Taut and gripping, U-571 follows the exploits of a fictional team of World War II U.S. submariners who undertake a secret mission to capture a German Enigma machine to decode German documents. Writer-director Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown) tells an intense, economical tale, reminiscent of the best classic war films, while infusing it with modern sentiments.
Spring 1942: A crew of young submarine sailors are on a much-needed 48-hour liberty when they're suddenly called together and engaged in an expedition. At the helm are Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), and Chief Klough (Harvey Keitel). Other pivotal crew members include Tyler's Annapolis pal Lieutenant Pete Emmett (Jon Bon Jovi, proving his acting mettle) and Lieutenant Hirsch (Jake Weber), who, along with Marine Major Coonan (David Keith), organizes the mission. As much of the movie takes place in a submarine during WWII, there are inevitable comparisons with the technical masterpiece Das Boot, but Mostow's masterfully shot tale can hold its own.
McConaughey's Tyler is believably earnest as he comes to grips with the reality, tragedy, and consequence of being in command. While this explosion-filled film consistently maintains its tense pace (as did the underrated Breakdown), it also presents with surprising restraint a genuine human story--and the remarkable journey of an unexpected hero. --N.F. Mendoza
2.
Jonathan Mostow's (BREAKDOWN) World War II submarine thriller about a crew of inexperienced American mariners forced to pilot a disabled German U-boat through hostile waters delivers plenty of action while paying homage to such war genre greats as DAS BOOT and DESTINATION TOKYO. Matthew McConaughey (EDTV) leads the rag tag American crew as Lt. Andrew Tyler, a young officer determined to prove himself a capable leader after being denied command of his own ship. His fellow seamen include Jon Bon Jovi (MOONLIGHT AND VALENTINO), Bill Paxton (A SIMPLE PLAN) and a cross-section of American society, featuring a hot-headed Brooklyner, an earnest farm boy, a wise black cook, a pack of fresh-faced young sailors, and Harvey Keitel as a salty old sea dog. Working with a lean plot, Mostow employs Oliver Wood's (FACE/OFF) detailed, claustrophobic cinematography and an exceptional sound design to create a series of engaging and genuinely tense action sequences that take the rickety submarine to crushing depths in order to outrun German attacks. While his attention to hard historical facts may be a bit leaky, Mostow's ability to sustain suspense rewards viewers with a tight genre piece with no shortage of action or good old American patriotism.
3.
"Thrilling! Excitingly Taut And Kinetic!" -Entertainment Weekly
A U.S. Navy Captain and his crew are just beginning to enjoy 48 hours of leave when they receive word to immediately return to duty. On a top-secret assignment, they must disguise themselves as Nazis and infiltrate a severely damaged Nazi U-boat. Once on board, they are to steal the Nazi's top-secret decoding device and sink the sub before the Germans catch on to what's really happening. Their mission is more dangerous and frightening than anything they could have ever imagined, but one which has the power to turn the tide of battle.
"U-571 is exciting!" says Newsweek. Filled with incredible explosions, raging fires and speeding torpedoes, this suspense-filled action-packed film sets a new standard for high impact entertainment and features an impressive all-star cast.
4.
If you've never seen a submarine drama before, then U-571 will probably make a good impression as a tautly choreographed piece of entertainment. A strong cast led by Matthew McConaughey's sympathetic Lt. Tyler undertakes a perilous mission to seize a German Enigma machine, and encounter many dangers along the way. For anyone who has seen any other submarine movie, however, U-571 quickly turns into a succession of genre clichés: there's the depth-charge dropping scene, the diving so deep the reading goes off the scale scene, the near-mutinous tension among the crew, the sacrificial lamb who must save the day, the one torpedo left in the tube, assorted pipes bursting, and so on. The formula is set up by Bill Paxton's hard-nosed Captain, who tells Tyler what he must be prepared to do if he ever has his own command: a series of prophecies that, of course, all come true before long. From then on it's predictable action all the way.
Where U-571 scores highly is in its wealth of period detail: every cog and lever that operates the U-boat is dwelt upon lovingly. It looks and feels completely authentic. The central historical inaccuracy, that the first naval Enigma machine was in fact captured by a British ship, is apologetically mentioned in the end credits. The movie makes no claim to be a true story, admittedly, but other fictional dramas have dealt with the same subject more effectively. Try the magnificent Das Boot, for example, then The Cruel Sea, after which U-571 will seem very unambitious indeed. --Mark Walker
On the DVD: The director himself interviews two naval officers, one American and one British. The British officer is Lt. Commander David Balme, the very man who captured the first naval Enigma machine from U-110 in 1941; the American is the movie's technical adviser, Vice Admiral Patrick Hannifin. The Enigma machine itself is described briefly by an American cryptologist. There's also an old American documentary short about the 1944 capture of the U-505 in the Pacific and a "making of" featurette. The director provides a detailed commentary. --Mark Walker
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