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Enemy at the Gates (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:134
Fresh:71
Rotten:63
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Atmospheric and thrilling, Enemy at the Gates gets the look and feel of war right. However, the love story seems out of place.
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $50,507,533
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... 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 König (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 König. [More]
Starring: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins
Starring: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins, Ed Harris, Ron Perlman
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Screenwriter: Jean-Jacques Annaud, Alain Godard
Producer: John D. Schofield, Jean-Jacques Annaud
Composer: James Horner
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for Enemy at the Gates
it could have held back on the parts featuring boredom because they did tend to drag the suspense down a bit
While it does have some solid moments of action, the film as a whole is laughable.
Enemy at the Gates won't find too many friends at the box office -- fans of war movies (and of Jude Law) will appreciate it, but there isn't much for everyone else in this mid-March downer.
There’s a decent movie buried in here somewhere, but the lousy love triangle and ultimate lack of focus make this WWII drama a bit hard to take.
Flatulent hero-worship of a man played by a tired-looking actor who deserves funkier roles.
There's never much risk of reality intruding--just a lot of histrionic James Horner music nd plenty of designer stubble on the soldiers' faces.
Set-pieces get you so far (and Annaud delights in blowing this set to pieces), but the script's shortcomings aren't camouflaged by the decision to adopt Home Counties' accents as the film's lingua franca.
Annaud shows a real knack for suspense here, enough to make me hope he will do more action-adventure in the future.
If only ambition was the bar at which to measure the quality of motion pictures, Enemy at the Gates could sit atop the best of the year.
There's ambition, and then there's pretense. It's a common mistake for both filmmakers and filmgoers to mistake the latter for the former.
It generally succeeds at telling a truly heroic story, providing yet another vehicle to showcase the talents of Law and Harris, and of their supporting cast.
[It's] clearly meant to measure up to or reach past what Steven Spielberg did in Saving Private Ryan. But it is one of the poorest imitations I have seen so far.
The central thriller element of the film more than compensates for these deficiencies as well as any of the dodgier script moments.
While Enemy at the Gates aims to do justice to history, it trips and falls on its own romantic pretense.
Enemy at the Gates is a good movie that could have been great, if not for the inflated running time.
Latest News for Enemy at the Gates
June 13, 2007:
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