# U-571 (Movie review)



## Mike Bobbitt (6 Feb 2003)

*U-571*
Movie Review


*Plot Details: This review reveals major details about the movie‘s plot. *

Where to begin, where to begin with this movie. Perhaps I‘d best start with the good things about it. That list is certainly shorter. 

The underwater photography and submarine models are well done. Not as good as in The Hunt for Red October, but good. The dueling torpedo sequence is especially thrilling if not realistic. 

The scene with the boarding party attacking the German U Boat is also rather well filmed. The close quarter combat with pistols and sub machine guns in the confines of the submarine‘s cramped passages is fast, furious and full of tension. 

Finally the opening scenes aboard the U-571, with the German crew seemed realistic. Maybe it was the subtitles which evoke memories of Das Boat, or maybe it is just the sense of claustrophobia and strain, under combat and the comradeship. Whichever, the scenes appear realistic and well done. 

Ok now for the remainder of the film. First and foremost the plot. Come on I realize that movies sometimes stretch the realm of credibility, but this is pushing it too far. This plot has holes so big you could drive a U-boat through it without firing a torpedo in first. 

I can accept the fact that an operation to acquire the German top secret Enigma coding machine could be mounted. In fact several were in reality over the course of the war. For the most part there were done by the British. In fact the final credits do acknowledge this, so I‘ll give them that. 

I do find it hard to buy that a such an important operation could be so hastily assembled, using an untried obsolete sub and unbloodied crew. I realize that it may make for a better story. but come on in the entire Allied military forces there were no other submarines available, no other crews. 

Likewise, if they‘re willing to ship a Marine "commando" aboard to train and lead the boarding party. Then why not have him bring along some other troops trained in this. The Marine Raiders existed at the time and were well trained in using rubber rafts and used to traveling on submarines. 

I also find it implausible that German naval security is so lame that they would allow the boarding party to get that close without challenging them. Remember they have this great top secret coding machine, right. So they couldn‘t have a recognition code, that the re supply sub would have to send. 

Next the nine odd survivors of the boarding party, are able to quickly repair, and sail the submarine and well enough that they can within minutes of boarding sink a fully crewed U-boat, yeah right. 

Oh I forgot, they have two German speaking crew members aboard to translate all the controls for them. Which also suggests in the entire US Navy, they could only find two German speaking personnel for the mission? 

Of course it is also hard to buy that the survivors are just coincidentally trained in the needed positions to run the sub, planes man, mechanics, etc. including the black steward (one of the few likable characters by the way), who quickly is able to master the diving controls, despite having never been trained in them. 

Remember this is the pre integrated US military when the powers that be believed that African Americans were only fit for menial duties, including kitchen work. Therefore they were only given training in such. 

Then we are treated to the spectacle of the captured sub traveling through the Atlantic on the surface without spotting, or being spotted by a single Allied ship or plane until the finale. They do manage to bump into a German single engine aircraft, and a destroyer in the middle of the Atlantic. How they got there is beyond me. 

Anybody who has studied the battle of the Atlantic is aware that while the German U-boat fleet did almost close the shipping routes from North America to England, there is no way that a surface ship could have arrived undetected. Let alone operated in the Atlantic without either the British, Canadian or American navies quickly destroying it as happened in reality. Ever hear of the Bismarck. 

Besides where did the plane come from, and who was flying it, Lucky Lindbergh. I won‘t even touch on the one shot that sinks the destroyer in the nick of time, except to say can you say "deux ex machina". 

My next big beef is with the characters. We are rather quickly introduced to the crew at a party, and given little chance to identify with them. Matthew McConaughey as the Executive Officer we‘re told has been passed over for command of his own, because he may be too soft and unable to make the hard decisions. Of course we just know that sometime he‘s going to have to make that decision. 

Bill Paxton as the Captain is almost a cliché . Harvey Kietal, in a wasted role, here is another cliché, the grizzled old submariner who is there to give fatherly advice when needed to the young crew. 

I‘m surprised they didn‘t kill his character off. Then the younger crew members would have to figure things out for themselves and therefore become "men" as is often the case in the standard war movie plots, like John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima." 

The minor characters, the crew, are given little chance to develop and therefore we are not able to identify with them. They all appear to have quaint nicknames and there are some early rushed bonding scenes, but they are minimal. It is because of this not really knowing who they are, that when some are killed we really don‘t feel for them. 

David Keith as the Marine Commando appears to be a victim of poor editing. We know he survives the boarding and battle, but after that we don‘t see him again. You can‘t get lost on a submarine. So what happened did he fall off? Maybe he realized that this was not the way to revive his sagging career, and abandoned ship. 

Sorry I just couldn‘t get into this one. Maybe if they had chosen to tell the real story of how the Royal Navy had captured an Enigma it might have made a better story. I could even have accepted a fictional "American" character on the British ship to satisfy Hollywood. 

However if you want a good World War Two submarine drama, go rent Das Boat. Until then someone please fire a couple of torpedoes into this one and put it out of its misery.


----------

