Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Release Date: 16 March 2001 (USA)
Quality: PSP MOVIE
Language: English | German | Russian
Runtime: 131 min
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Company: Paramount Pictures, Mandalay Pictures, KC Medien
Movie Info: IMDb
Cast: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Thomson, Matthias Habich, Sophie Rois, Ivan Shvedoff, Mario Bandi
Genre: Drama | History | Thriller | War
Watch: Trailer
Size: 468MB

Plot: Stalingrad, 1942. The German invasion of the Soviet Union has reached the city of Stalingrad, which has been reduced to rubble. Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), a poorly educated peasant from the Urals who volunteered for the Red Army, manages to survive a suicidal charge without a weapon against the German front lines and the NKVD machine gunners shooting survivors who tried to retreat. Acquiring a rifle, Zaitsev — an expert marksman due to hunting for almost his entire life — manages to kill five Germans with the only five bullets he has, impressing a witnessing political commissar, Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Writing an account of Zaitsev's achievement in the military newspaper, Danilov manages to inspire the people of the Soviet Union to renew their efforts against the German invaders, and Zaitsev becomes a national hero and propaganda icon.

The bond between the two men is to be tested, as both have fallen in love with Tania (Rachel Weisz), a citizen of the city who has volunteered in the local militia. To counter the highly effective Soviet snipers, Major Erwin König (Ed Harris), the top sniper in the German army, is assigned to seek out and eliminate Zaitsev. König had come to Stalingrad partly because his son was killed there.

The story focuses on the exploits of Vassili Zaitsev (a character based on the real-life Vasily Zaytsev and played by Jude Law), a Ural peasant who was taught how to hunt and shoot by his grandfather (his father having already died), now fighting on the Soviet-German Front of World War II. A Red Army soldier, he is traveling in a train's cattle car along with other soldiers and civilians, where he notices a young woman (Rachel Weisz) before the train is converted into a military convoy headed for Stalingrad, which is now under attack by the German Army. Upon arriving on the city's outskirts, the soldiers attempt to cross the Volga on unprotected river barges, bombarded by German Stuka dive bombers and artillery, resulting in many casualties and the destruction of a couple of ferries. A couple of men try to jump off the ship, but are shot by the commissars. When the survivors disembark on the other side, half of them are given Mosin-Nagant rifles; while the rest, among them Vassili, are given only a five round clip of ammunition. As their comrades are shot down, the men with the clips are to use the dead men's rifles. In a hopeless charge against the well-armed Germans, the Red Army soldiers are massacred; the survivors of the attack are slaughtered by Soviet NKVD machine gunners who cut down anyone who attempts to retreat. ~ wikipedia ~