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Released in 2001 and running a bit long 131 minutes I took 1 star off for the length,and as much as I like Jude Law,his accent was getting to me after a while as the part he played was a RUSSIAN soldier from the farmland no less,English accent is therefore annoying.
That said there is little else not to like about this film.It sort of tells the story of the battle of Stalingrad fought in WW 11 in late 1942 and early 1943,considered the turning point of the war as the German advance was halted and from that point on it was a war of attrition with Germany slowly retreating back until the US opened the "second front"in june 1944.
What makes this film so extraordinary is you sense the magnitude and desperation of the battle early on yet the film condenses it down to a battle of snipers on a very intimate and personnel level like NO movie I have seen before or since save the ending of a lesser movie called Anzio,and that was THAT films only real value.
The story as set is Jude plays Vassili Zaitsev,a young untested soldier sent to Stalingrad as reinforcements for the protracted deadly battle of attrition Stalingrad had become.First he boards a overcrowded ferry with the rest of the replacement soldiers to ferry across the lake to the city.Maching gun and artillery fire rake the ferry killing maybe half before they reach the other side.Then he and the others are told there is not enough rifles for everyone so they are to be paired in twos and when the rifle bearer falls the other pick up his rifle and continue.So a ill conceived yet common sort of attack in these sort of desperate attrition situations is launched and almost everyone is killed,if not by the German,than by Russian troops behind them that won't allow a retreat.Vassili survives by hiding under others soldiers dead bodies by a water fountain in a large square. At this point on,the movie becomes a smaller story of individual combat set agonies the larger scope of the continuing battle.
Joseph Fiennes playing Commisar Danilov is trying to drive past the battleground but his jeep is stuck by artillery fire and he is thrown into the fountain where he finds Vassili.Danilov wants to leave but Vassili talks him into being a "spotter"for him and then he shoots DEAD four Germans including 3 officers who thing that area is now empty of live soldiers,as the senior most was going to take a shower.
In the Russian Army each unit hs a "Political Commisar"and in Vassili,Danilov sees a way to write the story of a hero that will rally the badly demoralized troops as well as further his own carrier.Enter into this story is the love interest played by Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova a female sniper and Bob Hoskins as Nikita Khrushchev now in charge of the cities defense,although some historians actually challenge if he was even there.But Ed Harris as Major König the King of German snipers who runs a school specifically to teach that"art"steals every scene he's in as the prime example of German precession,sent to KILL Vassili ,as he has now started to demoralize the Germans being that he only kills officers.
The movie is awesome and although there are other complaints,my point is how many movies have YOU SEEN about the Russian side of the war.Yes we all grew up in the cold war when they were our childhood enemy ,but in THAT desperate earlier war they bought US time to mobilize and finally help win the war.It's about time we have some idea of what it was for them.They lost 20 million in that war.
But again the movie is the thing.Finally,Gabriel Thomson plays young shoe shine boy
Sacha Filipov,who plays a dangerous game of trying to help Valssili by feeding information to Major König and visa versa,with tragic results.
The trailer URL is below the pix.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1218773273/
That said there is little else not to like about this film.It sort of tells the story of the battle of Stalingrad fought in WW 11 in late 1942 and early 1943,considered the turning point of the war as the German advance was halted and from that point on it was a war of attrition with Germany slowly retreating back until the US opened the "second front"in june 1944.
What makes this film so extraordinary is you sense the magnitude and desperation of the battle early on yet the film condenses it down to a battle of snipers on a very intimate and personnel level like NO movie I have seen before or since save the ending of a lesser movie called Anzio,and that was THAT films only real value.
The story as set is Jude plays Vassili Zaitsev,a young untested soldier sent to Stalingrad as reinforcements for the protracted deadly battle of attrition Stalingrad had become.First he boards a overcrowded ferry with the rest of the replacement soldiers to ferry across the lake to the city.Maching gun and artillery fire rake the ferry killing maybe half before they reach the other side.Then he and the others are told there is not enough rifles for everyone so they are to be paired in twos and when the rifle bearer falls the other pick up his rifle and continue.So a ill conceived yet common sort of attack in these sort of desperate attrition situations is launched and almost everyone is killed,if not by the German,than by Russian troops behind them that won't allow a retreat.Vassili survives by hiding under others soldiers dead bodies by a water fountain in a large square. At this point on,the movie becomes a smaller story of individual combat set agonies the larger scope of the continuing battle.
Joseph Fiennes playing Commisar Danilov is trying to drive past the battleground but his jeep is stuck by artillery fire and he is thrown into the fountain where he finds Vassili.Danilov wants to leave but Vassili talks him into being a "spotter"for him and then he shoots DEAD four Germans including 3 officers who thing that area is now empty of live soldiers,as the senior most was going to take a shower.
In the Russian Army each unit hs a "Political Commisar"and in Vassili,Danilov sees a way to write the story of a hero that will rally the badly demoralized troops as well as further his own carrier.Enter into this story is the love interest played by Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova a female sniper and Bob Hoskins as Nikita Khrushchev now in charge of the cities defense,although some historians actually challenge if he was even there.But Ed Harris as Major König the King of German snipers who runs a school specifically to teach that"art"steals every scene he's in as the prime example of German precession,sent to KILL Vassili ,as he has now started to demoralize the Germans being that he only kills officers.
The movie is awesome and although there are other complaints,my point is how many movies have YOU SEEN about the Russian side of the war.Yes we all grew up in the cold war when they were our childhood enemy ,but in THAT desperate earlier war they bought US time to mobilize and finally help win the war.It's about time we have some idea of what it was for them.They lost 20 million in that war.
But again the movie is the thing.Finally,Gabriel Thomson plays young shoe shine boy
Sacha Filipov,who plays a dangerous game of trying to help Valssili by feeding information to Major König and visa versa,with tragic results.
The trailer URL is below the pix.
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