Foi uma escolha estilística do diretor. Em esta entrevista com Stephen Lemons, Jean-Jacques Annaud deixa bem claro que, no que lhe diz respeito, uma vez que você está imerso na história , os sotaques são em grande parte insignificantes e podem até diminuir o prazer do filme. Ele também destaca alguns clássicos do cinema que seguiram o mesmo caminho:
Some journalists have been critical of the fact that you shot the film in English, and that the main players, with the exception of Ed Harris, are British and have British accents. What's your response to that criticism?
Half of the market is an English-speaking market! If you give them actors who cannot speak English, it just doesn't play. And as a Frenchman, I can only direct in French or English; I cannot direct in Russian. There's no way you can do this movie in the Russian or German. You have to go with the original version in English. After that, you've got the choice of British, American or maybe Australian actors. I remind people that movies are made in the language of their audience. When Shakespeare did "Romeo and Juliet," he didn't do it in Italian, or even using English speakers with Italian accents. This applies as well to "Dr. Zhivago," which was set in Russia, but had English actors. It takes about five or 10 minutes to accept it, but once you're in the story, you forget that those people are English or American.
e em esta entrevista com Ed Harris na Entertainment Weekly:
”[Director] Jean-Jacques Annaud specifically asked me not to do a German accent. A lot of times the German accent in war movies becomes a cliché – a ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ kind of deal. But I worked with a dialect coach and did a Middle Atlantic thing, a little more cultured than I myself am. A little more refined, if you will. At least I didn’t sound like I was from New Jersey.”