FF11 - Enemy At The Gates

Intro by John Roderick

Based on William Craig's non-fiction book of the same title, Enemy At The Gates follows the story of Vasily Zaytsev, a Russian sniper played by Jude Law. Flashbacks reveal Vasily was taught marksmanship as a child by his grandfather, but as an army conscript he's at first thrown indiscriminately into combat on the frontlines in the Battle of Stalingrad. There he meets Commissar Danilov, played by Joseph Fiennes who notices his gift with a rifle and quickly turns Vasily's numerous sniper kills into propaganda for the war effort.

Vasily's legend grows in proportion to his body count and it isn't long before he's getting his rifle cleaned by Tania Chernova, played by Rachel Weisz. But Danilov is in love with her, too, or is he in love with Vsasily? Admiration gives way to jealousy as the battlefield becomes littered with broken hearts, shell casings and the gold-filtered cigarette butts of the film's steely antagonist German sniper Erwin König, played by Ed Harris.

Hold completely still for today's Friendly Fire, it is 2001's Jean-Jacques Annaud-directed World War II film Enemy At The Gates.

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