Enemy at the Gates

[Sythe]

My dad showed me this cool movie. It is based on a Russian sniper in World War 2 in Stalingrad. A great hero of the Russian people if you haven't seen it and like watching World War Two movies check this one out. Anybody besides me have seen this?

[Timber Loftis]

Yeah, it's a decent flick. Ed Harris and Colin Ferrell? I forget. I also don't know the historical accuracy of it. But, I love snipers, and of course I liked this sniper movie. I really like the bit with jumping over the hole in the building, and how it was pure luck as to the one who got shot. Tres cool.

There is also a good bit in Assassins with Sly Stallone and Antonio Tanteres (yes, that's an intentional typo, and is the name a friend of mine used to call him by). The movie as a whole is mediocre, but there's a great scene of a sniper lying in wait and how annoying, arduous, and long such a wait can be. A good little bit of a movie, there. Maybe check the movie out -- but the whole movie is NOT of the same calibre.

If you like historical war movies, you cannot beat Band of Brothers. It was superior by far to Saving Private Ryan.

[ 11-04-2003, 01:32 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[johnny]

I've posted this before, but this movie was very weak, despite the huge budget that it had. Wanna know why, read the original story. Then you'll see that they completely twisted the storyline, and above all, used a totally wrong cast of actors. I personally was very dissapointed with Enemy at the gates.

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by johnny: I've posted this before, but this movie was very weak, despite the huge budget that it had. Wanna know why, read the original story. Then you'll see that they completely twisted the storyline, and above all, used a totally wrong cast of actors. I personally was very dissapointed with Enemy at the gates.

Hey, party pooper, at least brink beer with your bad news next time. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Although, I wish I knew what the differences were. If you have time, care to elaborate?

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Well I really liked it......but maybe i should read that book!

[johnny]

For starters, they should have dropped the overobvious upperclass Brit accent.

If you have read the book, then you'd know that the partycommissioner who wrote the articles about Vassili Zaitsev, was far from being a friend like the movie showed us. Zaitsev prefered to operate alone, or together with a fellow sniper, and certainly not in the presence of someone who would only walk in the way, possibly even give away his position.

Major Konig's name was originally Heinz Thorvald, pulled straight from the academy where he was a teacher. He was indeed Germany's best sniper, but had no combatexperience whatsoever. The only experience he had was getting drunk at German high society parties. He didnt have the looks of a soldier either, he was fat, had a face full of freckles, and manicured hands like a female. That's not exactly how they made him look in the movie, did they ?

Then the most annoying thing: Vassili Zaitsev himself. He was a hunter, straight from the Siberian steppes, Mongol appearance and everything. Nothing like the candy ass looking guy they picked for that part.

All together it was nothing like the original story, that's why i was VERY dissapointed with the movie.

[dplax]

I saw and I thought it was a very good movie, and also gave a quite accurate impression, of the power of the party "observers".

[Azred]

<font color = lightgreen>No movie is ever exactly like the book...but I'll bet you still enjoyed Lord of the Rings and The Two Towers, didn't you? [img]graemlins/beigesmilewinkgrin.gif[/img]

Whether or not the movie was completely accurate (I saw a show on the History Channel about what happened historically) is irrelevant. The showdown between two skilled snipers is a classic mano a mano situation, like so many Westerns, especially once filmmakers discovered they could combine the ideas of gunslingers and samurai.</font>

[johnny]

Speaking of which, the story was completely twisted and turned as well. The final showdown in the movie was an anti climax when he caught him out in the open. The original story was much more exciting, how they kinda forced him to give his position away, and Vassili took one, just one, shot, into the darkness of the metal plate the German was hiding under. The bullet went straight through the scope, into his eye. Bye bye SS sniper.

And Vassili's girlfriend... she was originally from New York, but she moved back to Russia, to look after her grandparents when the Germans invaded. She then later joined the partisans, where she was kind of a nuissance, since she only spoke English in the beginning.