The film's main character is a fictionalized version of Vasily Zaitsev, a sniper and Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II.

[10] The cast includes Jude Law as Zaitsev, Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova, and Ed Harris as König, with Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Marshall Thomson, and Matthias Habich in supporting roles.

Forced into a suicidal charge without a rifle but with ammunition, he hides among a pile of corpses, while a tank shell incapacitates a car.

While the other commissars suggest more severe discipline and terror, Danilov, now a senior lieutenant, recommends giving the troops inspiration.

In fear for her safety, Danilov has her transferred to an intelligence unit, ostensibly to make use of her German skills in translating radio intercepts.

Danilov finds a boy, Sacha Filipov, who volunteers to act as a double agent by passing König false information about Vassili's whereabouts in exchange for food.

In turn, König gives the general a War Merit Cross that was posthumously awarded to his son, a lieutenant in the 116th Infantry Division who was killed in the early days of the battle.

Two months later, after Stalingrad has been liberated and German forces have surrendered, Vassili finds Tania recovering in a field hospital.

[18] Military historian David R. Stone praised the cast and said the film is "a good thing for the study of the Eastern Front during World War II" but criticized its historical inaccuracies and presentation, concluding: "To end on a brighter note, Enemy at the Gates has at the very least boosted the number of my students who drop by the office to ask questions about Stalingrad.

"[11] For the Society for Military History, historian Roger Reese wrote: "As a work of fictionalized history this movie serves a useful purpose beyond entertainment, that of bringing to the attention of movie-goers in the West the sacrifices Soviet soldiers made in defending their country and defeating Hitler and giving a face to those legions still largely anonymous to us.

"[9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that it "is about two men placed in a situation where they have to try to use their intelligence and skills to kill each other.

"[19] New York's Peter Ranier was less kind, declaring: "It's as if an obsessed film nut had decided to collect every bad war-film convention on one computer and program it to spit out a script.

"[21] The film received unenthusiastic reviews in Russia but had good box office in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

The film uses events from William Craig's 1973 nonfiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad but is not a direct adaptation.

Записки снайпера»), which completely contradicts the point of view presented in Craig's book and the film on the events that took place, is not taken into account.

[9] The film's first scene shows new Soviet troops, including Zaitsev, arriving at the Stalingrad front, being screamed at, threatened, and in general humiliated by their commanders.

According to military historian Boris Yulin, that was forbidden and is unrealistic, as the soldiers would have then been killed in case of a German air raid or shelling.

[16] In regards to the lack of weapons, which happened early in the war and changed by 1942, Isaev said: "There were no unarmed soldiers sent to the attack.... What is shown in Enemy at the Gates is pure nonsense.