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Title: Intense and smart
Review: This ia an intense and smart cat-and-mouse tale of two men - a Russian marksman played by Jude Law and a cold-hearted Nazi sniper played by Ed Harris - made heros by the necessity of war. The script makes a smart choice by focusing on the tale of the younger Russian, including his friends (Fiennes) and loves (Weisz) to make a more sympathetic character. By doing this and witholding the same character build-up of Mr. Harris' character (who gets due service by what the script does NOT tell us ... a good case of "less is more"). The intensity of the four lead performances, combined with real locations, a strong supporting cast, a strong script, a true story, and the solid directing job by Jean-Jacques Annaud makes for a very good film. It does not reach the heights of PLATOON or THE THIN RED LINE, but it is still an awfully good movie.
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