We recently watched this 2001 film and were drawn in to the true story of rival sharpshooters stalking one another in the ruins of Stalingrad as the cataclysmic battle which basically spelled the defeat of the Nazi empire raged for months in the decimated Russian city.
Jude Law is Vassili Zaitsev, a young soldier who had grown up in the Urals tending his family's flock of sheep. He developed keen skills as a sharpshooter by killing the wolves who endangered his lambs and once in the army his accomplishments lead him to be posted as a sniper. His success is astonishing; he picks off Nazi officers with pinpoint precision. The military newspaper begins to record his daily tally of victims and he becomes a folk hero, inspiring his comrades as the battle of Stalingrad rages on and on.
Ed Harris plays his nemesis, the German sharpshooter Major Konig. The Germans send this man, who reportedly was not a Nazi but an aristocrat of the old school, to deal with Vassili Zaitsev once and for all. Their cat-and-mouse game leads them all over the ruins of the city. Who gets the last shot? Watch the film and find out.
Joseph Feinnes plays the political attache and publisher of the military newspaper, Danilov. It is his idea to make Zaitsev a focal point for the discouraged Russian troops; he turns the marksman into a legend.
Rachel Weisz is Tania, a young soldier love by both Zaitsev and Danilov. In a furtive sexual encounter, Tania and Vassili make love among the slumbering soldiers. Without nudity or any blatant sexual images, the scene is incredibly erotic.
Bob Hoskins makes quite a remarkable Nikita Kruschev. Kruschev was the Russian premier during the years of my youth and the moment Hoskins appeared in the film I knew exactly who he was portraying even though I hadn't read a synopsis of the film. The resemblance is uncanny.
One of the most poignant characters in the film is a young boot-black named Sacha. Played by Gabriel Marshall-Thomson with innocent eagerness, Sacha functions as a mole for the Russians, obtaining information as he shines Konig's boots each day. Sacha sets up the encounters of the two snipers by revealing what sector of the city Zaitsev will be in each day. Konig likes the boy and values the input but quickly figures out that he's being manipulated. Sacha pays with his life.
There are horrific images of soldiers going to their deaths in the film. The Russian commanders would order troops into an assault and observe from behind; any Russian soldier retreating even one step would be shot by his own superiors. In this hopeless situation, an estimated million Soviet troops died in the prolonged battle. The entire German 6th Army (300,000 men) were virtually wiped out. The total of civilian casualties has never been verified, but it is telling that in a 1940 census, Stalingrad's population was 850,000. In 1945 the census tally was...1,500. Total Russian casualties, military and civilian, during the course of World War II are estimated at over 20,000,000. That doesn't include the wounded.
More than anything, the film reminds us of the horrors which ideologies based on racism or religious fanaticism have unleashed on humanity over the centuries. I am wondering if the captured German soldier above is thinking if it was all worthwhile, fighting for the Fuhrer.
Above, the victory monument: The Motherland Calls.
