Enemy at the Gates

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Enemy at the Gates

Enemy at the Gates DVD cover
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud
John D. Schofield
Written by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Alain Godard
Starring Jude Law

Ed Harris
Rachel Weisz
Joseph Fiennes
Music by James Horner
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 2001
Running time 131 min.
Language English / German
Budget $70,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Enemy at the Gates is a motion picture directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and released in 2001, adapted from the David L. Robbins book called The War of the Rats. Robbins borrowed elements from William Craig's book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad which describe the events surrounding during the Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-1943. The movie follows Soviet sniper Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev and his German rival, Major Erwin König, as they stalk each other during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Historian Anthony Beevor suggests in his book, Stalingrad, that, while Zaitsev was definitely a real person, the story of his duel (dramatized in the film) with König is fictional. William Craig's novel Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad however, states that although Zaitsev and König fought against each other in combat, the sequence of events in the film is almost entirely fictional.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Stalingrad, 1942. The German invasion of Russia has reached the city of Stalingrad, reducing the city to rubble as the Soviet and Nazi armies battle for the fate of Russia. Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law), a not very educated peasant from the Urals conscripted into the Red Army, manages to survive both a suicidal charge without a weapon into the front lines of the German attack and the NKVD machine gunners shooting survivors who tried to flee. Acquiring a rifle, Zaitsev — an expert marksman — manages to kill five German officers in a row with the only five bullets he has, impressing a witnessing political officer, Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Writing an account of Zaitsev's achievement in the military newspaper, Danilov manages to inspire the broken, morale-sapped people of the Soviet Union to renew their efforts against the German invaders, and Zaitsev becomes a national hero and propaganda icon.

The friendship between the two men is to be tested, however, as both have fallen in love with Tania (Rachel Weisz), a Jewish citizen of the city who, inspired by Zaitsev, has joined the sniper division. Fearing the Soviet snipers and the demoralising effect they are having on their own men, the Germans have sent for Major Erwin König (Ed Harris), the best sniper in the German military, to seek out and eliminate Zaitsev.

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Reception

The film was criticized both in Russia and in the West for taking considerable liberties with the facts; in both its plot and in the depictions of its characters (notably Fiennes' character, Danilov, and the German sniper König), it varies widely from the historical record. The actual Soviet Stalingrad veterans were so offended by inaccuracies in the movie and the allegedly insulting way in which the movie portrays the Red Army, that on May 7, 2001, soon after this film was shown in Russia, they addressed their grievances to State Duma, the Russian Parliament, demanding to ban the film in Russia, but this request has not been taken into account.[citation needed]

[edit] Goofs, Trivia, etc.

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[edit] Goofs

  • On the poster a left-handed variant of the sniper Mosin-Nagant is shown. This is most likely a mirror flipped image of the rifle, since there are no known examples of the left-handed Mosin-Nagants in existence.
  • In the scene where Danilov meets Vasily, Danilov pulls a rifle from a dead soldier. The rifle's bolt handle is in the open position as he shoulders it. A second later as the camera angle changes to a head on view the bolt handle is closed. Danilov had no time to close the bolt correctly as he shouldered the rifle.
  • In the scene where the Army newspaper is first re-printed, Danilov lists places in Russia that were reprinting Vasily Zaitsev's story; he wrongly lists the Crimea, which at that time was in the hands of the Germans.
  • Soviet conscripts transported to the front in padlocked cars: in reality, train cars doors were open so that the soldiers could jump out in case of an air strike.
  • Soldiers didn't have to stand in the cars all the way to the front, which could take many days, they would use crude wooden bunks or just sit or sleep on the floor instead.
  • Danilov is a commissar throughout the whole movie, although in the Red Army this rank was abolished on October 9, 1942. Moreover, when he meets Vasily, he introduces himself as "politruk". This was a different rank, equal to elder lieutenant, while commissar was equal to the rank of major.
  • Everybody calls the main character Vasily, including his grandfather. Among Russians, however, the full names are usually used formally. With family and close friends, Russians use diminutive names. The diminutive form of "Vasily" is "Vasya" or "Vas'ka".
  • Soldiers being sent across the Volga without weapons/soldiers being issued one rifle for every two men, etc: in reality, they were armed before being sent across, otherwise they would be unable to fight back in case of always expected German attacks.The German author Paul Carell mentions attacks made in that fashion in his book "Operation Barbarossa" in the first phase of the German invasion in 1941.
  • Attack of unarmed conscripts on German positions in Stalingrad, one of the most controversial events of the film, is unlikely. Attacks with NKVD machine guns behind the backs of attacking infantry were practiced only by soldiers of penal battalions, convicted for cowardice in front of the enemy, attempt to surrender, self-inflicted wounds, praising enemy's weapons, disobeying the orders of commanding officer, etc. Soldiers of penal battalions would be heavily guarded, they looked and behaved differently from conscripts. In Stalingrad proper penal battalions were never used, since in specific urban battlefield environment they would be impossible to control. Penal battalions were used south of Stalingrad in November for initial break through Romanian defensive positions.
  • Machine-gunning of Russian human wave remnants is directed by an officer with green border guard emblem on peak cap.
  • After destruction of the last human wave, Germans would likely start a counter-attack.
  • Stalin's portrait, which reminds of his cruelty and inhumanity, could be created only by a dissident artist of a much later era.
  • Soviet soldiers charging in "human wave" fashion: in reality, they used sophisticated street and house-to-house fighting techniques, organizing small but effective battlegroups.
  • Instead of dancing, the Soviet soldiers in reality would spend their rest time sleeping, cleaning weapons or eating, if they had anything to eat at all.
  • In the film, the slogans used by the Red Army are along the lines of "For Stalin", and "For our great leader". This was mostly biased to the view of Western powers at the time of Communist Russia. In 1942, different Russian slogans were used. Those were mainly war slogans, such as "We will overcome", "Death to Nazi occupants" or "Everything for the front, everything for victory".
  • The film is set in 1942. However, at the press conference the national anthem played is the Hymn of the Soviet Union that was finalized in late 1943 and first publicly performed on the night to January 1, 1944. Until this time, the national anthem was The Internationale. To make this goof worse, the 1977 revised version of the anthem is played. When Vasily Zaitsev was embraced by Nikita Khrushchev in a press conference, shown at 49:42 of the movie in the DVD release, the anthem was played in the background; at 50:17 in the movie, the song sang: Партия Ленина — сила народная. The 1944 lyrics actually read: Знамя советское, знамя народное.
  • 116 infantry division never existed in Wehrmacht. 116 Panzer division was formed from the remnants of 16th panzer-grenadier division only in 1944.
  • Zaitsev has his left ear pierced, a popular method to mark homosexuals (which he was not) in Soviet prisons of the era.
  • Kruschev (who in reality was much younger than Bob Hoskins' character) and Danilov discuss possible Zaitsev's death with situation map on the background, adorned by Latin, not Cyrillic text as well as by marks of jet airports.
  • Office binders, seen behind Kruschev's back on the shelf, appeared in Russia only in the 1990s.
  • Central railroad station marshalling yard, scene of the last duel, was bombed to ruins during numerous German air strikes and no locomotive would survive it intact.
  • City supermarkets with warm clothes and anything valuable would be looted back in July-August.
  • Major König would attend his sniper nests dressed in camouflage or even quasi-civilian clothes, not in a clean elegant parka.
  • Experienced German soldiers would never salute or stand before a officer in front of Soviet sniper fire.
  • Ervin König's very existence is highly arguable, no German documents with this name have surfaced so far. Later in his memoires Zaitsev referred to his opponent as Heinz Thorvald, but no proof of his existence has been found either. In fact, top-scoring German sniper of the WWII was Matthias Hetzenauer with 345 documented kills.
  • Woman working on her make-up with modern cosmetics.
  • The map of Hitler's conquests near the beginning of the film is fictional. Mistakes include an apparent invasion of Switzerland, Spain and Turkey]. Oddly, modern day Serbia is shown as a separate country from Yugoslavia, and is twice as large as it was. Ukraine is also shown as a separate entity, however it achieved independence only in the process of Soviet Union break-up in 1991. Norway is also left out, despite that fact that it was occupied by Germany in 1940.
  • In the retreat of Soviet soldiers after the initial charge, one of the "dead" soldiers can be seen breathing.
  • During the Soviet charge at the beginning of the movie, none of the Soviet rifles have bayonets fixed. Soviet military doctrine called for the bayonet to remain fixed to the rifle at all times with the exception of traveling by motor vehicle or when in long term storage.
  • River crossings as depicted at start of movie always took place at night to make it harder for the germans to attack.
  • Vasily Zaitzev's crossing was uneventful and not attacked at all.
  • The scene where Danilov is helping Vasily Zaitzev reply to letters by helping him spell.. Vasily was well educated and was an accounts clerk in the navy, stationed in Vladivostok before he volunteered for Stalingrad.

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Annaud started his film career by shooting training films for the French Army.
  • The first few levels of the Russian Campaign in Call of Duty and Call of Duty: Finest Hour were inspired by the opening scenes.
  • Annaud made the film also as a sort of tribute to his friend and fellow director Sergio Leone, who had been trying to make a film about the Siege of Leningrad at the time of his death.
  • The $80 million film budget was provided mostly by German investors.
  • Arno employed a crew of 300 and 500 extras.
  • The fighting in Stalingrad was actually shot near Berlin, Germany.
  • The Volga crossing was filmed near Cottbus, Germany.
  • Before the film's shooting, Annaud showed to the cast and crew classic Russian films about WWII «Баллада о солдате» (Ballad about a Soldier) by G. Chukhrai, «Летят журавли» (Cranes are Flying) by M.Kalatozov, and «Иваново детство» (Ivan's Childhood) by A.Tarkovsky.

[edit] External links

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