'Enemy at the Gates' mixes battles and good human drama

By Joko E.H. Anwar

Enemy at the Gates (*** out of ****); War/Drama, 131 minutes; Starring Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins, Ed Harris Written by Jean-Jacques Annaud and Alain Godard; Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud; A Paramount Pictures/Mandalay Pictures Presentation; Contains graphic war violence and sexual themes

JAKARTA (JP): To put it succinctly, Enemy at the Gates succeeds in visualizing hell on earth while fleshing out an interesting human drama that is not overshadowed by its rousing battle scenes.

It is interesting to see the new ideas that filmmakers have come up with when making a successful war film.

For instance, add a big portion of action and silly patriotism and you may get an action film disguised as a war-drama such as last year's The Patriot with Mel Gibson.

There are already many great antiwar films such as The Thin Red Line and Peter Weir's Gallipoli but we could still do with a lot more of them.

Stephen Spielberg used his combo filmmaking skills and sharp sense of human drama to make Saving Private Ryan, though it ended up a little too sentimental. Many other war films simply emphasize the bullets and the blood with no plot whatsoever.

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud, who is recognized for his big-budget, international films with exotic settings such as the semimemorable Seven Years in Tibet, actually has a story to tell with Enemy at the Gates.

It revolves around a true account of the 1942-43 siege of Stalingrad by German troops. This is a film about the story behind what we often get from the media, about political motivation, and the seemingly tiny details we often forget when something as big as a war happens, such as love.

The film centers on Vassili Zaitsev (Law), a country boy turned soldier who, as the film opens, finds himself among whizzing bullets in the battle against Hitler's army in the city of Volga. It is a similar opening to Saving Private Ryan only better.

While Spielberg shocks the audience with horrifying war sequences, Enemy at the Gates mercilessly shows similar scenes with a far more engaging mixture of camerawork and characters.

The result is hair-raising scenery.

Vassili comes straight off the train with many of his peers to face a battle that is not even theirs, which leaves them with no other option other than to engage in the suicidal fight.

They can stay onboard their military vessels and be shot by German fighter planes, or they can jump into the water and be shot by their own commanders.

When they get back on land again, some military officials hand out rifles -- though not to everybody.

"The one with the rifle shoots. The one without the rifle follows. When the one with the rifle is killed, the one behind him picks up the rifle and shoots," the officers are instructed.

Vassili does not get one until his colleague is killed. When he does he turns out to be a gifted sharpshooter.

When political official Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) finds out about this, he decides to use Vassili for propaganda purposes to build up the soldiers' morale to go into battle, rather than having to kill them if they retreat.

Danilov gets Vassili assigned to the sniper division and turns him into a living legend by writing stories of Vassili's triumph in killing German high-ranking officers.

The Germans end up sending their top sharpshooter named Major Konig (Harris) to kill Vassili at any expense.

Konig and Vassili begin to be engaged in a cat-and-mouse game, not only for their country but also for their pride while they start to develop an unspoken respect toward each other.

Meanwhile, Vassili and Danilov become close friends even though Vassili does not feel comfortable with the larger-than- life image Danilov builds.

However, when they meet woman soldier Tania (Weisz), an inevitable love triangle begins to develop, which threatens their friendship.

Law and Fiennes succeed in putting their acting ability above their threateningly good looks and prove to be real thespians.

Weisz, whom we can still see in the adventurous The Mummy Returns, is appropriately fragile, despite her strong-willed character.

She is believably filled with sorrow, which she manages to transform into the motivation required to pick up a rifle and fight. By doing so, she is able to give the audience enough reason to believe why the two strong male characters have fallen in love with her.

Two other good performances are from Harris, an aristocrat turned sharpshooter, and Hoskins as Red Army damage control expert Nikita Kruschev.

While the film displays superior production value and visuals, it also produces an excellent balance between stunning sets and computer animation.

However, just like many other films that are based on books, it is often unfocused. It would have been better if the film, based on William Craig's book, had developed certain aspects of the story more, such as the rivalry between Vassili and Konig.

The love triangle sub-plot does not always work and there is also a serious flaw, the young double agent is somehow easily able to meet either of the two sides in the war, Konig and Vassili, without being observed by either of them.

They are the shortcomings but, overall, Enemy at the Gate distinguishes itself as being among the best war films.