Enemy at the Gates Review

I havent been this disapointed by a war move since U-571.

I had such high hopes for this film. I knew it wasnt going to be that historically accurate because of the sniper duel, but I wasnt expecting it to be this bad.

- It oversimplified the Russian war effort and overglorified the Russian soldier. These guys were worse then the Germans in most cases, especally during '44-'45, and here they are portrayed as the helpless, brutalized victims when Bolschevism and Stalinism were the real causes. The story about Jude's parents beng killed outside the city after being captured made me want to leave the theater right there. Not only were they catagorizing the average landser as a Nazi pig, but now a story was concockted about how her sweet parents were killed outside the city.

-The 20 minute sex scene made me want to vomit. There were wounded soldiers right next to them bleeding from the head, and here she is doing his dirty work for him. Absolutely disgusting.

-I loved the scene where the little kid was hung, by now every uneducated American in the theater (I wont speak for you Europeans) is catagorizing the German soldier as scum, and this just did wonders to show the American public what wasnt happening with the common Gefreiters.

-Maybe next time someone decides to glorify the Russian war effort and portray them as the 'good guys' they can make a film about what happened in Berlin for three days after the city fell.

This movie was garbage.

[This message has been edited by Gibson (edited 29 March 2001).]

 

I agree. That love scene seemed to drag on forever! Where did that fit into the greater scheme of things??? Anyways, I think the Cold War has been over (or is supposed to have been) for a while now, and we're going to start seeing more films that are a little more sympathetic to the Russians. The common US moviegoer has come a long way since "Red Dawn" in 1985.

However, the Germans will forever be branded as bumbling, evil, power hungry bad guys.

 

Dear Erich, I agree about your remarks on Hollywood will always protray the Germans as all evil, bumbling oafs etc, which is way I stress that movie "A Time To Love And A Time To Die"

I hope someone on this forum will watch it besides me, it is one of THE BEST WW2 movies I have ever seen. Also coming from the collectors point of view, the uniforms are perfect as they WERE the real thing, which is unusual for a movie.

[This message has been edited by C.Evans (edited 30 March 2001).]

 

I know this subject may be long dead, but I thought I would quickly voice my opinions of it.

As much as certain aspects of E@tG portrayed the Germans as the "vile enemy", I personally didn't associate Keonigs character with that persona.

Personally, they set Keonig up as a rather pure character - if you look at the scenes in which Keonig interacts with other German officers, he is typically shown to be of a supernatural quality - the meeting with Herr FeldMarschal is best representative of this.

Why was Keonig there? For "noble" reasons - his son had supposedly been killed at Stalingrad in the early days of the siege, and from my interpretations, he could not fathom that that was possible, save for from another being such as himself - a born hunter, a scharfschu"tzen.

To him, the war has already ended, of sorts. It really gets interesting when you question why he came out into the open and did nothing when faced by Vasily.

Put simply, why would what appears (From the movie perspective) to be the instructor of one of the Sniper Schools back in greater Germany come to the ruined rubble of Stalin's City? Only to die.

Of course, that's my movie-interpretation. If you try to compare any movie that attempts to be a box-office success to the actualy happenings, history, or reality - you are headed for dissapointment.

 

Hello Modus and welcome aboard.

Subjects are never totally long dead around here.

If your interested in snipers--check out my photo of Oberstleutnant Heidschmidt thats on the title page of this site. Many many people had said that there were no German snipers at the rank of Oberstleutnant--but my Heer press photo clearly proves them wrong.

 

So I've noticed, thanks for the welcome!

I'll probably be posting a few info requests in the coming weeks.

 

Dont know much about this subject, but it was my understanding that this Russian sniper had kille a lot of Germans in his sector, so they sent in snipers to get him....He killed them all...so it became a matter of honor for the Germans, so they sent in the best they had, the instructer from Berlin...The Russian killed him too...He was under the pile of tin, not walking around like he was at the city park with some kind of death wish. He was doing his best to kill the Russian who had the gaul to challange the best the Germans had to offer. The death of the German sniper was a very real moral booster for the Russians. No wonder the scope in question is in a Musuem. I belive when anyone makes a movie about a histoical event, then they should make it right, or not at all. I understand you gotta sell tickets, but to have this Russian murder this guy instead of besting him fair and square ruined the whole movie for me......NIKI, welcome...I would like to recomend the Movie "in harms way" it is one of my favorites. It starts John Wayne and Patrish Neal, and was directed by Otto Preminger. It is to me a realistic love story in the middle of War, and the way I see it, that sort of thing happeed all the time...heck Im the resault of such a romance.