| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jude Law | ... | Vassili | |
| Ed Harris | ... | Major König | |
| Rachel Weisz | ... | Tania Chernova | |
| Joseph Fiennes | ... | Commisar Danilov | |
| Bob Hoskins | ... | Nikita Khrushchev | |
| Ron Perlman | ... | Koulikov | |
| Eva Mattes | ... | Mother Filipov | |
| Gabriel Thomson | ... | Sacha Filipov (as Gabriel Marshall-Thomson) | |
| Matthias Habich | ... | General Paulus | |
| Sophie Rois | ... | Ludmilla | |
| Ivan Shvedoff | ... | Volodya | |
|
|
Mario Bandi | ... | Anton |
|
|
Hans Martin Stier | ... | Red Army General |
| Clemens Schick | ... | German NCO (as Clemans Schick) | |
|
|
Mikhail Matveev | ... | Grandfather |
In World War II, the fall of Stalingrad will mean the collapse of the whole country. The Germans and Russians are fighting over every block, leaving only ruins behind. The Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev stalks the Germans, taking them out one by one, thus hurting the morale of the German troops. The political officer Danilov leads him on, publishing his efforts to give his countrymen some hope. But Vassili eventually starts to feel that he can not live up to the expectations on him. He and Danilov fall in love with the same girl, Tanya, a female soldier. From Germany comes the master sniper König to put an end to the extraordinary skilled Russian sniper. Written by Mattias Thuresson
Bursting into my Top Five war movies of all time is this film. A gritty and realistic portrayal of one of the worst battles in the history of war - the 1942-43 armwrestle for the city of Stalingrad.
Much has been made of the actors speaking in their native accents, but this seems a trivial complaint - the film is in English after all! More important is the masterful manner of speech of the actors - Bob Hoskins' gutteral exultations as Ukrainian potato farmer Nikita Krushchev; Joseph Fiennes' pompous and proud intonations as the political officer; Jude Law's common man for the peasant turned soldier; Ed Harris with the clipped and crisp tones of a German officer.
This is my pick for the best film of the year so far (August). It is truly a cinematic masterpiece, with horrific scenes of the violence of war, brilliant dialog and heart-wrenching tragedy. Expect to be moved.