On Enemy at the Gates

This is a rare World War II movie that takes place in the autumn of 1942, in Stalingrad, during Hitler’s insane attack on the Soviet Union. At first it appeared the Germans would roll over the ragged Russian resistance, but eventually the stubbornness of the Soviets combined with the brutal weather and problems with supply lines to deliver Hitler a crushing defeat and, many believe, turn the tide of the war.
Annaud (“Quest for Fire”) makes big-scale films where men test themselves against their ideas. Here he shows the Nazi sniper as a cool professional, almost without emotion, taking a cerebral approach to the challenge. His confidence falters when he learns who he’s up against, and he says, simply, “He’s better than me.” The strategy of the final confrontation between the two men has a kind of poetry to it, and I like the physical choices that Harris makes in the closing scene.
As Vassily, Jude Law does a solid job re-creating a conflicted war hero who doubts his own prowess with a rifle when faced with a superior adversary, but there’s little humanity in the portrayal. There are things to appreciate about Law’s performance, but he’s working with a thin and sketchily drawn character.
The movie is inspired by true events, the film might have been better and leaner if it had told the story of the two soldiers and left out the soppy stuff. Even so, it’s remarkable, a war story told as a chess game where the loser not only dies, but goes by necessity to an unmarked grave.