[nathan]

Its showing right now at FX Channel. Jude Law as Vasily Zaitsev shot five Germans with five single head shots. Very cool. The more i ve watched this movie the more i love my Nagant rifles.

[RPRNY]

Yes, but Jude Law as Vasily Zaitsev? Why not Rupaul as Marshall Zhukov as well? :uhoh:

[Steel Horse Rider]

It has the usual hollywood deviations from reality but it is a good representation of the battle for Stalingrad, one of the major extended fights during WWII that was very influencial to the outcome. I have it on DVD and watch it at least once per year.

[fatcat4620]

When my wife is out of the house me and my mosin like to watch it.

[tahunua001]

I watch that movie and then take my mosins out.... then I start wondering if he was aiming at their nuts or their knees to get those head shots...

sometimes I hate non adjustable sights zeroed for 300 meters with bayonets on.

[mike.h]

thanks for the heads up

[mcdonl]

I watch that movie and then take my mosins out.... then I start wondering if he was aiming at their nuts or their knees to get those head shots...

sometimes I hate non adjustable sights zeroed for 300 meters with bayonets on.

Mine would require navel point of aim :)

Great movie. Nice Bottom.

[hq]

Too bad the movie wasn't very accurate historically, but few Hollywood productions are.

I wonder if someone could write a watchable movie of other top notch snipers? There seems to be two other Mosins in this top10 ranking list, #1 with iron sights. ;) http://listverse.com/2009/11/13/top-10-snipers-in-history/

[Chawbaccer]

Obviously not true to the story. In the movie he didn't use a 2x4 to beat the bolt open between shots.

[mljdeckard]

Read the book; "War of the Rats".

[Cosmoline]

The film is pretty fictional. It gives a lot of misimpressions. For one thing the running out of rifles business was not the Red Army's problem at that point. That did happen back in the FIRST world war when conscripts fled in huge numbers taking their M91's with them. And human wave assaults were not the order of the day by 1942. The Soviets had by that time actually started to reform their ranks and repair the damage done by the pre-war purges and the 1939 war with Finland. The command structure had been returned to a more traditional system. And by that time the RA was learning how to fight a modern war. That's where the newly trained snipers came into play. Eventually they were able to turn the tables by catching the Germans in a pincer movement of their own.

I wonder if someone could write a watchable movie of other top notch snipers?

If dealt with honestly, it wouldn't be a movie most people would be able to watch. For example, Hayha was a good man defending his home against total destruction, but he hunted men like game animals and slaughtered hundreds. How do you put that on film and make it work? A movie could work if it was told from the point of view of the Red Army men who were his victims. For them, he seemed more of a force of nature or part of the winter weather than a human opponent.

[silicosys4]

Its an entertaining movie but not a documentary by any means. Don't buy the book version expecting a more detailed and historically accurate account of Zhaitsev's experiences, he is named only a few times in the book "enemy at the gates" and actual descriptions of his actions are only mentioned in the space of a page or two, and then not in any detail. "Enemy at the gates" as the book is told, is more a narrative on the overall seige of Stalingrad, and the strategies and events leading up to it.
Still a very good read.

[natescout]

you should read about Simo Hayha , a Finnish sniper used a modified Mosin-Nagant in the winter war with Russia in 1905 , killed a record number of 505 confirmed kills the most in an major war.

[PabloJ]

Its showing right now at FX Channel. Jude Law as Vasily Zaitsev shot five Germans with five single head shots. Very cool. The more i ve watched this movie the more i love my Nagant rifles.
Nikolai Dostalias 'Penal Battalion' is far better movie. While not as good Vilsmaier's Stalingrad is head and above 'Enemy at the Gates'.

[Skribs]

Cosmoline, they portrayed the main character of the Patriot in just that manner.

I think the first film Sniper was decent (not great), the sequels were cheesy. They might be doing a reboot with John Cena.

Something on the Marine snipers in Nam would really interest me. Carlos Hathcock would be a movie-worthy character.

[Float Pilot]

Quigley Down Under is still the Rifle Marksman movie to beat...

[thomis]

maybe the woman that plays in Quigley Down Under but the storyline...not so much!

[tahunua001]

For one thing the running out of rifles business was not the Red Army's problem at that point. That did happen back in the FIRST world war when conscripts fled in huge numbers taking their M91's with them. And human wave assaults were not the order of the day by 1942.
interesting, the video game legend 'Call of Duty' which I believe predated EATG, also depicts the battle of redsquare as a suicide charge where many soldiers were issued nothing but ammo and ordered to grab the first rifle they found on the ground.

[The_Armed_Therapist]

My favorite part of this movie is that there are no illusions of Soviet beneficence. Sure, the protagonist(s) are Soviets, but the U.S.S.R. is portrayed as perhaps even more evil than Germany.

[Cosmoline]

There's a great documentary called "War of the Century" and another in the "Battle Front" series that do a good job explaining Stalingrad. The Soviets knew what they were doing, which is why they won.

a Finnish sniper used a modified Mosin-Nagant in the winter war with Russia in 1905 , killed a record number of 505 confirmed kills the most in an major war.

That was actually the Winter War in 1939/40. It gets confusing because when it happened Hitler and Stalin were not at war yet. WWII at that point was just in the west and was mostly still a limited air war. It was really the first full-throttle combat in Europe in that period, and all sides watched carefully. The failure of the Red Army to make headway against a tiny nation helped give the Germans the confidence to attack the USSR the next year.

There's a good doc on it called "Fire and Ice."

[infmp32]

Cosmoline, they portrayed the main character of the Patriot in just that manner.

I think the first film Sniper was decent (not great), the sequels were cheesy. They might be doing a reboot with John Cena.

Something on the Marine snipers in Nam would really interest me. Carlos Hathcock would be a movie-worthy character.
And The Patriot is also an absolute abomination to history.

[hq]

If dealt with honestly, it wouldn't be a movie most people would be able to watch. For example, Hayha was a good man defending his home against total destruction, but he hunted men like game animals and slaughtered hundreds. How do you put that on film and make it work? A movie could work if it was told from the point of view of the Red Army men who were his victims. For them, he seemed more of a force of nature or part of the winter weather than a human opponent.

I was thinking more in lines of Carlos Hathcock and Chuck Mawhinney. Exceptional marksmen with lots of detailed stories about missions. Häyhä was a legend on his own right, but his three months were mainly about letting a seasoned and determined hunter loose in a target-rich environment of rigid, authoritarian Red Army in the middle of nordic winter. Not really movie material and in case it is, I don't know how it could happen in the current political climate.

Then again, Hollywood would be hard pressed to make a biographically flavored movie about Hathcock, too.

Hmm. I kind of hate these sniper threads. I've tried to find a reason NOT to get myself a Mosin for 20+ years and now a friend of mine asked me if I'd want to buy his pristine, as-issued ~69-70 vintage M21 complete with Leatherwood scope. This is getting seriously expensive. :banghead:

[Skribs]

I know that, infmp, my point was that there are scenes where he basically just slaughters British troops while they bumble around clueless. Rambo 2 has a good example of this as well (except with Vietnamese). There are a lot of flicks that portray the hero as a skilled hunter of men. So a movie based on Simo Hayha wouldn't be too difficult to imagine.

I have a coworker who is a history snob and complains about people who watch movies to learn about history. Just to egg her on I say "What do you mean? I learned a lot about the Civil War by watching The Patriot!" (I know it's not the civil war, but it adds to the annoyance to say it).

[Sam1911]

Movies and history aren't topical for THR without the direct topic of discussion being the guns themselves or shooting.

I let this run this morning to see if such a discussion would develop, but alas, it has not.