Enemy at the Gates

Revealing mistake: Midway through the movie, there is a long-shot of several characters walking outside between two gutted factory buildings. The camera pulls back, zeros in on the base of a huge chimney and pans upward to the very top - where two men in black and white checkerboard jackets are working.

Revealing mistake: When the character played by Joseph Fiennes is in the Soviet headquarters, you can see his glasses shine with a purplish light. This is because his glasses are anti-reflex, something that was not available until much later than WWII.

Revealing mistake: When Danilov and Kruschev are in the war room, when they think Zaitsev is dead, pay attention to the maps on the walls. These are modern US and British defence maps that weren't available until starting about 1960. The clue is the the numbers on the squares. These are flight altitudes clearances for jets. Also, you can see that the maps are in Roman letters. Soviet maps during WWII were in Cyrillic and they looked differently.

Revealing mistake: When the car flips at the start, you can see that a ramp has been made especially for the stunt. (00:14:50)

Ssiscool

Revealing mistake: At the start when the Russians are on the boat and being shot at via the planes, if you look really carefully you can see blood packs visible just as they get shot. (00:08:15)

Ssiscool

Factual error: When the map of the German advance is shown, Switzerland is shown to be taken over. Switzerland was never invaded by the Germans. (00:05:10)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It doesn't show German advances. It shows the German influence over Europe, symbolizing it covers all of Europe and then expanded towards the East. Italy was never conquered by the Germans either yet it was part of the axis and is shown being covered by black. Switzerland, though neutral, was fully surrounded by the Axis and their influence played heavily upon the country. Its a very crude simulation.

lionhead

Suggested correction: It does not show the German advancement in true historical order, but more like a red shadow that expands across Europe in a steady pace. And just as the camera starts zooming in on Stalingrad, you can see a small sliver of red starting to spread on the south-eastern coast of Norway.

dizzyd

More mistakes in Enemy at the Gates

Major König: Once again, he knew exactly where to find me. Don't you think that's strange? Apart from me, only you knew.

More quotes from Enemy at the Gates

Trivia: The film is based upon William Craig's book of the same name, yet the entire movie is based upon a sniper duel that covers no more than two pages of the entire book. German army historical records never mention an elite sniper named "Major Koenig" hunting Vassili Zaitsev at Stalingrad.

Scott215

More trivia for Enemy at the Gates

Answer: For the same reason Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were top billed in Superman. He was a bigger name and his agent was able to negotiate a better deal.

Answer: They almost share the same amount of screen time, but Jude Law is a tad younger and Joseph was coming off a very successful 'Shakespeare in Love' as well as 'Elizabeth'. He was a more marketable actor at the time.

More questions & answers from Enemy at the Gates

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