The story is the stuff of legend. During the World War II German invasion of Stalingrad, one Russian soldier struck terror into the hearts of German soldiers with his uncanny marksmanship. This lone sniper, Vassili Zaitsev, reportedly killed over 40 Germans during a 10-day period in 1942 and he's credited with 400 kills throughout the course of the war.

So feared was this man, that the Germans had only one choice: Bring in their own sniper, Colonel Heinz Thorvald (also refered to as Koenig in some versions of the history) to hunt him down.

Thus the stage is set for a duel of wits and skill. Accounts tell that during the four days these two men hunted each other, nearly all other battle halted in Stalingrad - the opposing armies simply stopped and waited while the two master marksmen played a deadly game of chess in the ruins of the city.

The story also says that in the final hours of the duel, Zaitsev learned Thorvald's position by sticking a glove out in the open, prompting Thorvald to shoot at the movement. Zaitsev and his spotter had a fix on their opponent's general location and moved to a better position. There, they waited until morning, when the rising sun would be in Thorvald's face, before making a move. In the end, Zaitsev's spotter raises a helmet, prompting another shot from Thorvald and narrowing down his position to some scraps of metal. Zaitsev catches a glint of sunlight in those scraps coming off of Thorvald's scope and fires at the shadow behind it, killing the German.

Did it really happen? Who knows. Zaitsev's sniper exploits are well documented, yet for this infamous duel, records are not clear and in many cases, conflicting. Still it's a great story.

Enemy at the Gates attempts to recreate this epic duel and embellishes the story with drama. Most of the main characters really existed, but their real interaction with each other is a matter for debate. With history fuzzy on the specifics of this duel, who's to say this version doesn't retain elements of the truth? Still, there is little evidence to suggest any sort of love triangle, such as the one that appears in the film and many have criticized it for that. I'm not one of them.

The film opens with a young Vasilli Zaitsev (played as an adult by Jude Law) learning how to shoot by firing at the wolves that attack the family's livestock. Vasilli is only given one bullet and his instruction comes from his grizzled grandfather.

Flash forward to World War II. Vasilli is thrust into the front lines of the German siege of Stalingrad. The Russian tactics are brutal: Two men are sent out for each rifle. The second man is given a handful of bullets and instructed to pick up the rifle and continue fighting when the first rifleman is killed. As an incentive to continue fighting, men who turn back are shot and killed by their superiors.

Vasilli manages to survive this battle by playing dead on the battlefield and he meets another Russian soldier, Danilov (Ralph Fiennes) who is also hiding among the dead bodies. Vasilli impresses Danilov by killing five German soldiers with five shots, each timed perfectly with surrounding explosions in order to mask the sound of the rifle. In an effort to raise morale, Danilov writes propaganda articles about Vasilli's skill and gets the sharpshooter promoted in to the sniper division.

As Vasilli's kill record increases, the Germans become more and more nervous and eventually bring in sniper instructor Major Konig (Ed Harris) to find and eliminate the deadly Russian.

Meanwhile, Vasilli and Danilov encounter a young woman (Rachel Weiss) and both men fall for her. Danilov secures the woman a "cushy" translators position, but she would rather be in the thick of battle. More specifically, she would rather join Vasilli in the sniper division. This sets up the aforementioned love triangle. Certainly, this is completely unnecessary in a war film, but if nothing else, the subplot serves as breathers between the tense sniper scenes. Furthermore, the love triangle justifies Danilov's fate a little better than some of the history books.

I imagine it's inevitable that comparisons will be made between this movie and Saving Private Ryan, but I'm not sure they are entirely fair comparisons. Yes, both movies are about World War II, both are presented in a gritty, convincing fashion and both feature an impressive opening battle sequence, but make no mistake - these are two very different films. And on its own terms, I think Enemy at the Gates is at least as strong a film as Spielberg's epic.