the Beast...
the ending always reminded me of a verse from Kipling's "the young british souldier"
When you're wounded and dying on afghanistan's plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains
roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
And go to your god Like a SOLDIER!.....
i hate to be political, here and mostly i'm of a completely different leaning with regards to US policy.
but, in turn the two largest empires (of their times) on the face of the planet, England and then the Soviet Union, tried and miserably FAILED to to bring anything apraoching modern "civilization" to Afghanistan. what on the face of the earth, (other than stupid pride and blind arrogance) makes the US think that we will be able to do better???
also my appologies to this not being an "enemy at the gates" post.
i will say that after seeing "Enemy.." i read "War of the rats" the book in my oppion was much better, and in some ways more plausible. for those who have read "War of the Rats" and seen "Enemy.." at the theater, don't you think that the story might have gone off better if such personalities as Viktor Medvedev (though i think Ron Pearlman's character was ment as a stand in), and the german corporal Nikki Mond, had not been axed out and replaced by a bunch of 'tear jerker" (not romantic but "emotional" like the double agent kid) BS?? though i guess making Zeitsev's love interest NOT be a blonde member of the Brooklyn chapter of the American communist party, probably WAS a good change for "palatability by movie goers".
and Ed Harris' "Koenig" bore no resemblance to any account given in fact or fiction of the German "headmaster" sniper. but my money IS on the real guy being very similar to Colonel Thorvald in War of the Rats. a cold, arrogant, out of shape, aristocract that was a good "Sharpshooter" but a lousy "Sniper". There IS a difference and it is huge. a sniper can be likened to a "hunter of men", a sharpshooter is simply a talented rifleman shooting from a hidden position. you can teach a man all of the skills needed to do both jobs, markmanship, fieldcraft, concealment, ect. but there is some part of the mind or soul that will forever separate each from the other. Carlos Hathcock, Vasily Zeitsev, Simo Hayha, and to some (including myself) Joseph Ward, these men were Snipers. a man hidden in a church steeple, tied into a jungle tree, or hidden in a hole to take potshots at anyone who walks by is a sharpshooter. the term "sniper" has become over used (see the DC "serial killers") we've begun to see any hidden shooter as a Sniper.
my appologies i got myself riled a bit there.
