How America won WWII

Rating: 1/10 (19 January 2006)

Okay, this is a pretty good war story, well acted and well directed. Unfortunately, the central theme of the story is based on the actions of Royal Navy, not US Navy servicemen.
Maybe in 2,000 years it'll be OK to make a film like this, when the history of WWII will have been retold (and possibly re-written) a few hundred times.
Right now, when it's still in living memory, is not the time to re-write history. Any film that's based on true events is allowed a certain amount of licence with the truth, but when the filmmakers completely disregard what actually happened (British servicemen retrieving Enigma code material from a sinking U-boat, one of them drowning in the process) and send the USA to save the day, it's too much. There was no captured U-boat with an American crew. Matthew Maconahey did not win WWII for us.
Many people will say "Hey, it's only a movie, don't get so uptight!" Tell that to Chuck Yeager, the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager flew his American Bell X-1 past Mach 1 in 1947, but in 1952, "The Sound Barrier" (an entirely fictional movie in which a plucky Brit flies past Mach 1) was released. After this film, Yeager was often asked by journalists whether he'd learned how to fly supersonic from that guy in the British movie. At least he was still alive and therefore able to set the record straight once he was allowed to talk about what he'd done.
But hey, it's only a movie, don't get so uptight!
If you tell an audience that a film is based on true events they will think that the film is the truth, because it's the easiest way to process what they've seen. If you want to see a true WWII submarine movie, watch "Das Boot" and leave "U-571" alone.