Both stupid and interesting

Rating: Null/10 (16 October 2001)

There are two ways to look at this movie, in which the first way gives you a movie that is entirely stupid and hard to believe.
To look at this as a war film is not a good idea, simply because the war-factor in this film is to improbable. The sub avoids a full barrage of hundreds (or so it would seem at one point) of torpedoes and depth- charges - all of which miss by inches. Now, this is simply not possible. You can't have 20 or so depth-charges that come within inches of the hull. One of them HAS to hit. It's simple mathematics. Had it been one or two that just missed I could have tolerated it, but not the extremely high number in this film. That factor quite quickly killed the suspense for me and just irritated me. Therefor, I suggest you NOT look at this as a war-movie, but instead as a movie about one man that comes to grips with what it means to be an officer. Matthew McConaughey is a very good actor, no doubt about that, and his portrayal of the young lieutenant who is friends with the entire crew is solid. He also, very skillfully, captures his transformation into skipper with all that that entails - making critical decisions that mean life or death for the crew.
Other fortes in this movie is that you get a good sense of what life
must have been like inside the WWII beer-can-submarines. Too bad they couldn't make it fully realistic.