Cinema
Releases - March 16, 2001
Enemy at the
Gates
**
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 133
minutes. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Written by Jean-Jacques Annaud,
Alain Godard. Starring Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Ed Harris,
Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman.
The
Watcher
*1/2
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 97
minutes. Directed by Joe Charbanic, Jeff Jensen. Written by Clay Ayers, David
Elliot; from a story by David Elliot, Darcy Meyers. Starring James Spader,
Keanu Reeves, Marisa Tomei, Ernie Hudson, Chris Ellis.
"Enemy at the Gates" has the same
problem as fundamentalist Christians -- it takes writings on its subject
so literally that it misses the point entirely, leaving us to shake our heads
and tut. It's hard to get involved in drama when that drama shouldn't be
there in the first place.
The film is set during the Battle of Stalingrad
in 1942 and 1943, and involves Russian sniper Vassili Zeitsev (Jude Law),
whose remarkable shooting skills get noticed by a propagandist named Danilov
(Joseph Fiennes). "We need heroes!" Danilov tells Kruschev (Bob Hoskins),
introducing his campaign of hyperbolic reports on all Vassili's shootings,
turning him into a legend and boosting Russian morale.
Stalingrad was one of turning points of the Second
World War. "Enemy at the Gates" is total bullshit. The Russian victory had
everything to do with luck, perseverance and the German army's failure to
move supplies -- snipers were less than vital to the Russian operation, and
besides, you don't need to know your history too well to be able to suss
out that Vassili's accomplishments were mere propaganda
inventions.
It would be possible to make a film about a historical
footnote or myth if the story had figurative value, but that of Vassily has
none, because in no way is it representative of the way Stalingrad was won.
"Enemy at the Gates" doesn't paint Vassily as a symbol anyway -- it plays
as drama, taking the sincere position that the victory was in great part
thanks to this one guy. Even the trailer announces that "A single bullet
can change history!" and "A conflict between two nations rested on a battle
between two men!", referring to the screenplay's invented showdown between
Vassily and a fictional Nazi marksman (Ed Harris).
There are some skilful battle scenes near the
start of the picture, but nothing that isn't another attempt to copy "Saving
Private Ryan", and the majority of the running time is taken up by repetitive
cat-and-mouse games between Harris and Law. "Enemy at the Gates" teaches
us lessons about the Second World War that are not true, misjudges the
storytelling process and is repetitively structured -- it's what happens
when you adopt a facade of urgency without actually having a
point.
.
At least "Enemy at the Gates" had some presence
-- "The Watcher" is a flat serial killer thriller that feels
like it should have gone straight to video. James Spader plays a washed-up
cop who sits around his apartment feeling ill and having flashbacks to that
old case he let slip away. His scenes with his beautiful psychiatrist (Marisa
Tomei) are also dull and clichéd; if this had been a straight-to-video
picture, at least they'd be preludes to sex.
The plot involves a psychopath from Spader's past
coming out of hiding and resuming his sending of clues to the cop. The frequent
cutaways to this guy and the casting of Keanu Reeves are both mistakes --
he's never given an especially vivid personality, so it is distracting to
see him more than is necessary and to have a big star in the role. But anyway,
we've seen this kind of thing before, so many times before that I've stopped
bothering to follow the motions and just begun to wonder, why don't Hollywood
serial killers have anything better to do than single out cops and stage
elaborate games for them?
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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