Enemy at the Gates

"A single bullet can change history."

2001 2h 11m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 4,214

WarHistory

Synopsis

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A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

“A single bullet can change history.”

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Cast

Jude Law
Vassili Zaitsev
Joseph Fiennes
Commisar Danilov
Rachel Weisz
Tania Chernova
Ed Harris
Major König
Bob Hoskins
Nikita Khrushchev
Ron Perlman
Koulikov
Eva Mattes
Mother Filipov
Gabriel Thomson
Sacha Filipov

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Writers: Jean-Jacques Annaud, Alain Godard
Languages: German, English, Russian
Countries: United States of America, France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $68M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

25 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 5 countries: United States of America, France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

243+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, shot by Robert Fraisse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Noëlle Boisson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jean-Jacques Annaud directs. Robert Fraisse behind the camera. James Horner scores. Noëlle Boisson cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America, France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom. Dialogue in German, English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $68M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
225 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, English, Russian.
4International production across 5 countries: United States of America, France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom.
5243+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, shot by Robert Fraisse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Noëlle Boisson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "A single bullet can change history.".
11IMDB entry: tt0215750 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 14 themes, including "sniper", "hero", "winter", "world war ii".
13Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Fraisse
Original score: James Horner
Editing: Noëlle Boisson
Production design: Wolf Kroeger
Costume design: Gudrun Leyendecker
Makeup / hair: Linda DeVetta
VFX supervisor: Peter Chiang
Sound: Eddy Joseph
Stunt coordinator: Phillip Grannuci
Runtime: 131 min · 2h 11m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $68,000,000
Box office: $96,976,270
Return: 143% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Enemy at the Gates (2001)

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Jean-Jacques Annaud

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Wuchak2018-06-28
★ 7/10
War of the rats in crumbling Stalingrad during WWII RELEASED IN 2001 and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, "Enemy at the Gates" takes place in the last four months of 1942 during the pivotal Battle of Stalingrad. Russian troops are carted in by the literal trainloads as the Germans attack/bomb the city. Once the dust clears the situation settles into a more personal battle of sharpshooting wills. A lowly young Russian soldier named Vassili (Jude Law) distinguishes himself for his shooting skills and is promoted as a national hero to motivate the Russian cause. After numerous German officers are assassinated, Major König (Ed Harris), the top German sniper, is assigned to seek out and eliminate Vassili. Most WWII films take place on the Western Front whereas "Enemy" is one of only two mainline films I can think of that address the Eastern front, the other being Sam Peckinpah's underrated "Cross of Iron" (1977). Three things stuck in my mind after seeing “Enemy at the Gates” years ago: (1.) The opening sequence where the Russian troops are boated across the Volga to join the fight is extremely harrowing, not far removed from the opening D-Day invasion in “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), but different. “Enemy” is worth viewing for this sequence alone. (2.) The city-in-rubble sets with bodies strewn everywhere had a lasting impression on me as did the scurrying-like-rats-through-the-rubble warfare. (3.) Some may find this weird, but I always remembered the discreet lovemaking scene while the soldiers lain in the rubble trying to sleep. I'm not sure why this left an impression, maybe because it struck me as so real: Men & women would be drawn to one another and mate even in the worst possible scenarios. The film was based on the book "War of the Rats" by David L. Robbins and thus intentionally provokes the imagery of human rats scurrying through the debris. The cast also includes Joseph Fiennes as the political officer who elevates Vassili to hero status via his pamphlets and articles, while Rachel Weisz plays the romantic interest between the two. Ron Perlman is also on hand in a limited role as Vassili's sharpshooting comrade. As with any film based on historical events there are facts-obsessed critics who decry the lack of authenticity in this or that detail (e.g. "The zippers on the trousers aren't right, blasphemy!!"), but "Enemy" gets the gist correct and, besides, it motivates the viewer to research the actual Battle of Stalingrad. What more can you ask for? The fact is Vassili had 260 verified Nazi kills and played a key role in motivating the Russians to victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare (with roughly 2 million killed, wounded or captured). The movie effectively shows how the Russian combatants weren't necessarily professionally trained soldiers; many of them were peasants, workers, teachers, mailmen, farmers, etc. They knew they could die the next morning hence they celebrated (and made love) while they could. Stalingrad was one of the major turning points of World War II; from then on it was all downhill for Germany. FINAL WORD: "Enemy at the Gates" details an oft-ignored important aspect of WWII, the Eastern front. It has several memorable scenes, especially the opening crossing of the Volga and also a clever sequence involving a large shard of reflective glass. THE FILM RUNS 2 hours, 11 minutes and was shot entirely in Germany (Brandenburg and Bavaria). GRADE: B+

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