"Enemy at the Gates" may be seen by your average historian as a good war movie. Things like "based on a true story" heighten it to some level of importance and integrity. The reality of it, and many films like it, is that it's just another cliched, contrived piece of Hollywood claptrap that is neither interesting nor inspiring. Put aside all of the hollywoodishness of the story structure and style of the movie, it fails on a geometric level to even maintain the casual viewer's interest with entertainment value. Whether this was made by a huge corporation which recycles film formulas or not, "Enemy at the Gates" is quite tedious. The "love story" is hackneyed and unengaging because of it's own cliche. The set-ups are never paid off with satisfactory conclusions. The characters are uninteresting because they wallow in their own cardboard cut-outness. This isn't even a good Hollywood movie. In terms of style, one can sense the "Private Ryan" rip-offs running amok. Huge explosions and gunshots are filmed at a similarly fast frame rate as the battle sequences in "Saving Private Ryan". Now, despite all of the cliches and imperfections of "Private Ryan", that film DID break new ground with it's style and vivid battle sequences which linger with the viewer long after the closing images. "Enemy at the Gates" is just a boring, uninteresting retread of war movies and pointless love-triangles that is as much a failure to innovate as it is to captivate and entertain. It's just another example of why I hate Hollywood and avoid it as much as I can.
