Solid, save for a few small nits. (spoilers)

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2000)

I find it interesting that so many people have chosen to "torpedo" what is a solid, impressive work of historical fiction. Yes, that's right, historical _fiction_. Just like "Guns of the Navaronne" is fiction, just like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is fiction, just like the vast majority of war movies. For what it was -- a submarine movie -- "U-571" was quite excellent. Solid acting, casting, and sets backed up a drawing plot... would they get away? (Yes, we know that they will since it's an American movie, but ignore that for now.) Would the capture of the submarine go through smoothly? How close _is_ that depth charge going to come?
I'd have to say the only disappointment I had with the film was the way that the German destroyer went down at the end of the film. Regardless of how powerful a torpedo is, when it strikes the front of the ship there will not be a series of explosions going off in series throughout the length of the vessel. The torpedo blows a hole in the hull, so that water pours in and the boat sinks... and fire is just an occasional side-effect.
This isn't to say that torpedos can't be devastating -- one of the most memorable war clips I've ever seen showed a destroyer that was literally broken in half by a torpedo hit -- but simply that the overly-cinematic destroyer explosion at the end of the movie left me a bit dissatisfied.
History-wise, "U-571" seemed quite reasonable. It was set in 1942, the year after the original Enigma machine was captured by the British... and there's no way that the crew being sent to retrieve the code machine would have previously known of Enigma. Remember, it was a tightly guarded secret, on both sides of the war.
Overall, a solid, edge-of-your-seat war thriller. My rating: 8/10.