Enemy at the Gates: Through the Crosshairs (2002 Video) User Reviews

"Call of Duty" - The movie

[colin-328 · 8/10 · 9 November 2005]

If you have ever played a computer/console game called Call of Duty, watching this movie will make you smile. The game and the film seem intertwined. There are scenes from the movie in the game and/or vice versa, I'm not sure which came first. Interestingly, the newly released (Nov 2005) Call of Duty 2 game, has more levels that seem to be taken, in inspiration at least, from the movie, and the player is actually named Vasili, the lead character from the movie.

I found the movie especially entertaining partly because of the game, I think, but I also really enjoyed the story. The knowledge that it was based on a true story made it even more compelling. Ed Harris is superb, Jude Law is very convincing and Rachel Weiss is lovely, though she does have some lines that don't seem quite right sometimes. Every Russian and German character in the film keep their actors own native accents (including a cockney Bob Hoskins)which takes a while to get used to, and every now and again seems odd, but the story is strong, the effects excellent, and its not all happy endings either.

I think if you like this genre of movie, or if you've played and enjoyed Call of Duty the game, you should watch this movie.

Good Flick

[hunnishgirl · 7/10 · 26 November 2006]

This movie was very good. However, there was one detail that really took away from the whole tone.....the accents. Now I should think a German and Russian accent would not be that difficult to take on - especially when dealing with very talented actors. Jude Law's cockney-sounding(?)inflection was really distracting to me. I fail to see why the creators seemed to go for realism in every other sense, but let such a major point - the spoken word - lapse into something that just did not fit into the big picture. A minor correction like adopting the proper accent(or as near as one could get)would have made a huge difference in the realism of the piece. But that's just me, I guess.

Everything else - storyline, acting, effects were all very convincing.

Scale and intimacy

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 7/10 · 13 October 2009]

This is one of the two featurettes on the DVD of Enemy at the Gates, and it is the longer one, with a 19 minute running time. Indeed, it is also far more informative and thorough. It consists of interviews, clips of the movie and behind the scenes footage. Unlike the other one, "Inside", this is, so to speak, not all talk. The voice-over narration is one of the few things that imbue parts of this with a feeling of being promotional before being about truth, and this definitely does have the tiring love-fest going on. We find out about how they recreated Stalingrad with the famous "children dancing in a ring", and are told of historical facts that they attempted to put into the flick. Casting is gone into, and the excellent Jude Law and Ed Harris are commented upon. Everybody here has something to say, and this is never boring. The pace is good, not trying to keep to an excessive speed. Editing is sharp and smooth, and doesn't call attention to itself. The comparing of rehearsal with the finished film is effective and subtle. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in the subject matter. 7/10