Guaranteed to raise your blood pressure and pulse.

Rating: 8/10 (26 October 2002)

If, by chance, this film doesn't send your pulse and blood pressure up into the red, you have nothing to worry about. You're already dead! If, as some pundit said, adventure is some other guy or guys in a hell of a fix a long way from where you are, then this film represents adventure with a very large capital A. Briefly, the crew of an old S-boat (late WW1 vintage submarine) in 1942 is charged with capturing a disabled German U-boat in the Atlantic in order to get the coding machine known as Enigma. With this, the allies would be able to track U-boat positions and deployments, and slow the terrific loss of allied shipping. They do get control of U-571, but their own sub is sunk by another German sub, forcing the boarding party to save themselves in the all-but-sinking U-571. They manage to do so in spite of a later attack by a German destroyer, and keep U-571 afloat long enough to get rescued in the western approaches.
I won't even attempt to detail the horrific ordeal of these guys portrayed in a non-stop succession of special effects not seen in any previous submarine flics. Not just the sea and hostile enemy vessels assail the remnant of the S-boat's crew, but also there is dissension in their ranks, a commanding officer liked but not entirely trusted by all the crew, and the captive German captain of U-571 who manages to get loose. When the sinking U-571 begins the plan to sink the attacking German destroyer, you will certainly inch forward on the couch! Not just the amazing special effects but ingenious and seamless editing add to the non-stop thrills. The fact that the characters are believable and well portrayed adds to the general quality.
But, you must keep in mind that the story thus unfolded is fiction. Allied crews did retrieve Enigma machines from U-110 in 1941 and U-505 in 1944, but not in the way shown here. I would venture the opinion that what we are shown would have been impossible, though some submarine crews did manage to survive some really difficult situations, both in peacetime and war. Some critics have complained that the scene early in the film showing the crew of U-571 machine gunning a boatload of allied survivors is manipulative. Maybe so, but fairly late in the war in the South Atlantic the crew of a German sub did just that to the crew of a merchant vessel they had sunk. It is a well documented case.
Regard this film as a high adventure tale with convincing special effects and you should find it enjoyable. Regard it as history and you will have trouble suspending your disbelief.