'Enemy' is a different war film
By Kathryn Beane | April 2, 2001The strength of "Enemy at the Gates" lies in its quiet capacity to tell a story. While Jean-Jacques Annaud's ("Seven Years in Tibet") film will not likely go down in the annals of our most celebrated, prestigious war epics, it is precisely this picture's understated nature that lends it a surprising credibility. "Enemy" recounts a typically overlooked (at least from a Western viewpoint), yet significant period in modern world history -- Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union -- otherwise known as the battle of Stalingrad from 1942-43. Adapted from William Craig's nonfiction account of the siege, "Enemy" opened at this year's Berlin Film Festival to disapproval at the hands of many German critics.