Enemy at the Gates
Directed by JJ Annaud,
starring Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Ed Harris and Bob Hoskins
Ha ha, I’ve seen Enemy at the Gates, the most expensive European film ever made!
It’s awesome! I don’t think we’ve ever seen the siege of Stalingrad from the Red Army viewpoint — any bit of WWII from the Russian viewpoint for that matter. The German film Stalingrad showed it from the German perspective, but this is new!
In some ways it’s similar to the German film in plot structure, but I think that it’s superior in the themes which it discusses. The Soviet Union’s approach to the Great Patriotic War is portrayed here through the story of a peasant sniper and the communist intellectual who publicises his exploits: the Red Army’s cannon fodder tactics, their propaganda machine and their creation and worship of heroes are all shown here. But the bit that really takes the ticket has to be Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev — he’s uncanny. Just a glimpse of this frighteningly realistic characterisation is enough to banish all memories of John Voight and his latex pretending to be Roosevelt in Pearl Harbor.
And how’s this for an idea (maybe it’s been done before, but I
think it’s great):
The German characters talk in English with an
American accent
The Russian peasants talk in Cockney
The
Russian intellectuals talk in RADA*.
Some of you may contest this point, but I think that it may be a better idea than: The Romans talk with American, Australian and English accents. (you know what movie I’m talking about)
In summary, Enemy at the Gates rocks! See it on the biggest screen you can find, with killer sound, as I will be, not on a little LCD screen on a Singapore Airlines flight.
David Bednarczuk
*Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
