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Enemy at the Gates(2001)

Paramount Pictures

R
2h 11m

Release Date: Mar 16, 2001 | Wide

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

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Mar 16, 2001

Box Office

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$13,810,266
Total US & Canada:
$51,401,758
Total International
$45,574,512
Total Worldwide:
$96,976,270

Director & Top Cast

Jean-Jacques Annaud
Director

Jude Law
Vassili

Ed Harris
Major König

Joseph Fiennes
Commisar Danilov

Rachel Weisz
Tania Chernova

Bob Hoskins
Nikita Khrushchev

Ron Perlman

Koulikov

Eva Mattes

Mother Filipov

Gabriel Thomson

Sacha Filipov

Matthias Habich

General Paulus

Sophie Rois

Ludmilla

Ivan Shvedoff

Volodya

Mario Bandi

Anton

Hans-Martin Stier

Red Army General

Clemens Schick

German NCO

Mikhail Matveev

Grandfather

Alexander Schwan

Young Vassili Zaitsev

Lenn Kudrjawizki

Comrade in Train

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: DTS,Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Ireland,United Kingdom,France,Germany,United States

Language: English,German,Russian

Summaries

Plot Summary

In 1942, Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), a shepherd from the Ural Mountains who is now a soldier in the Red Army, finds himself on the front lines of the Battle of Stalingrad. Sent on a suicidal charge against the invading Germans, he uses impressive marksmanship skills taught to him by his grandfather from a young age to save himself and commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes).Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to coordinate the city's defenses and demands ideas to improve morale. Danilov, now a Senior Lieutenant, suggests that the people need figures to idolize, and publishes tales of Vassili's exploits in the army's newspaper that paint him as a national hero and propaganda icon. Vassili is transferred to the sniper division, and he and Danilov become friends. They also both become romantically interested in Tania (Rachel Weisz), a citizen of Stalingrad who has become a Private in the local militia. Danilov has her transferred to an intelligence unit away from the battlefield.With the Soviet snipers taking an increasing toll on the German forces, German Major Erwin König (Ed Harris) is deployed to Stalingrad to take out Vassili and thus crush Soviet morale. A renowned marksman and head of the German Army sniper school at Zossen, he lures Vassili into a trap and takes out two of his fellow snipers, but Vassili manages to escape. When the Red Army command learns of Konig's mission, they dispatch his former student Koulikov (Ron Perlman) to help Vassili kill him. However, Konig tricks Koulikov into revealing his position and kills him with a very skillful shot, shaking Vassili's spirits considerably. Khrushchev pressures Danilov to bring the sniper standoff to a conclusion.When Tania requests to be reassigned to the sniper division, Danilov asks Vassili to discourage her. Vassili attempts to do so but relents when Tania tells him how her Jewish parents were murdered by the Germans. Danilov recruits young local boy Sacha Fillipov (Gabriel Thomson), who idolizes Vassili and does small jobs for the Germans in exchange for food, to act as a double agent by passing König false information about Vassili's whereabouts, thus giving Vassili a chance to ambush the Major.Vassili sets a trap for König and manages to wound him, but during a second attempt Vassili falls asleep after many hours and his sniper log is taken by a looting German soldier. The German command takes the log as evidence of Vassili's death and plans to send König home, but the Major does not believe that Vassili is dead. He tells Sacha where he will be next, suspecting that the boy will tell Vassili. Tania and Vassili have meanwhile fallen in love, and the jealous Danilov disparages Vassili in a letter to his superiors.König spots Tania and Vassili waiting for him at his next ambush, confirming his suspicions about Sacha. He kills the boy and hangs his body from a pole to bait Vassili. Vassili vows to kill König and sends Tania and Danilov to evacuate Sacha's mother (Eva Mattes) from the city, but Tania is wounded by shrapnel en route to the evacuation boats.Thinking her dead, Danilov laments his jealousy for Vassili and his resulting disenchantment with the communist cause. Finding Vassili waiting to ambush Konig, Danilov intentionally exposes himself in order to reveal the Major's position and is killed. Thinking he has killed Vassili, Konig goes to inspect the body, but realizes too late that he has fallen into a trap and is in Vassili's sights. He turns to face Vassili, who then kills him. Two months later, after Stalingrad has been liberated and the German forces have surrendered, Vassili finds Tania recovering in a field hospital.

Storyline

In World War II, the fall of Stalingrad will mean the collapse of the whole country. The Germans and Russians are fighting over every block, leaving only ruins behind. The Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev stalks the Germans, taking them out one by one, thus hurting the morale of the German troops. The political officer Danilov leads him on, publishing his efforts to give his countrymen some hope. But Vassili eventually starts to feel that he can not live up to the expectations on him. He and Danilov fall in love with the same girl, Tanya, a female soldier. From Germany comes the master sniper König to put an end to the extraordinary skilled Russian sniper. — Mattias Thuresson In the winter of 1942, the German and Russian Armies meet in the great Battle of the Stalingrad, one of the most vicious engagements of the Second World War. Enter into this horror a young Russian soldier, formerly a peasant boy with an extraordinary ability to sharpshoot a rifle from far distances. The Russian sniper soon gains fame after killing a record number of German officers causing the Germans to bring in their own sniper expert: a war weathered Major who always accomplishes his mission no matter what the cost. With the Battle of Stalingrad raging around them, these two men must now fight each other. — Anthony Hughes <husnock31@hotmail.com>

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