Lacks heart, but great action keeps this sub thriller afloat.

Rating: 7/10 (19 April 2000)

If you've seen a submarine action/thriller before, whether it be "Hunt for Red October", "Crimson Tide" or any one of the countless others, you know we're not exactly sailing in uncharted waters. "U-571" begs, borrows and steals from the best of the rest, but there is enough suspense and a few surprises to make this boat worth the ride.
Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton and a host of newcomers take sail to overtake a German submarine during WWll in an attempt to steal a precious telegraph device (a.k.a. "Enigma"), which allows the Germans to communicate in a code the US simply can't crack. How the Americans tapped into the communications between the sub and the German command seems to defy the premise (i.e. "Enigma"), but we'll let that slide for the moment. And that the soldiers look as though they were handpicked out of GQ magazine instead of boot camp... we can let that slide I guess. And the historical fact that it was actually the British that sought the Enigma... well, we'll just have to let that slide too. It's a movie... not a documentary.
As with all the action pictures of this genre, explosions are a must... and "U-571" is no exception. In fact, one must wonder if, after the umpteenth depth charge explosion, the film-makers were able to claim "no fishes of any kind were injured in the making of this picture." At least we know what the cast ate for dinner. Nevertheless, the special effects deliver... and with an 80 million plus budget, they had better.
The acting and writing are adequate, although Harvey Keitel, usually in top form, delivers his lines as though he has just read the script for the first time. I simply can't believe he agreed to utter lines like, "I'd sail with you any day of the week." The plot, loosely based on a true story, surfs along with as many predictable devices as it does surprises, but I guess it would have been a work of pure fiction otherwise.
But what I miss most from "U-571" is a strong emotional core. There are so many sailors running around that it's hard enough to remember all their names, never mind get to know who they are. We know that they're handsome, skilled and afraid to die (yadda, yadda, yadda)... but who are they? "U-571" never submerges deep enough into the hearts and minds of it's occupants for us to find out. And so, even though the action/suspense cup is more than half full, the emotional cup is more than half empty.
What keeps this ship from sinking is the tight direction of Jonathan Mostow, who also wrote the script. Mostow directed Kurt Russell in the less successful "Breakdown". Mostow keeps the action flowing at a hundred knots per hour. Relentless at times. But you never feel irritatingly bombarded, as in films like "Armageddon". Mostow knows how to walk that delicate line between action and suspense... even if we are all too aware of the safety net below.