Jonathan Yu's 24th movie of the year

At the Battle for Stalingrad, a young Russian sharpshooter (Jude Law) becomes a national hero when a Soviet political officer (Joseph Fiennes) realizes his propaganda value. His fame soon thrusts him into a duel with the Nazi's best sharpshooter (Ed Harris). Never has the Russian language sounded so…English. If you can get over the blatant bastardization of eastern European vernacular, however, then this Soviet spin on Saving Private Ryan (it even looks like the Spielberg movie) makes for one helluva history lesson. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud's very un-Hollywood production eschews the excessive gore characteristic of American war movies in favor of the proselytization of "humanity," but in doing so it succumbs to an unbelievably anticlimactic ending. Still, two-and-a-half-hours of gawking at Jude Law and that chick from The Mummy ain't half bad. • B-