Enemy at the Gates (2001) - 24 mistakes

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.

Factual error: When Kruschev and Vasy go to the press meeting the Soviet National Anthem is playing in the background.  The actual anthem was not written until January of 1944, a year after the Battle of Stalingrad. In addition, the song sung is the 1977 lyrics. The lyrics used in 1944 were slightly different. See http://www.skazka.no/anthems/ for more info.

Factual error: The film map depicting the German advance showed Germany invading Turkey. Turkey did not enter the war until 1945 and never engaged in any combat.

Factual error: At the beginning of the film, when they show the map of Europe slowly being taken over by the Nazis, the Soviet Union in the map is actually modern day Russia. Their borders depict Ukraine as a separate country, when it was actually part of the Soviet Union.

Continuity: When Danilov first shows Vassili the leaflets that praise his exploits, the shot shows a leaflet coming off the printing press with four "x-ed out helmets", indicating how many German soldiers Vassili has killed. The camera follows the leaflet off the press, Danilov picks up the leaflet and hands it Vassili. The next shot shows Vassili looking at the leaflet, but now there are five x-ed out helmets.

Revealing: 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: Nearer the start of the film when Danilov is driving to escape the Germans through the city square he manages to roll his car. You can see the crash helmet of the stunt driver as the car begins to flip.

Factual error: Headquarters do not have tanks park near them.  I do not know why there is always what looked like a company of German Panzer IIIj's parked in front of the 6th Army HQ.

Continuity: In the beginning, when the political officer is crouching behind the wall, the bolt on his rifle is open, but when he leans up to fire, the bolt is magically closed.

Continuity: At the beginning of the film when the Russian troops are rushing headlong at the Germans, there is an obvious cut in one shot as several people shift places and one Russian just disappears.

Factual error: The Heinkel 111 bombers are flying far, far too low for a bombing run. They are barely clearing the buildings they are bombing. At that height they would be sitting ducks for small arms fire and would be damaged by the explosions and debris from their own bombs.

Factual error: Throughout the whole movie, Russian sniper Vassili Ziatsez is using a 3.5 power PU scope on his sniper rifle. In reality, Ziatsev used the larger, 4 power PE scope.

Factual error: In one scene a Soviet T-34 tank is shown in the middle of the battlefield. This is clearly a T-34/85 model (as evidenced by the shape of its turret), which did not appear until late 1943. During Stalingrad, the Red Army was still using the older T-34/76 model, which had a smaller turret.

Factual error: The German army never had a 116 Infantry Division in WWII.  There was a 116 Panzer Division that was formed in 1944 from the 16 Panzergrenadier Division.

Continuity: Before they attempt to trap König with the raised helmet trick, we see one of them light a cigarette. It initially appears to be very large and misshapen. When the angle changes, the cigarette has shrunk to more than half its previous size and is perfectly rolled.

Revealing: 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.

Continuity: When Vassili is behind the chemical factory waiting for the Major to appear, the soldiers run out from under the train cars. The next shot shows the soldiers from behind, and if you look closely a horrible editing mistake was made. Some of the soldiers suddenly disappear, and then reappear.

Continuity: During the scene where Vassili is hiding from Major König behind an old oven and trying to get his gun back by tossing his pocket knife at it and pulling the string, König shoots the string. The string breaks, but the bullet doesn't hit anything behind the string, as if it was stopped by the string!

Continuity: When Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes are walking through the Soviet Headquarters and talking about how the sniper never relocates, in the first scenes, Jude Law has no bandage on his wound on his head, however in the later close up shot there is a bandage, this within a few minutes. There definitely is no bandage present in the first scenes.

Continuity: When Vassili and his two friends go out to trap König by shooting telephone repairmen, their rifles are covered by hessian, when they are shooting the repairman the guns are uncovered, and when Koulikov and Vassili are on the way back and jump across the gap in the buildings their rifles are covered again.

Factual error: Sometime in the movie somebody (I think the boy) says the Nagant rifle that Jude Law uses has a 4 times magnifying scope. When you compare the distance that objects have in the movie without scoping and through the scope of the rifle the magnification is way bigger than just four times. I know that cause I own a 4x scope myself.

Factual error: The hierarchy in the Red Army was very strict. It is totally unthinkable that a political commissar and an infantryman (private) should publicly dance and wrestle each other like two adolescents.

Factual error: During Danilov's escape sequence, there is a rollover of a vehicle. While the vehicle's wheels are still turning, the tyre tread is of a modern all-season radial. When you see the vehicle again, it is a tyre more fitting for the time period.

Continuity: As Koulikov is shot while jumping the gap we see the blood spatter created lies along the dark line above the red writing. In the next shot it shows the spatter from another angle in which we see that it is now above the dark line where it was originally.