The film is a love story and death set in 1942-1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad, into the six month battle that caused nearly 2,000,000 total casualties (wounded, killed, captured) for the two opponents, including hundreds of thousands of Russian civilians. Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to coordinate defense of the city and demands ideas from his subordinates on how to improve morale. Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) , a senior lieutenant, suggests that the people need "an example, but an example to follow" and give them hope.Danilov recommends Zaitzev. Soon after, Danilov begins publishing tales of Vasily's exploits in the army's newspaper that paint him as a national hero and propaganda icon. Vasily (Jude Law) is transferred to the sniper division and becomes friends with Danilov. Both also become romantically interested in Tania Chernova (Rachel Weisz) , a citizen of Stalingrad who has become a private in the local milit a.With the Soviet snipers taking an increasing toll on the German forces, German Major Erwin König (EdHarris) is deployed to Stalingrad to kill Vasily to crush Soviet morale. A renowned marksman and head of the German Army sniper school at Zossen, he lures Vasily into a trap and kills two of his fellow snipers, but Vasily manages to escape, but the confrontation goes on and on. Some Men Are Born To Be Heroes.A single bullet can change history.A hero never chooses his destiny. His destiny chooses him.
The movie follows a World War II soldier transferred by boat crossing the river Volga , where ultimately finds himself fighting in the famous Battle of Stalingrad. The story follows soldiers from both sides as they fight to survive while saving the lives of their loves, and struggle with retaining their humanity in the face of certain death and the unspeakable horrors of war. It displays a good cast giving nice interpretations , including Jude Law as Zaytsev, Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova, and Ed Harris as König, with Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Marshall Thomson, and Matthias Habich .The screenwriter studied diaries of the participants of the Battle of Stalingrad and also used museum archives, documents and recorded stories of its participants. It contains a rousing and evocative musical score by James Horner . It packs a colorful and adequate cinematograhy by Robert Fraisse whose shooting took place in Germany and the crossing of the Volga River was done on the Altdöberner See, a man-made lake near the village of Pritzen, in the south of Brandenburg. A derelict factory in the village of Rüdersdorf was used to recreate the ruins of Stalingrad's tractor factory. The massive outdoor set of Stalingrad's Red Square was built at Krampnitz, near Potsdam. The film was well directed, co-written and produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on William Craig's 1973 non-fiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad.The magnificent filmmaker Annaud creates yet another picture excellently directed and stunningly produced . Annaud directed particular films with almost no human dialogue such as ¨Quest for fire¨ and was an expert on animal movies as proved in ¨The bear¨ , ¨Running Free¨ about horses and ¨Two brothers¨ dealing with tigers . His most successful pictures were ¨The lover¨ , ¨Enemy of the gates¨,¨Seven years in Tibet¨ and of course ¨The name of the rose¨.
Other films about this battle are as follows : Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever? a 1959 West German film, directed by Frank Wisbar with Joachim Hansen as Wisse , Wilhelm Borchert as Friedrich Paulus , Wolfgang Preiss as Linkmann , Carl Lange as General von Seydlitz , Horst Frank as Feldwebel Böse , Peter Carsten as Obergefreiter and Sonja Ziemann .Stalingrad (1993) by Director Joseph Vilsmaier with Dominique Horwitz as Obergefreiter Fritz Reiser , Thomas Kretschmann as Leutnant Hans von Witzland , Jochen Nickel as Unteroffizier Manfred "Rollo" Rohleder , Sebastian Rudolph .Stalingrad (2013) with Pyotr Fyodorov as Capt. Gromov , Alexey Barabash , Andrey Smolyakov , Sergey Bondarchuk Jr.
The movie follows a World War II soldier transferred by boat crossing the river Volga , where ultimately finds himself fighting in the famous Battle of Stalingrad. The story follows soldiers from both sides as they fight to survive while saving the lives of their loves, and struggle with retaining their humanity in the face of certain death and the unspeakable horrors of war. It displays a good cast giving nice interpretations , including Jude Law as Zaytsev, Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova, and Ed Harris as König, with Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Marshall Thomson, and Matthias Habich .The screenwriter studied diaries of the participants of the Battle of Stalingrad and also used museum archives, documents and recorded stories of its participants. It contains a rousing and evocative musical score by James Horner . It packs a colorful and adequate cinematograhy by Robert Fraisse whose shooting took place in Germany and the crossing of the Volga River was done on the Altdöberner See, a man-made lake near the village of Pritzen, in the south of Brandenburg. A derelict factory in the village of Rüdersdorf was used to recreate the ruins of Stalingrad's tractor factory. The massive outdoor set of Stalingrad's Red Square was built at Krampnitz, near Potsdam. The film was well directed, co-written and produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on William Craig's 1973 non-fiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad.The magnificent filmmaker Annaud creates yet another picture excellently directed and stunningly produced . Annaud directed particular films with almost no human dialogue such as ¨Quest for fire¨ and was an expert on animal movies as proved in ¨The bear¨ , ¨Running Free¨ about horses and ¨Two brothers¨ dealing with tigers . His most successful pictures were ¨The lover¨ , ¨Enemy of the gates¨,¨Seven years in Tibet¨ and of course ¨The name of the rose¨.
Other films about this battle are as follows : Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever? a 1959 West German film, directed by Frank Wisbar with Joachim Hansen as Wisse , Wilhelm Borchert as Friedrich Paulus , Wolfgang Preiss as Linkmann , Carl Lange as General von Seydlitz , Horst Frank as Feldwebel Böse , Peter Carsten as Obergefreiter and Sonja Ziemann .Stalingrad (1993) by Director Joseph Vilsmaier with Dominique Horwitz as Obergefreiter Fritz Reiser , Thomas Kretschmann as Leutnant Hans von Witzland , Jochen Nickel as Unteroffizier Manfred "Rollo" Rohleder , Sebastian Rudolph .Stalingrad (2013) with Pyotr Fyodorov as Capt. Gromov , Alexey Barabash , Andrey Smolyakov , Sergey Bondarchuk Jr.