Enemy At The Gates (2001/Paramount Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B     Extras: C+     Film: B-

 

 

Not a big hit in its time, time has been good to Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Enemy At The Gates (2001), still easily the best film the director ever made.  It involves two assassins out to get each other in the middle of WWII as a Soviet sniper (Jude Law in one of his best roles) seeks out and is sought out by a German sniper (Ed Harris in great form) in a real cat & mouse game that throws out stupid dialogue for telling visuals in what was not a cheap film to make.

 

At this point, the Nazis have thrown away the non-aggression pact and while the Allies press on, old vendettas are to be settled.  Bob Hoskins is very good as an up and coming Russian official, Rachel Weisz becomes involved with the Law’s sniper and Joseph Fiennes is his friend in the propaganda department fanning the flames of the showdown by building up his friend as an invulnerable killer.  However, fact turns out to be more potent than myth and it is only a matter of time before the showdown.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was lensed by Director of Photography Robert Fraisse with interesting compositions throughout, but this transfer makes the colors a bit paler than the 35mm print I saw years ago.  There are also some detail issues and a bit of motion blur at times.  Otherwise, it is superior to the DVD.  The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is sometimes compressed sounding, but the film has an interesting sound mix, which includes silences and stretches of no dialogue, but could sound a little better.  Extras include two featurettes, trailer in HD and deleted scenes worth seeing when the film is finished.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo