GetDotted Domains

Viewing Thread:
"Enemy at the Gates - Review"

The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.

Sun 30/11/03 at 17:04
Regular
Posts: 5,848
Enemy at the gates is a film dedicated to a certain battle in World War 2, the Battle of Stalingrad. The film takes place in the Russian's perspective of the battle and particularly on a Russian sniper, who becomes an inspiration to the Russian' military.

Ok, storyline:

At the beginning of the film you see the main character with his grandpa in the forest, about to shoot a wolf, you here the line that forms the DNA of the film,

"I am a stone", says the grandpa to his grandson. The boy cannot do it and eventually you see the rifle shake in his hands and the gun goes off, you do not see what happens.

Then the usual credits and introduction. Quite an interesting start that does leave you wanting more.

The train that is carrying the "Red army" arrives at the lake, just adjascent to Stalingrad, there is a scene with planes flying overhead, boats being sunk and everyone is pushing and shoving each other, it is chaos.

Then all of the soldiers are herded onto this rickety boat and proceed across the water. You then see a very exciting scene, the planes fly overhead and some spray is kicked up, everyone ducks into the main section. After this the planes fire their machine guns at the boat, many men die agonisingly, so three abandon ship. The captain on the boat then shoots all the deserters. Eventually they all arrive at Stalingrad, and disembark the boat, the bottom is filled with a mixture of blood and water.

The "Red Army" now launches into its' first battle, but only every second man receives a gun (some things never change) and, of course, the "hero" is not given a gun. They all charge into the battlefield against the Germans. The main character spies a gun but it is just taken, eventually the Russian's are forced back, but the hero dives to the floor to get a gun. The general harshly shoots all those who do not get back quickly enough, and the hero must shelter in a marble circle.

A car is driven by and is shot. The car flips up and the driver crawls out. The driver has many papers, which float out of the bonnet. He has a wounded arm and manages to crawl to the marble circle. He has a gun and tries to shoot the Germans, there are two (at first). He cannot and just in the nick of time our "hero" comes up and asks if he may try. He simply guns down the German in the shower effortlessly. Then a man starts to search the area (without noticing the dead man). The hero then shoots a German next to the shower who has just seen the body. The guard who is searching sees this and ducks. The sniper (the "hero") then kills two more Germans. By this time, the guard who spotted him has pulled out a grenade, before he throws it, he is gunned down. The man out of the car is stunned by this and then the sniper and "car man" (as I shall call him...) exchange names.

What follows is a scwn in the barracks with a general asking what is needed to make the Russians fight with courage. There are some random assortments of conmments before "car man" says "they need inspiration". He goes on to explain that basically they need a hero. The general has tears in his eyes with this speech, before remarking "But do you know any heroes out here?", "car man" replies "I know one".

Then, in a series of cut scenes, you see the Snipers' general toll go up to 51. He is now in the papers, famous and an icon.

From here on, things heat up. A German with an iron cross, also a top sniper, is sent after the Russian sniper.

The film then resorts to some cat and mouse scenes where there are two ambushes.

Eventually the girl soldier, Tanya, who the Russian soldier gets to know, decides she likes him, and "car man" is very upset. They go on a mission to the chemical factory and manage to wound the German snipers hand.

They sleep with each other and "lead the snake into trouser country" (all between the sheets). There is a friendly little Russian kid, called Sascha, who pretends to work for the German sniper, and eventually finds out some key locations. The German sniper "wises up" to this and sets a trap.

The Russian sniper and Tanya go to the trap and wake up to find Sascha has been hung by the General (German sniper). This is a genuinely sad scene where they basically swear revenge.

The "car man" becomes irate that Tanya loves the Russian sniper and is no longer friends with him.

The "car man" and Tanya must tell Sascha's mother that he is dead, instead they say that he has become a traitor and joined the Germans, this is also a sad scene. They go to the port of Stalingrad and Tanya is full on hit by a projectile. She is not dead but the mother of Sascha sends her across the lake for a hospital.

Then "car man" and The Russian sniper go into the place where Sascha is still hanging to kill him. In another tear jerker, "car man" tells the Russian Sniper that Tanya is dead. They make friends with each other. Then "car man" says, "let me be useful for a change, and show you where he is", and with that he takes off his helmet and looks out the window. "Car man" is immediately shot in the head, but the German Sniper has given away his position.

Then the Russian Sniper shoots the German Sniper in the head at point blank range (for a sniper), in the head. He then finds Tanya in the hospital and she is o.k.

THE END.

Special effects:

There are some very good effects, including the German bombers going overhead and the city of Stalingrad in the distance. Special effects for battle scenes are at a very high standard, but with a few niggles. One of these is that one man dies in exactly the same way, twice, in the same minute. Another is that a dead woman is all of a sudden scene on the boat towards the end of the film.

My opinion:

Overall the film was VERY good but, as Borat said, there were far too many headshots, but this can be expected as it is a film about snipers and the "Red Army". The film, unfortunately has some very cliched German, with the word "Achtung" randomly springing up in very strange places. The film uses a good balance of Romance, war, violence and tear-jerkers. The film is quite gorey, with some good make-up used effectively to really recreate a war scene.

There are some very tired parts to the film, such as:

. The general cries when a speech is delivered,
. A woman is very obstinate about joining the army, but the man against this, then she tells him the brutal account of her parents' murders, and all of a sudden he changes his mind and she pretends to be surprised that he has.
. The old, Best friend wants girl - Girl wants lead character - Lead character gets girl - Sidekick p#rves from the shadows - Main character and sidekick are no longer friends.
. The Germans are old, war veterans. The "goodies" (The Russians) are all young and the lead charcter is young.
. The lead character is a heart throb for the ladies.

Overall the film is very good and definitely worth a viewing, if not quite merriting a purchase. It blends quite a few genres and successful elements to make the film a bit deeper and diverser. If the "creases were ironed out" then the film would be perfection. Perhaps a little less of the explicit things and a cut down on the headshots featured in it. Fortunately it is a war film without bundles of swearing.

Overall 79%
Fri 05/12/03 at 16:16
Regular
"A man with a stick"
Posts: 5,883
ßora† SagdiyeV wrote:
> they need to make a really good world war ONE flick.
>
> the battle of the somme would make disturbing viewing.

There was actually a WW1 film on the other week, set around the battle of the Somme, and it was crap. It spent about 1 and a half hours in the trenches getting to know all the characters, then spent the last 10 minutes killing them all off when they went over.

Not harrowing in the least, all the last ten minutes had was all the main characters falling over dead while a few explosions went off. Utter pants.
Fri 05/12/03 at 13:08
"Darkness, always"
Posts: 9,603
Silly Cyclone, don't you know that there are no films that cover wars such as Korea, Vietnam, the Crusades, the 100 year war, the American war of Independance, Afghanistan, Iraq or any other war you can think of.

Silly silly boy.
Fri 05/12/03 at 12:38
Regular
"gsybe you!"
Posts: 18,825
Praying Mantis wrote:
> Or perhaps a cold war flick? They always same to cover World War Two
> and leave the other wars out, although they are suggesting they never
> happened.

Of course, there are no films inspired by the Cold War.

None at all.
Fri 05/12/03 at 11:49
Regular
"Lisan al-Gaib"
Posts: 7,093
The whole thing that got me was the accents. I know the director didn't want to make it sound silly my having fake ones, but Bob Hoskins delivering his speech in a cockney accent when he is supposed to be Russian, really, really took me out of the movie.
Thu 04/12/03 at 19:57
Regular
Posts: 5,848
Or perhaps a cold war flick? They always same to cover World War Two and leave the other wars out, although they are suggesting they never happened.
Sun 30/11/03 at 17:14
Regular
Posts: 20,776
they need to make a really good world war ONE flick.

the battle of the somme would make disturbing viewing.
Sun 30/11/03 at 17:12
Regular
Posts: 5,848
I realised after I posted it that it was RoJ who said that about the headshots.

'Thin Red Line' was a boring film that was unbelievably static. It just focused on some grass and the Japs were only actually sighted about three times in the entire film. It was boring and took too long to get anywhere.

'Saving Private Ryan' was undoubtedly a classic film though.
Sun 30/11/03 at 17:08
Regular
Posts: 20,776
no, I said you can never have enough headshots.

it was a good film, but as war films go, it didn't come close to bettering saving private ryan, the thin red line, or band of brothers.

too much soppyness, although rachel weisz is a dirty little mare
Sun 30/11/03 at 17:04
Regular
Posts: 5,848
Enemy at the gates is a film dedicated to a certain battle in World War 2, the Battle of Stalingrad. The film takes place in the Russian's perspective of the battle and particularly on a Russian sniper, who becomes an inspiration to the Russian' military.

Ok, storyline:

At the beginning of the film you see the main character with his grandpa in the forest, about to shoot a wolf, you here the line that forms the DNA of the film,

"I am a stone", says the grandpa to his grandson. The boy cannot do it and eventually you see the rifle shake in his hands and the gun goes off, you do not see what happens.

Then the usual credits and introduction. Quite an interesting start that does leave you wanting more.

The train that is carrying the "Red army" arrives at the lake, just adjascent to Stalingrad, there is a scene with planes flying overhead, boats being sunk and everyone is pushing and shoving each other, it is chaos.

Then all of the soldiers are herded onto this rickety boat and proceed across the water. You then see a very exciting scene, the planes fly overhead and some spray is kicked up, everyone ducks into the main section. After this the planes fire their machine guns at the boat, many men die agonisingly, so three abandon ship. The captain on the boat then shoots all the deserters. Eventually they all arrive at Stalingrad, and disembark the boat, the bottom is filled with a mixture of blood and water.

The "Red Army" now launches into its' first battle, but only every second man receives a gun (some things never change) and, of course, the "hero" is not given a gun. They all charge into the battlefield against the Germans. The main character spies a gun but it is just taken, eventually the Russian's are forced back, but the hero dives to the floor to get a gun. The general harshly shoots all those who do not get back quickly enough, and the hero must shelter in a marble circle.

A car is driven by and is shot. The car flips up and the driver crawls out. The driver has many papers, which float out of the bonnet. He has a wounded arm and manages to crawl to the marble circle. He has a gun and tries to shoot the Germans, there are two (at first). He cannot and just in the nick of time our "hero" comes up and asks if he may try. He simply guns down the German in the shower effortlessly. Then a man starts to search the area (without noticing the dead man). The hero then shoots a German next to the shower who has just seen the body. The guard who is searching sees this and ducks. The sniper (the "hero") then kills two more Germans. By this time, the guard who spotted him has pulled out a grenade, before he throws it, he is gunned down. The man out of the car is stunned by this and then the sniper and "car man" (as I shall call him...) exchange names.

What follows is a scwn in the barracks with a general asking what is needed to make the Russians fight with courage. There are some random assortments of conmments before "car man" says "they need inspiration". He goes on to explain that basically they need a hero. The general has tears in his eyes with this speech, before remarking "But do you know any heroes out here?", "car man" replies "I know one".

Then, in a series of cut scenes, you see the Snipers' general toll go up to 51. He is now in the papers, famous and an icon.

From here on, things heat up. A German with an iron cross, also a top sniper, is sent after the Russian sniper.

The film then resorts to some cat and mouse scenes where there are two ambushes.

Eventually the girl soldier, Tanya, who the Russian soldier gets to know, decides she likes him, and "car man" is very upset. They go on a mission to the chemical factory and manage to wound the German snipers hand.

They sleep with each other and "lead the snake into trouser country" (all between the sheets). There is a friendly little Russian kid, called Sascha, who pretends to work for the German sniper, and eventually finds out some key locations. The German sniper "wises up" to this and sets a trap.

The Russian sniper and Tanya go to the trap and wake up to find Sascha has been hung by the General (German sniper). This is a genuinely sad scene where they basically swear revenge.

The "car man" becomes irate that Tanya loves the Russian sniper and is no longer friends with him.

The "car man" and Tanya must tell Sascha's mother that he is dead, instead they say that he has become a traitor and joined the Germans, this is also a sad scene. They go to the port of Stalingrad and Tanya is full on hit by a projectile. She is not dead but the mother of Sascha sends her across the lake for a hospital.

Then "car man" and The Russian sniper go into the place where Sascha is still hanging to kill him. In another tear jerker, "car man" tells the Russian Sniper that Tanya is dead. They make friends with each other. Then "car man" says, "let me be useful for a change, and show you where he is", and with that he takes off his helmet and looks out the window. "Car man" is immediately shot in the head, but the German Sniper has given away his position.

Then the Russian Sniper shoots the German Sniper in the head at point blank range (for a sniper), in the head. He then finds Tanya in the hospital and she is o.k.

THE END.

Special effects:

There are some very good effects, including the German bombers going overhead and the city of Stalingrad in the distance. Special effects for battle scenes are at a very high standard, but with a few niggles. One of these is that one man dies in exactly the same way, twice, in the same minute. Another is that a dead woman is all of a sudden scene on the boat towards the end of the film.

My opinion:

Overall the film was VERY good but, as Borat said, there were far too many headshots, but this can be expected as it is a film about snipers and the "Red Army". The film, unfortunately has some very cliched German, with the word "Achtung" randomly springing up in very strange places. The film uses a good balance of Romance, war, violence and tear-jerkers. The film is quite gorey, with some good make-up used effectively to really recreate a war scene.

There are some very tired parts to the film, such as:

. The general cries when a speech is delivered,
. A woman is very obstinate about joining the army, but the man against this, then she tells him the brutal account of her parents' murders, and all of a sudden he changes his mind and she pretends to be surprised that he has.
. The old, Best friend wants girl - Girl wants lead character - Lead character gets girl - Sidekick p#rves from the shadows - Main character and sidekick are no longer friends.
. The Germans are old, war veterans. The "goodies" (The Russians) are all young and the lead charcter is young.
. The lead character is a heart throb for the ladies.

Overall the film is very good and definitely worth a viewing, if not quite merriting a purchase. It blends quite a few genres and successful elements to make the film a bit deeper and diverser. If the "creases were ironed out" then the film would be perfection. Perhaps a little less of the explicit things and a cut down on the headshots featured in it. Fortunately it is a war film without bundles of swearing.

Overall 79%

Freeola & GetDotted are rated 5 Stars

Check out some of our customer reviews below:

The coolest ISP ever!
In my opinion, the ISP is the best I have ever used. They guarantee 'first time connection - everytime', which they have never let me down on.
10/10
Over the years I've become very jaded after many bad experiences with customer services, you have bucked the trend. Polite and efficient from the Freeola team, well done to all involved.

View More Reviews

Need some help? Give us a call on 01376 55 60 60

Go to Support Centre

It appears you are using an old browser, as such, some parts of the Freeola and Getdotted site will not work as intended. Using the latest version of your browser, or another browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera will provide a better, safer browsing experience for you.