SPR - Meets - Titanic (Enemy at the Gates (DVD))

Member Name: itsonlyme

Product:	Enemy at the Gates (DVD)
Date:	26/06/01 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent prmise, Great visual, Core story compelling

Disadvantages: Loses its way, Sub-plots unnecessary

After the siege of Stalingrad, a hero of the Russia was created. His name was Vassily Zaitsev, a precision sniper from the Ural hills that came in and killed some 40 German officers in just 10 days. During the entire Battle of Stalingrad, Zaitsev would kill over 140 -- many would say that the creation of a Russian hero and the propaganda that followed was the reason that the Soviets held off the Germans for so long, even though they were dying in alarming rates.

The new film Enemy at the Gates is about Zaitsev (portrayed here by Law) and the duel he would soon have with his German counterpart. The story is that the SS sent Colonel Heinz Thorwald (Harris) to kill Zaitsev when they began losing all these officers. For several days, the two snipers took turns as predator and prey when looking to kill the other. The film remains with Zaitsev, though Thorwald?s name has been curiously changed to Koenig. Throw into the mix a zealous army propaganda writer Danilov (Fiennes), and a young female officer named Tania (Weisz) and you have a completely unneeded subplot (Danilov was really a person in Zaitsev?s saga, Tania is fictitious).

Enemy at the Gates never really gets beyond its one major impediment: the melodramatic subplot. More Titanic than Saving Private Ryan, the love triangle is closer to annoying than compelling. When we are yearning for some great sequence between Zaitsev and nom de plume Koenig -- and there are some great ones -- we are instead treated to some more uninteresting quarrel or sex d?etat that literally leaves the audience in wonderment as to why the filmmakers thought that the already gripping story was in need of something to stir it up. This new history screams contrivance and leaves the audience screaming for the doors.

But we are kept in our seat for one major reason: the real story, the sniper duel, is too compelling to be left aside. It kind of saddens me that our society has made this story of WWII heroism nearly unkn
own simply due to the fact that the good guy is our old Cold War enemy. Back when we finally opened back up to the German nationalist filmmakers, the Cold War was still raging and Russians were far from an important plot device. One might think that the continued love of Tolstoy or Doctor Zhivago would make this more accessable, but, of course, we are not as approving of modern enemies as historical heroes as we are of classic literature from them. Hey, when will a Cuba or Iraq become acceptable again?

Where the film falters in the screenwriting devices by Alain Godard and director Jean-Jacques Annaud (who worked together before on Wings of Courage and The Name of the Rose), it makes up for in its visual glory. The Annaud direction, along with the Robert Fraisse cinematography and Noëlle Boisson editing (all of whom last worked together on Seven Years in Tibet), create a war epic that can be compared to Saving Private Ryan. While its drama is closer to A Bridge Too Far, the war action is as good as The Longest Day.

Painstakingly realized, Stalingrad is brought to all its glory in this film and it serves as the film?s centerpiece. From the opening battle to the crumbling factories that fill the rest of the film, Annaud and his crew have made a World War II film that literally feels like the time, not like some big budget set (though, Enemy at the Gates stands with the biggest budget on a European film ever, a rather laughable by our standards $85 million -- heh, I dare Michael Bay to make a film that costs that much). While I do not really support the film in some of the bigger categories, I do think that Paramount should make sure that the film gains the attention of Academy voters in the technical categories (as well as the score by James Horner) come 2001?s Oscar campaign season.

The always respectable Jude Law and Ed Harris come out of the film unscathed, though costars Fiennes and Weisz further prove themselves as two of Europe?s less
er exports.

Still, for a film this auspicious, it hurts me to have regrets about it. The story of Vassily Zaitsev is a great one that is definitely cinematic. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to bring in that old cinematic pretense of melodrama to sour an otherwise splendid film.

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