Boy, were these guys lucky

Rating: 6/10 (15 August 2001)

I don't know. When you get the message that a submarine can only withstand so much pressure, you know darn well that it's going to exceed it. Can you imagine if the sub had been crushed like the egg when it first encountered its maximum stress. They must have dropped 500 depth charges but the darned thing just wouldn't give in. Then we have the torpedo fired like a dying gunfighter as he breathes his last going right on target; and was that some torpedo. With torpedoes like that, I'm surprised we needed to drop a bomb on Hiroshima. One of those would have erased Japan from the map.
I know I'm nit-picking because I know we need to suspend a little disbelief here, but there is a claim of authenticity that just doesn't work. The other thing that bugged me. Why didn't the guy (the one who gets the "You can do it" pep talk) use a rope or a hook of some kind to pull on the lever.
Why did he have to use a fully extended arm. Also, why did they let that German prisoner live and sabotage things for so lon. They had no trouble blowing away the rest of them. My guess is that the director needed to throw another obstacle and show how devious the enemy could be. Well, you get the point. This is one of those films where I started with a reasonably high opinion and as I thought about it, realized how poorly constructed it was. I liked the acting.