User reviews

I believe this movie is based on a true story. The year is 1944, Operation Bagration just about to start. Bagration is the Offensive that smashed German army group center. It's about a Duel of a young female Russian sniper named Olga, against an older distinguished German sniper Ace, with a record of 269 kills. Olga, now 19 years old, has only a credit of 16 kills, but won the Russian junior sharpshooting contest in 1940. Now Olga has been ordered to eliminate this thread. Olga uses very unorthodox and witty method's to outfox the German "Specialist". So far the German sniper seems to keep a step ahead of Olga, relying on his cunning instincts and experience. Both persons are of "unusual character trades, as viewers will find out with astonishment. But unlike in "Enemy at the Gates" this movie is not just about a Sniper Duel, it has several other stories and destinies woven in. There is this hyper "Jolly Good Fellow" young conscript, who falls deeply in love with Olga. Olga is and can not be distracted, and rejects his sometimes charming, but clumsy advances. There is also the fight of wills between a 52 year old veteran, a distinguished soldier, who hasn't risen in the ranks, against a young Russian Commissar, who works without compassion, to execute Stalin's orders. To top it all, there is a German Commando unit behind the Russian lines, dressed in Russian uniforms to create havoc. The battle scenes are made in the realistic style of "Saving Private Ryan", The characters are painted in gray, no formulated good guys vs the bad guys scheme, the war is portrayed as sheer terror mixed with human intrigues, misunderstandings and confusion. So you get the "been with them" feeling of a believable story. Gritty Realism is not left out, but not over-emphasized in this made for TV production. I watched the CP Digital version with English subtitles. This movie beats most over tuned Hollywood productions, it relays more on real military coaches, than on formulated effects.

I'm all for anything about World War 2, especially from the unusual perspective of the Eastern front. Even with limited expectations, I ended up slightly disappointed. This desperately tries to be the Russian version of Band of Brothers, but fails on several levels...

There is pretty much only one interesting character, the sniper Olga, and that is because she's the only one who doesn't behave like a raving lunatic - though obviously the other actors had fun, perhaps too much at times. The fight scenes are grand for sure, but often quite cheesy, especially when the plot requires (and this happens several times) for one of the Russian heroes to single-handedly eliminate dozen or so Germans. It also borrows heavily here and there, from the sniper duel (here with a bizarre comical twist and even more bizarre ending) all the way to the "shooting pistol at a tank" scene.

One thing must be granted the Russian makers, though - for all the pathos, they obviously tried to do a somewhat objective look at the Red army, with all its weaknesses. Often you can really believe that these are Russian soldiers, at least for a short while, until they do something crazy again or fall into a dumb dialog (though this actually makes it more believable as far as the officers are concerned) and the magic is lost. You get to grasp the huge price the Russians paid for their victory, and many of the reasons why it was so.

It is epic, for sure, but inadvertently more funny than intended - and scary when it tries to be funny. The plot is confusing, reasons why characters act the way they do are unclear, and the whole thing would probably make more sense compressed into just one episode. Still, if you get an opportunity to watch it, do, if only to compare with the HBO series. And obviously, to experience a moment of happiness for not having had to serve in the Red Army.

Ok movie but it is too little action and too much love in it for my taste.

This movie is not historically accurate,the sniper rifles are laughable - the scope setup on the Russian rifle is mounted in a totally different spot than the original ww2 variants. The Germans sniper rifle has a Russian scope setup on it. That alone ruined the movie for me historically wise. Bad effects and somewhat corny. If your talking about entertainment and great effects, Enemy at the gates beats this hands down. The movie is more on the comedy side if you will call it that. In fact some former real female Soviet snipers who fought in ww2 were not happy with this movie,especially how they show the women walking around in skirts. To sum it up,this movie is not historically accurate what so ever,The effects are very bad. This is why I gave it 3 stars