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JEAN-JACQUES
ANNAUD HONORS THE MEMORY OF THE SNIPER OF STALINGRAD
 When
Nazi Germany was at the pinnacle of its power in 1942, the
only adversary left on the European continent was the Soviet
Union, and the path to German control of the oil-rich Caucasus
lay through the city of Stalingrad. Now Jean-Jacques Annaud,
whose Seven Years in Tibet won the Political
Film Society award for best film on peace in 1997, has
directed an epic masterpiece on the Battle of Stalingrad,
history's most devastating bloodbath, in Enemy at the
Gates. At the center of the movie is Vasili Zaitsov
(played by Jude Law), a sniper (formerly a shepherd in the
Urals) who picked off key German officers and was extolled
by the Soviet propaganda machine in order to encourage other
Russians to make sacrifices to defend the motherland. The
tagline of the film is "Some men are born to be heroes." The
film begins almost as a clone of the battle scene that opens
Saving Private Ryan
(1998). We see that Zaitsov nearly died in that battle as
cannon fodder, since he was not initially issued a rifle;
pinned down in a sea of dead bodies, political officer Danilov
(played by Joseph Fiennes) gave him his rifle, witnessed his
skill, and produced the propaganda that made Zaitsov famous.
According to the film, Danilov's idea to lionize Zaitsov impressed
Nikita Khrushchëv (played by Bob Hoskins), the key Communist
Party official in charge of the Stalingrad operation, who
in turn honored Zaitsov. In order to make a fascinating film,
some liberties were taken with the story, which is based on
a book with the same title by Stanford historian Gordon Craig.
The head of the German sniper school, Major König (played
by Ed Harris), is dispatched to eliminate Zaitsov, so most
of the action part of the film consists of their cat-and-mouse
game. There is also a love triangle in which Tania (played
by Rachel Weisz) falls in love with Zaitsov, though Danilov
also pursues her.
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Danilov
tries to trump Zaitsov, appealing to that fact that both he
and Tania are Jewish and educated, but in vain. At one point
Danilov sends his rival to what appears to be a trap, a leaf
out of King David's worst sin, and he even contemplates denouncing
Zaitsov, but ultimately he accepts the fact that Tania prefers
Zaitsov. After a farcical admission that the Soviets failed
to achieve a perfect society, Danilov sacrifices himself so
that Zaitsov will finish off König. During the Russian evacuation
of Stalingrad, Tania and Zaitsov are separated, but reunited
at the end of the film. In case filmviewers mistakenly believe
that Zaitsov is a cinematic equivalent of Lieutenant Kije
(as the film score is reminiscent of Prokofiev's music), titles
at the end tell us that Zaitsov's rifle is on display in the
Leningrad Museum and thus that the film is about a true Russian
hero. (Indeed, credited by the Soviets with killing 242 Germans,
he is the only Russian whose surname is pronounced correctly
in the film.) However, the implication that Zaitsov was crucial
in the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, a battle that
cost more than one million lives, is quite misleading. With
a half million Germans in Stalingrad surrounded by the Russian
army, Hitler seriously blundered in deciding not to spare
troops to break the siege in the belief that the invincible
German army would prevail by spring 1943. Instead, the Russian
winter sealed the fate of the beleaguered troops, who surrendered
long before the snow melted, lacking food. MH
BOB
BEATTY & ROBERT YOUNGBLOOD CONTRIBUTE A SYLLABUS, HANS NOEL
A WORKING PAPER
At
the annual Western Political Science Association convention,
the Political Film Society again sponsored a successful
panel. Two excellent papers are now available. Bob Beatty
and Robert Youngblood have donated a syllabus about films
on Asia, available in the Syllabus
Series for $1, and Hans Noel, Escape from the Bowling
Alley: Traditional Associations as the Antagonist in Popular
American Film is a Working
Paper for $5.
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