Year:
2000
Studio:
Universal Studios/Studio Canal
Movie:
4/5
DVD:
4/5
Movie
U-571 is a war
movie taking place during the dark days of World War II. The Battle of
the Atlantic was being waged ferociously as Allied convoys tried to
keep England supplied whilst German U-boats tried to stop those
convoys. And the Allies were in danger of losing that battle.
One of the big problems was the German Enigma machine, which encoded
their transmissions and kept them secure from Allied intelligence. The
Allies needed to break the German codes and to do that they needed both
an Enigma machine and the code book.
In this movie they get their chance when U-571 is disabled. A German
resupply submarine is dispatched to help her. The Allied plan is to use
a Trojan Horse to find U-571 first, board her and capture her Enigma
machine. The submarine choses in an old American S-boat commanded by
Captain Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) and his XO, Lieutenant Tyler (Matthew
McConaughey).
Another thing that annoyed me was that torpedoes tended to blow up
ships in fiery explosions. Very Hollywood but usually the explosion was
small and the damage not quite so immediate unless the ship's spine is
broken. Still, it is true that often one torpedo hit was enough to doom
a ship, so what if it explodes rather than quietly sinks?
|
Comments
When U-571 came out the
biggest criticism was that Americans were the heroes. In reality it was
English crews which captured the Enigma machine. I suppose you have to
look at this movie as a fictional action war film. As such it is quite
good and the action is realistic within the restrictions of a Hollywood
film.
DVD
Writer/Director Jonathan Mostow is featured on the commentary track. He
is well organized and talked about a wide variety of things.
Occasionally I tuned out but the commentary is better than average.
There is a 15-minute "Spotlight on Location". There are four 5-minute
featurettes about submarines, mostly Mostow interviewing people. A
short Navy documentary promoting the capture of U-505. Theatrical
trailer, good production notes, fairly good cast biographies round out
the features.
Recommendations
I like this movie. Lots of military action, some amount of submarine
tactics, good production values. There are not that many submarine
movies in the first place and U-571,
although having two somewhat glaring inaccuracies, is one of the better
submarine films.
|