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Rumoured to be the most expensive European film ever made, Jean-Jacques Annaud's bloated Second World War epic is an audacious but leaden rehash of "Saving Private Ryan", complete with historical inaccuracies and polyglot miscasting. Set in Russia but shot in Germany, this attempt to give the Battle of Stalingrad its proper due is commendable. But the director's decision to focus on a widely discredited Soviet anecdote is misguided and undermines the film's credibility from the start.
With the Nazis set to achieve a major propaganda coup by overrunning the city that bears the name of their Russian enemy, Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to kick the demoralised army into shape. Intimidation only goes so far, though, so one apparatchik, Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), suggests they find a hero to inspire the troops.
That hero is Vassily Zaitsev (Jude Law), a peasant from the Urals who happens to be a crack shot. Danilov builds the unassuming Vassily into a legend, trumpeting his exploits to such an extent that the Germans send their best sniper, Major Koenig (Ed Harris), to take him down.
What follows is a series of one-on-one confrontations between the two men at various locales in the bombed-out city, juxtaposed with an unlikely and insipid romance between Vassily and pretty Jewish soldier Tania (Rachel Weisz). The opening scenes of chaos are as accomplished as those in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winner, but from then on Annaud is all at sea, scuppered by a directionless and tension-free script and wooden performances from his British leads.
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The beginning alone is worth going for
