-barrelled bazooka in 1943 etc etc'. Just short and sweet.

This is not a History Channel documentary as some here seem to have missed the point. The DVD makes it clear that this is a STORY. (If you want the facts, there is a proper documentary on the DVD extras). The action/CGI is great - the Stukas and Junkers 88's bombing Stalingrad etc. The scenery is great - they built a whole new city and trashed it just to make this film.

My main criticisms are a) the miscasting: Weiss and Law are just too 'nice' and unbelievable as fighting snipers and b) the utterly ridicuolous middle class English Islington 'OK Yah' accents they have - Law's character is meant to have been an illiterate and uneducated Russian peasant boy who grew up in the middle of nowhere. Other characters manage to put on passable accents - so why can't they? They are meant to be the cream of the crop of actors...

So, is it worth getting upset that it is not a 110% historical document? No. Is it worth seeing as a dramatic action movie? Yes.

audio anorak info
just a note to let all you audio anoraks out there with dts playback on your home cinema gear that this disc is one of the very few uk dts discs to have close to full bit-rate audio off its dts track, around double the usual dts rate. i work at a posh audio outlet and when demonstrating all our cinema gear we use this and its audio track is staggering, it gets a sale almost every time !

Waste of money
I've seen some bad films in my time, even some very bad films, but 99% of the time I see them through to the end, you might as well if you've got halfway. I even watched both series of `Rome'. Really.

This was one of the very rare times where I just got so bored, and so annoyed at the appalling acting, and total lack of even an attempt to curb strong British accents in supposedly Russian characters, that I turned it off after about 40 minutes and did something else. I knew Jude Law was a bad actor, but he excels himself here, as does Rachel whatshername, they had the chemistry of puddle of tomato soup, and constantly sounded like they were at a English garden party.

I normally like Bob Hoskins, but he was woefully miscast here, he belongs in London based gangster roles that he fits perfectly, not as a Russian general with a cockney accent. I think casting people just put anyone famous they can find in lead roles so they can put their names on posters, not caring whether they will actually work or not.


The opening sequence was not bad, but lacked the intensity of the Saving Private Ryan beach landings, and the action from then on was just dull. I couldnt have cared less who sniped who. Cant comment on the rest of the film as I turned it off like I said. Its going straight on Ebay tonight. Im ashamed to say I bought this at the same time as Das Boot, which is a masterpiece of a war film; didnt deserve to be put in the same envelope as this tripe.