Favorite Movies

Jaeger, I don't have a TV by choice as well, I thought I was the only one. Enemy at the Gates sounds like a book a read called War of the Rats, it is a true story about a sniper duel during the battle for Stalingrad. Crouching Tiger rules, my wife even liked it, and we never agree on movies. And how could I forget the first Predator movie, some cool knives and the best one liners ever. Jesse Ventura's finest hour.

[This message has been edited by rkenny@wcupa.edu (edited 03-13-2001).]
 
I don't know how accurate the movie is going to be, but "Enemy At The Gates" is based on an actual sniper duel between a Soviet marksman and the German officer who trained the German snipers during the war. It is at Stalingrad, and the story in the book and the movie are probably inspired by the same events. Is the book fiction or non-fiction. If it's non-fiction then you can remove that "inspired."
 
The book was fiction, but the author claimed to have researched the history well. All the events in the book actually happened; and the author kind of filled in the story. Such as thoughts and motivations of the people based on his research of those involved. All in all it was a good book, I hope the movie is good, I may go see it this weekend.
 
"Enemy At The Gates" is indeed nonfiction, written by William Craig. I read it years ago and it's been out of print, but I see it's being re-released as a tie-in to the movie. It's an excellant book about the siege of Stalingrad, with many anecdotes from both German and Russian perspectives. The sniper duel was one small part of the much larger whole.

 
Also, there is an 80'sish movie called Survivor with (Chip Meyer?). It's about the end of the world type thing. It has a scean where the Hero gets stabed in the gut with what looks like a Ganga Ram, if I remember right! Check it out!

------------------
Chris B.
 
You guys can add to the list of movies-with-khukuries "Farewell to the King" with Nick Nolte. It's set in Borneo in WWII. One of the British commonwealth soldiers in it (an African soldier, odd he wasn't a ghorka instead) uses what I think is called a K45 style khuk like the kind issued to some ghorkas in WWII. It's a pretty good movie, too.

I fully agree with "Gladiator", "Last of the Mohicans", "Braveheart" and some of the others you guys picked, also. All great movies.

I saw "Crouching Tiger" recently, and it was really good, too.

I'll also throw in my $.02 about "Enemy at the Gates". Haven't seen it yet, but I know the real story behind it. It's about a sniper named Vasili Zaitsev, who is still the highest 'scoring' sniper in history. He ended the war with over 400 confirmed german kills, as memory serves. Most of those kills were at Stalingrad; he hurt german morale so badly they sent the head instructor from their sniper school to kill him. Won't give anything away, but if it's accurate, the ending should be good. I'm just worried Hollywood didn't think history was interesting enough and decided to alter it a little.
 
My favorite is "The Right Stuff", about test pilots and the Mercury program. Has action, humor, emotion, inspiration and some great actors (Dennis Quaid, Ed Harris, Sam Shepard, Barbara Hershey). It is 3+ hours long so be prepared to sit for a while. I don't recall any knives.

 
Anyone get out to see "Enemy at the Gates" yet? The reviews that I've read have said it's a really good movie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top