The Gates of Wrath

Sometimes the facts are kind of boring and not very cool. That's why movies sometimes only loosely base their stories on facts by glorifying and twisting them into something cooler and tougher than they really are. Take "The Perfect Storm" for example. Those guys were really just dumb fishermen. \n"Enemy At The Gates" should have done this.\n"Enemy at the Gates" is based on the true story of Vassily Zaitsev, a Russian sniper who became a hero for his sniping skills and a legend for his duel with the Nazi's best sharpshooter, Major Koenig. Today, his gun is on display in the city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, accompanied by a giant painting of the war legend. \nBut "Gates" focuses on the story behind the story and the hype that created Zaitsev and almost killed him. Basically good aim and dumb luck were the only reasons Zaitsev was any good. "Gates" doesn't give Zaitsev a tough, manly persona, but portrays him as a young lucky soldier who found himself in way over his head. This isn't the story most people are expecting going into the theater. Zaitsev isn't a bad ass and is anything but a bad ass according to "Gates."\nJude Law doesn't help the tough guy look for Zaitsev with his timid acting, but his performance is good and fits the character the director wanted him to play. Ed Harris's acting as Koenig is completely underused, as his character is quiet and does nothing except look through the scope of a gun the entire movie. Harris is the only one who attempts a foreign accent though, as every actor portraying a Russian speaks with a British accent.\nThe movie takes a huge city like Stalingrad and makes it feel really small. I think James Bond's "Goldeneye" for the Nintendo 64 has more settings for sniper duels than "Gates." Also the snipers just hide behind stuff. No where in "Gates" are creative disguises and hiding spots used like they were in the movie "Sniper." Just hiding in a room or behind a coat rack is good enough for the makers of "Gates."\nFor those anti-Communists, don't worry: "Gates" isn't a Commy-sympathizer movie. They do plenty to make all the other Russians in the movie look and act like the typical Communist jerks.\nThough still an entertaining, decent movie, "Gates" is a letdown, shot up by a cheesy, unnecessary love story (used only to portray the contributions of women to the Russian war effort) and a focus on the wrong part of the story.