A Movie Question

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charleym3

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A while back there was a movie out, I think it was in first tun theathres, about the sniper duel that took place in a Russian town at the end of WW2. Can some one point me to the movie title?
Thanks.
 
Don't bother. It ignores the truth. Strange, they could have made a movie out of the real story but, for some reason, Hollywood chose to completely ignore reality.
 
A "c" movie at best

They turned it into a love movie also.
Like they did to Pearl Harbor.
It started out decent,then sank fast.
The stats were trumped up to capture your attention.
 
but, for some reason, Hollywood chose to completely ignore reality.
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Hollywood just has a reality all its own. And it usually doesn't involve the truth.
 
More OT, but I liked it...

I'm not too worried about whether a movie based on an unverified Soviet propaganda story (the Zaitsev duel) is "truthful". I liked the movie and found it as believable as SPR. It gave a pretty accurate view of the regard the Soviets had for their troops and the importance of propaganda in the "Great Patriotic War".

Some scenes were a little cliche'd or over the top, but all in all, it was one of the better movies to come out, certainly better than "Windtalkers" or the Sean Penn, Nick Nolte WW2 film (name escapes me).
 
...or the Sean Penn, Nick Nolte WW2 film (name escapes me).
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"The Thin Red Line"

It SUCKED. The best part about that movie was when it ended, which as I sat through it was something I thought would never happen.
 
the Sean Penn, Nick Nolte WW2 film (name escapes me).
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Thin Red Line. wretched thing, when i saw it by 3/4 through half the audience had left.

by the way Enemy at the Gates was pretty bad on a "historical movie" scale.
but surprizingly their IS supporiting evidnece for A good deal of what has been printed about Zeitsev in the past 20-30 years. including a Finnish interveiw of Zeitsev sometime in the 60's.

known facts,
the man survived an extended time (more than 12 hours) in Stalingrad as naval infantry (he was a Navy Clerk, whose unit was called to the front).

Someone during that first week or less saw that unlike most russian troops in the city he was actually AIMING and hitting what he aimed at. so he was made a sniper.

after another stretch of time zeitsev is made an instructor (he's still breathing, in that place, at that time this meant you were GOOD) in the Stalingrad sniper school.

around this time a German Officer from the Sniper school outside berlin shows up in Stalingrad. russians say he's after Zeitsev, the germans never say. and the odds are he was there to observe what we would now call "Sniper operations in a MOUT Enviroment". either way the russians use his appearence as a propaganda item.

a short time later Zeitsev, scores a confirmed kill of a German field grade officer in an adapted pit hide, the officer is well fed, well clothed (for stalingrad ) and wears the Cap Badge of a Sniper. this kill was made with the inadvertant and STUPID help of the comisar Danilov, who while out with Zeitsev in the railyard area, suddenly jumps up and says something to the effect of "i think i see him!" and gets his fool head blown off.

within a few days the officer from the german sniper school is reported as missing, then KIA.

Zeitsev continues on, with the veiw of "i'm still breathing they aren't, that's all there is to it"

BTW i don't think that Jude Law looks ANYTHING like a Siberian of Mongol descent. do you?? :rolleyes:

Also the "love interest" is based on a real woman, though it is not clear what her relationship with Vasily Zeitsev was. and many accounts say she was an american.
 
The most accurate account of the duel between Russian Chief Master Sergeant Vasily Zaitsev and German SS Colonel Heinz Thorvald that I am aware of is given in the book War of the Rats by David L. Robbins. He takes the facts from many historical books detailing the events of the battle of Stalingrad and the actual duel itself, combines this with reports from individuals that were present and creates a fictionalized account of the duel. He lets the reader know in what areas he took creative control of the story and why he did so.

Of course, some of the historical record is enhanced by Russian propaganda and denied by German propaganda, but there are enough facts to give credence to the fact the duel did occur and Zaitsev did win.
 
I like Enemy at the Gates. Yes, it's fiction, but so is Saving Private Ryan. As it stands, Enemy at the Gates is a good view of the battle of Stalingrad from the Russian perspective.

As for The Thin Red Line, I think people went to see it expecting another saving private ryan-style action movie. Thin Red Line is a drama, and I can see where some folks don't have the patience for it. It's a more cerebral film than SPR, and doesn't stick to Hollywood cliches.
 
I watched about 1/3-1/2 of thin red line before i had to turn the POS off. Its not that it was drama.. It was a friggan un-realistic soap opra mind numbing pointless drama.

Woody Haroldson detonating a grenade on his belt then living to shout "I BLEW MY ASS OFF I BLEW MY ASS OFF!" And finishing a dramatic death scene? Oh my God! When does the hurting stop?! I give it a negative 3 stars.:barf: :barf: :barf:

Possibly one of the worst movies i have EVER seen, and that inclues the movie fodder for MST3K!:banghead:
 
"Enemy at the Gates" made me laugh until my sides hurt. Watching those filthy commie pigs die in the mud like the PsOS that they are/were delighted me to no end.

My favorite part is when the Ruskies start using the only HMG they have to mow down their own troops. ROTFLMFAO

Any movie that features the whacking and stacking of Commies and Nazis gets two thumbs up from me, every time! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
 
And while we're at it.. I think "Enemy at the Gates" was about one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen.

Ya lose, you're under the thumb of a maniacal mass-mudering despot who goes down in history as one of the worst monsters of the 20th century.

Ya win, you're under the thumb of a maniacal mass-mudering despot who goes down in history as the other of the worst monsters of the 20th century.


Talk about your motivation. :(

-K
 
My understanding is that there never was a German sniper named König sent to kill Zaitsev.
Bearing that in mind, I thought it was a really excellent movie that showed a segment of the war that very few people know about.
Were parts of it bastardized for modern movie-goers who have no understanding of ballistics, or made more appealing through the injection of a (rather cliche) love story?

Yeah.
But whaddya expect, if a movie didn't have mass appeal, then no one would go see it, resulting in no movie to go see.
Regardless, the movie served to crucify two evil philosophies at once: Nazism and Communism, which is always good in my book. :)
 
It has been a while since seeing the movie, but I do remember a spot where one of the snipers takes a shot at the other while the other was running through the hallway of a building where he could not be seen and jumping a gap made presumably by the war effort in the area and then getting shot in the head. BS if you ask me.

GT
 
Actually, the sniper was in his post, and he saw one of them jump the gap. He then aimed at the gap, and then was all lined up to shoot the second one in mid air as he lept. Far fetched, but not impossible.
 
I agree, the love story was unnecessary. The usual Hollywood crap, but I don't mind. It was Rachael Wiess! That's my future ex-wife we're talking about (well, her and Salma). :D
 
I was dismayed when it was announced they were making The Thin Red Line into a movie. It was a very good book, unfortunately it has a lot of personnal thoughts, via the first person(s). It is very well written, hard hitting and moving. Unfortunatly this type of book makes it totally unadaptable for the big screen, the movie was barely comprehensible to me having recently re-read the book, I can only imagine someone who didn't.

I would still recommend reading the book.
 
Enemy at the gates

The love scences was the real turn off for me (' cant figure out how it fits in the movie :mad: ), otherwise its a good movie as far as entertainment goes. Not true to life, but some characters/events are.
Another one to avoid is Sniper II w/ Tom Berringer(?). Just buy a Whooper sandwich instead!
 
The part of the Zeitsev/Thorvald duel that makes it fiction in many historian's eyes is the utter lack of operational or unit records of the event, something which would have been very evident considering the importance of quelling the snipers, and on the russian side they certainly should have had some record of it on the unit level, yet it's all just stories. The German's made absolutely zero mention of it, while the Russians who had every motivation to did not either.

Consider an event like the Billy Sing's sniper duel in Turkey during WWI, where both sides made account with names/dates of the sniping. Something doesn't "sit right" with many experts about the battle. It could have happened, but more than likely it's just a nice piece of propoganda. Zeitsev himself has never officially denied or confirmed the duel happened.
 
I thought the Russians in the movie could have had more Russian-like accents. After all, the Germans got to have German-like accents. It wasn't the worst sniper movie ever. I remember seeing one sniper movie where a guy hears a rifle report and raises his eyebrow THEN gets shot in the eye through his scope.
 
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