Any viewer or reviewer thought this film was adapted from William Craig's "Enemy at The Gates" was probably wrong, because it was actually adapted from the novel, "War of The Rats", written and published by David. L. Robbins in 2009. I don't know if Robbins had referred to some similar historical background resources as Craig's studied WWII eastern front war between the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Russia, but Robbins' NOVEL is obviously and definitely more dramatic and interesting than Craig's NON-FICTION, since writing NOVEL didn't have to be strictly correct with the history, everything could be widely borrowed from any inspirational anecdote in a history or hearsay by the novelist and then developed by his own pure imagination to process it into a FICTION, and all of it was based on the free imagination of the novelist, while a NON-FICTION on the contrary, must be exactly written like filing a documentary, a long article written by the author after his thorough study of the history with all of the existed materials and findings of tangible records in archives. So a non-fiction author in some way is just a collector who assemble, combine, edit and re-arrange all the materials into a new form of record, a updated version of the history with his own explanations and opinions into a new article or a book.Therefore, if you watch this film from the above fundamental viewpoint, the dramatized storyline, scenarios, plots, twists, even the flaws whatever might be existed, will not and should not mistakenly judged from a must-be-100%-correct in accordance with the exact what-really-happened historical records. If a movie genre itself as a drama, a thriller, an action war/battle story based on a NOVEL, you, as a viewer, should not and must not criticize it and treat it as a DOCUMENTARY film, because it got nothing to do with the exact records of the history, it's dramatized by the free imagination of the novelist. Same as when you watch a movie played by some of the popular male or female actors, and you watch them as they are the actors you are familiar with instead of the roles they have transformed and played as they should be, then you are just a pathetic movie viewer, because you never could allow yourself to be smoothly, unconsciously and willingly to be merged into a materialized MOVIE with dramatized characters but could only so consciously separating yourself outside of a virtual MOVIE, still be yourself and those actors working in Hollywood movie industries. It only shows how pathetic you are as a movie viewer since you could never distinguish a virtual mirage from the reality, still name all the roles played by WHO's WHO in Hollywood. So based on all of the above-mentioned premises, those who claimed this film an insult to what-really-happened in history, to reviewer who even claimed he's with the genuine Russian racial background and condemned this film so incorrect or whatsoever, you were obviously either aboard the wrong ship or never got on the train. Read the novel first, or watch the film first then, if you find it interesting, order the novel by David L. Robbins from amazon.com to have another roller-coaster ride in the dramatized literary world. : )There are several fantastic early Soviet Russian movies and some newer ones you should check them out:The Forty-first (1956) Ivanovo Detstvo (1962)Stalingrad (2013) Bitva Za Sevastopol(Lady Death) 2015

Movie Review: "Enemy At The Gates" (2001)World-premiering on the "Berlinale" on February 7th 2001, "Enemy At The Gates" fulfills under Jean-Jacques Anaud's direction the requirements of finding a suspense-striving showdown of an informal "World-War-II" sniper duel between a Russian and a German sharp shooter chasing from a deserted Eastern front village to an abandoned Freight-train station, bringing supreme actors Ed Harris and Jude Law together into one movie by keeping nevertheless their distances to deadly consequences, when superb supporting characters portrayed by Rachel Weisz over Ron Perlman to Bob Hoskins and Joseph Fiennes, acting as Russian superior operatives in vodka-drinking offices, when this "House of Cards" of a "World-War-II-movie" fails to convince throughout a 125-Minute-Editorial by Noelle Boisson & Humphrey Dixon, who just keep scene-in for too-long at endless tension build-up efforts of emotionally-fading character relationships that come to an end in nevertheless poetic visuals ignited by director Annaud, known for "The Name Of The Rose" (1986) starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater, in further overly romanticized cinematography as accuracy-preaching production design under an minor unexpectedly, impressively-mixed score by unless always-surprising James Horner (1953-2015), when this all despite, flaw-inhabiting war-action-picture, attracts a technically-obsessive audience.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

OK, its not a bad movie, don't get me wrong, but its too much Hollywood for what really happened at Stalingrad, and the other thing, its quite ridiculous to hear Russian commanders speaking in English, if you are doing an historic war film on which you spend millions of dollars, the least thing you could do its to hired Russian and German actors.

Enemy at the Gates is a great movie with a very well developed plot and an outstanding cast. It's a very intense war film that has some gritty, truly engrossing moments, however, what this movie does that most do not is that it never forgets about its characters or their relationships. There are never any long battle sequences that drag on to a degree that they have forgotten about the characters and are simply giving us effective visuals, it always remains grounded. It did drag on at certain points, there was certainly some hefty, dialogue based moments that went on far longer than they should have. There was a lot of spoon feeding going on at times when they should have just let the plot move forward and leave us to find out for ourselves. The cast is phenomenal, Jude Law shines in the lead role, keeping our attention and care for his character throughout, as he delivers his performance with a lot of depth, his relationship with Rachel Weisz in the film is also a very sweet and effective one. Ed Harris is also stellar as the lead antagonist, portraying the character with a lot of rage, but also manages to display some humanity to him. It is a rare war movie that never manages to forget its characters. Engaging and very intense, Enemy at the Gates is certainly worth the watch for anyone looking for a good war film or drama. During the Battle of Stalingrad, a Russian sniper must fight for his survival in the final days of the war. Best Performance: Jude Law