Hi guys I've just got Enemy at the Gates out on DVD, it looks a great movie. What are your thoughts on it.
Scott

Scott,

I thought it was a good movie. It shows you some of the attitude that the Russians show towards their own soldiers. I have the movie myself and have watched it many times.

One of the best war movies I've seen, with one of the worst, most Hollywood, endings of all time.

I also have seen the movie, just like the others i liked it, oke the movie have been stirred up a bit but still, vassili saijtzev ( or something like that ) really existed.
'
died

Liked it then bought my own DVD copy as well.
agree with spooky6 regarding the ending.
As far as historical accuracy, I heard that neither found each other, then died of old age after the war. Anyone know??

Something like this really did happen in Stalingrad, and if I remember right, the Russian sniper won. There is a superb account of it in the Time Life book on WWII. It is black with a large red "WWII" on the cover and a B/W photo.

BTW I have never seen the movie.

Yes thats right and the German expert sent to get him was an SS Colonel and not a Wermacht Major.
Scott

Dear Scott,
It was a very well done interesting movie I thought. It showed the intensity of urban fighting in Stalingrad. It is well worth watching!

The movie's based on the book "War of the Rats" by (I think) David L Robbins, which is a fictionalised account of an actual sniper duel between Zaitsev (a Hero of the Soviet Union) who survived the war, and SS Standartenfuhrer Koenig, who was the head of the SS sniper school at Zossen, close to Berlin. In the book (and in reality) Zaitsev fools Koenig into taking a shot at a dummy position, revealing his own hide, whereupon Zaitsev kills him with a single shot. The movie completely ruins this ending by having the German sniper face-to-face with Zaitsev for the kill, which is sort of like a gunfight at high noon

Interestingly, Koenig's character is aalso used by Stephen Hunter in his novel "Master Sniper", in which an SS sniper is tasked with a mission to Switzerland in the weeks after WW2. He uses a modified StG44 with aan experimental nightsight. Really good book worth having if you're a sniper buff.

Wierdly, there's a superb sniper novel called "White Star" by James Thayer in which a US Marine sniper nicknamed White Star (modelled on Carlos Hathcock) returns from Vietnam, and twenty years later finds himself hunted by a Russian sniper who he exchanged rounds with in Vietnam. Interestingly, in the novel (fiction, obviously) the Russian's father is modelled on Zaitsev, and the book culminates in this fantastic sniper duel in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A must for every follower of this form of warfare.

So there are quite a few spin offs from that famous duel.

I have the book "Enemy at the gates" my dad bought in the early seventies.The sniper duel in the book occupies all of one chapter.What I find amazing about the film is the actor who who plays the young boy spy looks amazingly like the real persons photo in the book.

The book is actually called - "Enemy at the gates" , cool, man.
spooky6, speaking about "War of the Rats", check this link out
I gee oh oh gee el ee 'd zaitsev and konig and got this

http://www.snipersparadise.com/history/vasili.htm

interesting story but they even say it is but one story of many

Dennis, while William Craig's Enemy at the Gates: the Battle for Stalingrad mentions the duel between Zaitsev & Koenig, the movie was based on Robbins' War of the Rats, and is quite faithful to the book (except for the ending). Remember the novel's a fictionalised account, and the female Russian sniper Zaitsev is romantically involved with never existed.

KoSprueOne, thanks for the link. Yeah, I guess one of the most legendary duels of the war is bound to have different versions! Interestingly, Robbins gave the German sniper the name Thorwald (I think) not Koenig.

Good movie, watch it often, but if you want a better one, watch "Stalingrad". It has nothing to do with Zaitsev, but it is a great flick nonetheless. You can get it via netflix.