The start of the film suggested that this was going to be a grimly realistic view of war, with a pretty thrilling sequence of Russian soldiers arriving at Stalingrad to drive away the Germans. There was a visceral vividness about these scenes with impressive use of involving close-up’s - not to mention the gruesomely realistic little fountains of blood that burst from the bodies that the bullets hit.
But this was misleading, as it rapidly focused on individuals stories - the battle between two rival snipers, the Russian one being made into a propaganda hero and having an affair with a female soldier - oddly the only one there it seems. The problem was that we did not really end up caring about the two individuals - there was virtually no back story to suggest how and why they had become the people they were (well, there was a rather sentimental partial one for the Russian involving him hunting a wolf - symbolic prefiguring or what - but this was neither convincing nor involving. the majority of the film consisted of (repetitive) scenes of them taking shots at the enemy and, nearer the end, at each other. The ending was one that was neither surprising (could it have been though) or, again, involving. Finally, when it came down to it, we did not care about these characters - the ultimate fatal flaw of almost any work of artistic creation I think.
Another irritating characteristic was that, after the grim realism of the opening scene, we partially went, full Hollywood. The leads glowed with health and vitality with their excellent teeth and Rachel Weisz’s makeup was always completely flawless -and this is what I meant when I said at the top that the film did not have the courage of its convictions. If it had gone ‘full Hollywood’ and been made a grand romantic e[pic war/love story, then it could have worked. But I am not even sure now if it would be possible to make a film such as that.
As it was it fell between two stools. At the end I actually wondered if it had been in any way worth the cost and effort involved to make it…