All the elements are there: a great based-on-true-events story, a great cast, one hell of a battle sequence, and great cinematography. If they all don't come together so well, I suppose you can only fault the director/screenwriter for flubbing it. This movie about the seige of Stalingrad during World War II, where the Russians desperately fought off the invading German army and were eventually successful, is good but not great, marred by a sometimes implausible storyline and an accentuation of a love story that seems grafted onto the real movie. It suffers the Titanic syndrome: the boat is sinking, but I'm going to chase this guy around for stealing my girl! Of course, it's not nearly as bad here.

Jude Law plays Vassili, a young Russian peasant man who enlists with the Red Army and is sent to Stalingrad to fend off the last push by the German army into the Motherland. The opening battle sequence is one of the most horrifying I have seen, as the Russian officers force their soldiers to attempt to take a pier held by the Germans. Bodies fly everywhere, and the officers shoot anyone who attempts to retreat (surely not the best method of inspiring confidence in leadership). Eventually they take the pier, after a horrendous battle in which Vassili takes up a rifle and kills several German soldiers. He meets Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), a reporter who is inspired by the story of the backcountry kid who happens to be an expert marksman. He takes the idea and runs with it, building Vassili up into a legend that inspires the other soldiers. Vassili is assigned to lead a team of marksmen in an attempt to pick off as many German officers as they can. He is uncomfortable with the legend that builds up around him, though, because he knows that he is just an ordinary guy.

Eventually, the Germans send in Major Koenig (Ed Harris), a country gentleman and sharpshooter who is the best the Germans have. He is sent in to kill Vassili, which doesn't help Vassili's morale any. Harris plays the older German as a quiet, practical man: not a bad guy, but one who is willing to do whatever it takes to get back to his estate. He befriends a young Russian boy named Sasha (Gabriel Thompson), who happens to be the younger brother of Tania (Rachel Weisz), a young woman who joins the Russian army as first a helper and then a soldier, and who falls in love with Vassili. Adding to the problems is the fact that Danilov loves her too, leading up to a completely unbelievable turn of events that leaves a bad taste in your mouth for the last quarter of the movie.

The movie is best when it deals with the cat-and-mouse game between the two marksmen. They stalk around the ruins of Stalingrad (which look a lot like the bombed-out city in Full Metal Jacket) trying to maneuver into position, much like a huge chess game played out against the backdrop of war. It is a little simplistic to view the events the way the movie did; for much of the time, you forget that there's a war going on at all, and the story is just about these guys. However, Harris and Law are great in the leading roles, and it was nice to see an acting genius of a previous generation up against a future genius.