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* AmericansHateTingle:
** Russian audiences hate this movie, and two successive Russian Culture Ministers along with the Russian Military Historical Society have classified this movie as "deliberately anti-Russian propaganda" (memory and commemorations of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII -- called "the Great Patriotic War" there (1941-1945) -- are a ''[[SeriousBusiness very]]'' big deal in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia since UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin is in charge). The main reasons for that are the [[ValuesDissonance weird behaviours of various characters]], the fact that Russians consider this movie too lighthearted and how they feel the Red Army is depicted as evil and incompetent (a general problem Russians have with Western-made productions about them). Russia has produced a huge a number of films about the heroism of the World War II Red Army in the 21st century, which have been understandably better received by their domestic audiences.
** German audiences were also critical of the movie as they felt that it glorified the war and made the Nazis "too sympathetic" (despite the fact that they ''kill a child by hanging'', mind you). It doesn't help the film's case that when it was presented at the Berlinale film festival, it was viciously booed and met with contempt by the audience. The negative reception pissed off Creator/JeanJacquesAnnaud so much that he said he would never present another film at the Berlinale as he called it a "slaughterhouse".
* BestKnownForTheFanservice: What is the film NOT known for? [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Being historically accurate]]. What is it really known for? A LoveTriangle leading to a sex scene in which the audience gets to see Creator/RachelWeisz's naked butt for a few seconds.
* DesignatedHero: Vasily and ''especially'' Tanya suffer from this for some. The movie tries so hard to make Tanya's desire to abandon her job in intelligence and serve along Vasily seem like the right thing to do, and fails so hard if the viewer has an ounce of common sense. That said, they're still legitimately among the more heroic members of the cast.
* DesignatedVillain: Danilov is treated as a villain long before he does anything remotely awful. The film acts like he's trying to pull a UriahGambit when he does nothing of the sort, and many of his criticisms of Vasily are bang-on. One could argue that Major Konig is one as well, given the relatively unlikability of the main characters.
* HoYay: Subverted - a viewer who knows nothing about the camaraderie in European armies (and European military culture in general) might think Vasily and Danilov have a thing for each other, but no, they're just army buddies. And it's not just European soldiers who share such man-love. [[FireForgedFriends The greatest bonds are formed between men during war]].
* MagnificentBastard: [[MajorlyAwesome Major Erwin König]] is a [[ColdSniper veteran sniper]] in the Wehrmacht who has trained many of Germany's sharpshooters at the academy in Zossen. König joins the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad to personally eliminate Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev and the boost he's giving to Soviet morale out of [[YouKilledMyFather revenge for his son's death]]. While hunting for Zaitsev, Kònig sets several sucessful traps for his opponent while avoiding ones laid for him in turn, even killing an expert who actually trained with him. König befriends the Russian boy Sasha and bribes him for information on Zaitsev while knowing that Sasha was a DoubleAgent attempting to lead him to his death the entire time, only killing him after Sasha does not heed his warnings to not get involved anymore. A quiet, stoic soldier, König has equal capacity for civility and utter ruthlessness, and even when he ultimately loses to Vasily he [[FaceDeathWithDignity calmly accepts his impending death]].
* MemeticMutation: Among some World War II communities online, it's become a meme to increasingly mangle the title of the movie while debunking the myths it's popularized, e.g. "Fiends at the Front Door", "Foes in the Foyer", "Hoodlums at the Portcullis", and so on.
* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:König is simply a dedicated soldier throughout most of the film, and even becomes somewhat sympathetic when he tells how he lost his son in the Battle, but he's widely seen to have crossed the line when he hangs Sacha for being a spy to lure out Vasily. Despite this, he knew Sacha was a spy all along but hoped that the boy would listen to his warnings to stay at home and stop it, and when he didn't...]]
* {{Narm}}:
** The look on Creator/RachelWeisz's face during that sex scene isn't so much "You're an amazing lover" as it is "[[FetishRetardant Oh shit, I think you just dislocated my pelvis.]]" Perhaps intentional, given the awkward sex they had.
** The way Creator/BobHoskins says "Stalingrad."
-->"Sshhtalien-GRAD!"
* RomanticPlotTumor: Does ''anyone'' find the love triangle more interesting than the sniper duel? Ironically, it was the ''love triangle'' that actually happened (at least according to Craig), not the sniper duel.
* RootingForTheEmpire: Several critics thought the protagonists were so flat they found themselves rooting for Major König, and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] how wrong the narrative has gone when you find yourself rooting for the ''Nazi''.
* ValuesDissonance:
** Danilov tells Sasha’s mother that Sasha defected to the Germans. Allegedly this was because Danilov could not bear to tell her the grim truth. Sasha’s mother reacts with relief and hope. This not only makes no sense from the context of what we’ve seen in the movie, but is also totally opposite from how such news would have actually been received, given the setting. We saw earlier in the movie how the commanders were suggesting to continue [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure killing the families]] of those who failed to bring victory. For Danilov to report Sasha as a defector, it means Sasha betrayed the Motherland, and that not only disgraces Sasha’s name (and his family’s name) forever, but puts his whole family in mortal danger from the regime, and possibly also anyone they associated with (i.e. Zaytzev and Danilov).
*** Secondly, governmental DisproportionateRetribution aside, if one considers the cultural attitude at the time, it would have only made sense for Danilov to tell her the truth: Sasha died in service to his nation. If Danilov had done that, Sasha would have been remembered as a hero. If a (Soviet) Russian mother receives news of her son’s defection, on that day, she no longer has a son (she would disown him, in addition to him being made a non-person by the government, or worse, sent to a gulag, even shot).
*** Thirdly, a simpler way of putting it, "You attempt to console a mother about her son by saying he's become a NAZI?" Worse still is the fact that Nazis openly regarded Russians and other Slavs as being subhumans, with the invasion of the Soviet Union being their attempt to turn Eastern Europe into Germany's settler colony by ''exterminating them without remorse''.
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