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Author
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Topic: Enemy At The Gates - Review
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Gunner
Pilot
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posted 03-19- 11:01 AM
   
Just saw it this weekend. It's not a bad movie, if you don't mind the love story aspect. If you are looking for a war movie, this is not the movie for you. I had read about this sniper dual a few years ago and couldn't wait to see it. The actual sniper dual is secondary to the other stories going on in the overall plot. A few shots of Stukas and Ju-88s are in there but it is more a personal story. All in all, it's a good movie. Drags in parts, and maybe a little long. Recomendation: Wait for it on pay-per-view or rent it. From the balcony,  Gunner IP: Logged |
semmern
Pilot
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posted 03-19- 12:00 PM
Whaddid I say?? Love and war just doesn't mix .IP: Logged |
Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-19- 12:56 PM
It should have been amazing. the city looked superb, everything was there (check out the excellent tractor factory set) It falls down on the script. The story was weak (it should have been great) I cant give much away but this is a fantastic opportunity missed.IP: Logged |
Stark
Pilot
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posted 03-19- 03:06 PM
Hmm... overall I enjoyed it... but... the love story was really out of place. Snipers aren't generally known for their more sensitive sides, heck, they look people in the face and shoot them for a living! The qualities that make for a good sniper do not , I would think, coexist well with an emotional type response, like love, whilst in the middle of war. That being said, Ed Harris was excellent as the German sniper - calculating, intelligent, patient, and ruthless - quite believable. Bob Hoskins as Nikita Kruschev was a riot! That's a long way from "Super Mario Bros."...  -Stark IP: Logged |
Werner Molders
JAG
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posted 03-19- 07:01 PM
ARGH!! I haven't even seen it yet and now I'm worried. At least I won't have unrealistic expectations going into it, and thanks for not spoiling details. There are two other WWII movies coming out this year, Pearl Harbour as everyone knows, and Captain Correlli's Mandolin although I think that one will get bitten by the love bug too. I say we abduct Spielberg and make him do either more Indiana Jones movies before Harrison needs a walker, or more WWII movies. Werner ------------------
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Aladar
Pilot
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posted 03-19- 08:24 PM
One word..... DISTURBING. Not because its realistic, because its just too gory. Too many headshots. And they also have THE CRAPPIEST recreation of a He111 in the world. It threw me and my dad off, we thought it was a Fw189! A bit too disturbing for my tastes. The only reason I would recommend this movie is to see the AMAZING preview of Pearl Harbor.------------------
 Giving an Excelsior class Battleship an appendectomy. IP: Logged |
Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-20- 04:51 AM
Brutal, yes, but not horrifying enough. I've read much about this battle and the likes of Anthony Beevor have chilled my bones much more.The director needed to concentrate more on the mental state of the characters. The war scenes are spot on, but the characters walk away mentally intact. Combine the sets and technology of this movie with the actors and story of the earlier German movie "Stalingrad" (or something like "Come and See" - truly horrific) and you'd have a classic. Oh, and at least they tried to recreate a
Heinkel, too often we get C47s etc. Its good that movies have finally started using realistic armour too. I get so sick of seeing Shermans with crosses painted on IP: Logged |
Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-20- 04:53 AM
Oh BTW, Captain Corelli's is going to be a love story first, war movie second, I've read the book (My girlfriend had it, I'd nothing else to do, etc etc )IP: Logged |
semmern
Pilot
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posted 03-20- 02:55 PM
Recent war films have seen more and more realistic German armour, like Saving you-know-who, with them Tigers in the end. But German armour is not very plentiful today; only one driveable Tiger, somewhere in France.IP: Logged |
Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-20- 04:31 PM
Yeah, i know that but its always possible, look at the tigers in 'Kellys Heroes' - pretty effective, dont you think?IP: Logged |
Stark
Pilot
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posted 03-20- 10:30 PM
Any current big budget movie could easily build any tigers they might need from plans (plenty still exist). hell, they built a working U-boat for U-571... armour is easy.. IP: Logged |
Mirthain
Pilot
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posted 03-20- 11:29 PM
Actually the tank's they have been using were either M-48's or M-60a1's... ;} My personal favorite was the rework of M3 Halftracks for Rat Patrol... ;} At least they tried... heheh
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Mirthain=FC=
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Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-21- 05:40 AM
yeah, I've seen many M60s (I think, could be M48s), a few Shermans, german halftacks were always American, it used to always dissapoint me as a kid when i'd watch a sunday matinee movie and see American tanks with German markings..IP: Logged |
Nat
JAG
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posted 03-22- 01:58 AM
I beleieve that the Russians aren't happy about the film actually, just the same way as we Brits were mortified to see what Hollywood did to the true story of the Titanic and our caputer of the Enigma Machine. The story of the 2 snipers is apparently a true one and he's something of a war hero in Russia, now I persona;y don't know the story, and I haven't seen the film, so I'm only going from news reports I've seen, but again Hollywood has taken a true historical story and bastardised it to suit their needs at the box office.I was looking forward to the film though, the clips I'd seen looked stunning, but from the reports here now I'm not to sure... IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 03-22- 05:05 AM
Damn love stories, man that sucks. IP: Logged |
Blasius1
Pilot
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posted 03-22- 12:16 PM
nat,
nobody asked the germans about hollywood or british movies about the war.
the brits like to see: they are very smart and honorable.
and the Yanks like to see: her guys have to win and fight for freedom .
and the germans have to be loser, always loser.
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Stark
Pilot
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posted 03-22- 12:47 PM
Uhh... Blasius... they did lose... -Stark IP: Logged |
Nat
JAG
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posted 03-22- 01:25 PM
thats not quiet true Blasius, we don't mind how the Brits are portrayed aslong as if a historical event is depicted it's done properly, shows the facts as they actually happend, I guess you could say the same for everyone except the guys over in Hollywood who just want to take great (or in the case of the enigma - Lucky)things that the US didn't do a make a film in which they did do it.This isn't a slam to the people of the US, purely to the film people in Hollywood. Hey, A Bridge To Far has the germans winning! and it has the Brits looking like they make the best of a bad situation, and the Canadiens as good at dieing and the Americans as looking incompetant lol Still, I don't think I'll ever change my mind, the best war film I've ever seen was Das Boot, full length version, no shitty dubbing (cause it's always wrong anyway) and no subtitles (for the same reason) Yes most of the crew are killed in the end, so in a way it's another German loss, but hey, Herbert Groenemeyer didn't get killed and it is a very well made film showing the realities of being on a U Boat during the war. IP: Logged |
Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-22- 02:30 PM
"Stalingrad" was one of the best war movies I've ever seen, portraying german soldiers in a honest way. Maybe now that they've done the Russians (who could have imagined hollywood doing that?) they'll do a German story. I vote for Paratroops on Monte cassino. that would be very cool...IP: Logged |
Blasius1
Pilot
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posted 03-22- 02:36 PM
stark 100 %%%%%%%%
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Jerry
Pilot
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posted 03-22- 02:52 PM
uhhhh....Nat....what then was the "true story of the Titanic"...the ship, not the fictional love story? My understanding is that Cameron went to great lengths to dipict the events of the sinking as accurately as possible.IP: Logged |
Nat
JAG
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posted 03-22- 04:29 PM
The contraversy over here was the way that the 1st officer was portrayed, a large part of his family are still alive today and there was something of an outcry when this "hero" was portrayed as something of a villan using his pistol to stop people from boarding lifeboats. Now obviously I wasn't there, but reports given at the time by passengers (at the time, not almost 90 years later) were all about how much he helped to evacuat the ship and get people off as best and quickly as he could. It upset alot of people here and especialy so because as I said, his family is still living and alot of people actually believe what they see in a film and don't know the actual facts. I also heard that Cameron tried his best to make Titanic as factual as possible, but it seems on this point he "may" have been mistaken. To my mind, if this was something that happend 3 or 4 hundered years ago people wouldn't mind about the story, but having close living relatives brought it more into the limelight as being wrong.It could ofcourse be that they way he's portrayed is correct, stories aren't always right wether told just after an event of maney years later, but it did upset alot of people and his living family IP: Logged |
71hemicuda
Pilot
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posted 03-24- 02:07 PM
Why in the !#@@ do they keep putting love in war movies they don't mix and it is not realistic because you don't see people making out in the middle of a real war. For example Saving Private Ryan was good, so was When Trumpets Fade. Is it more of a love story than a war story? If it is I am not going to see it because I hate crotch movies.
I was wondering how is Pearl Harbor? It looks pretty good from the previews. Or how was 13 Days?IP: Logged |
Burkey
Pilot
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posted 03-24- 02:53 PM
If you've read anything about Stalingrad you'll be amazed at how well they've recreared the devastated city. However you'll come away thinking something was missing, like a solid script. Private Ryan (even Thin Red Line felt like you'd been taught something, that your eyes had been opened. Enemy at the Gates should have felt like this (it delt with Stalingrad for gods sake!) but it didn't.IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 03-24- 03:28 PM
A bit off topic but I was disappointed by the "director's cut" of das boot.. the original was better. The new one they redid the subtitles and dubbing for german TV and removed all the swearing !! Something odd about a bunch of sailors that don't swear TS
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Smokey
Pilot
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posted 03-24- 09:11 PM
Just saw it tonight and I gotta say I really
liked it. Pretty good drama and excitement
and a good representation of how desperate
the Russians were at Stalingrad.IP: Logged |
Mighty
General
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posted 03-28- 07:00 PM
I saw it last night.My friend read a review that said, "It has probably the least sexy love scene between two beautiful people ever put on film." I'd have to agree with that Smokey, if you want to see the desperation during the Stalingrad campaign, rent the movie "Stalingrad." It's a very slow-paced movie. And having to read subtitles really makes it hard to keep track of the characters and follow the plot. But despite that it really brings home how horrible the conditions were during that battle. Enemy at the Gates didn't come close to capturing that feeling. On Mighty's Brother's Total Movie Value Scale, I think I'd rate this movie Cable with Dinner (equivalent to about 2 1/2 stars.) It felt like a Hollywierd bastardization of an historical drama. I'm guessing the only things they got right were the names of the two snipers and the fact that it happened in Stalingrad. IP: Logged |
Werner Molders
JAG
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posted 03-28- 09:09 PM
Newsflash to all those hoping Pearl Harbour will be to Enemy at the Gates what IL2 is speculated to be to B17ii... Note the naked woman in the trailer. *love story alert* *love story alert*Frankly I thought Enemy at the Gates was great. I think Mighty said it best in the post above this one as to what they got right, but you know what? I've convinced nearly all of my friends to go see it with me this Friday (I'm going for round two - no worries, 2's my limit. ). This is the "young" set, folks, going to see a movie about WWII. Some of these are people who don't get put off seeing crap like "Dude, where's my car" as a way of spending a Friday night. I'm realizing now that as you get more and more into something, it's harder and harder to find quality 'stuff' to pursue your hobby. Look at how we bicker sometimes over which is the best sim? Look how few *good* war movies there are that aren't more than a decade old? My point is that if I could easily convince my non-WWII-inclined friends to go see a war movie that they hear is "like Saving Private Ryan, but with a love story mixed in and in Russia" I think it's encouraging. Hopefully after a few of these "initiation" movies there will be more demand for another SPR type. Werner ------------------
Visit Abbeville Field Today!
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Diego Lozano
Pilot
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posted 03-28- 09:55 PM
Its always great to see what "Hollywood" comes up with. My friend is a "spy" for Aint It Cool News and he tells me that Pearl Harbor will be two GREAT action scenes (Dec 7 and Doolittle's raid) with the most boring crap sandwiched inbetween.If you think about it, would a woman REALLY want to sit through 2 hrs of blood and guts? Would a man want to sit through a 2 hr love story? Hollywood DOES NOT sell movies, it sells TICKETS! Art, historical facts, the truth and everything else are far from secondary. Think about this when you sit through the trailers. Who are they selling this product to? if it smells like something from the Lifetime channel, its probably chock full of feelings, estrogen and love interests...not a war movie. IP: Logged |
Jeeves
JAG
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posted 04-08- 01:52 PM
I am a little slow here, but I finally took the wife to see it last night. The scenes with the Stukas screaming in were amazing....I must have my wife hooked on these planes-- she was all excited--"It's the plane with those sirens!" There was a little entanglement there with the love story, but for the most part I was entertained That guy from the "Beauty and the Beast" TV series was an interesting casting choice Ed Harris was pretty good-- is it my imagination, or is he a dead wringer for Rommel? Speilberg- are you listening?  ------------------
Brought to you by the campaign for a better Dauntless! Jeeves =FC= [This message has been edited by Jeeves (edited 04-08-2001).] IP: Logged |
71hemicuda
Pilot
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posted 04-29- 10:45 PM
Just saw it. It was OK but not the greatestIP: Logged |
li'l bastard
Pilot
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posted 04-30- 04:38 AM
Well, enemy at the gate started well, veery well (when the stukas attack the boats I felt really bad 4 that guys there...) and even the horrid way the russians used their guys to fight (they used conscripts to run across minefields...) explains how they had the highest losses of the war (20.600.000 deads both civilians/soldiers), but the movie it's good tho... Aladar, I noticed the bomber wreck too, and seemed a li'l bit small to be a He111, but the accuracy of some vehicles was good! Btw, the love thing braks up everything...
One bad news is that Pearl Harbor's gonna be a love story too!!!! Read the plot somewhere... Btw I've seen the planes in Duxford before the filming and WOW!!!!! I even have a coupla pics around here...
Now the great thing: in the incoming Cannes Festival, Coppola is gonna present a revisited version of Apocalypse now: 53 minutes added to the original movie, which will bring the endurance to 3h15 mins!!!
CAn't wait to see it and buy the special edition DVD they're workin on!!!!li'l b IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 05-13- 12:14 AM
That Russian chick was a total babe. IP: Logged |
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