DVD edition improves over the theatrical release

Rating: 5/10 (11 February 2002)

Just as we'd expect from the better DVD commentaries and documentaries that accompany movies, this one adds dimensions additional to the flick itself, and add to our enjoyment of the flick. At the time, I was irritated at the theatrical release of "U-571." The special effects are kind of lame-- wooden and fake. The the "all-too-human" hesitations of the supposed "excellent" executive officer would never happen in real military life. The guy simply would NEVER have made it that far or lasted that long with that kind of psycho-drama going on. And the insubordination displayed by some of the crew would also never have been tolerated in a real military situation. The mouthy, smart-assed crewman Mazola, for example, would have been shot on the spot in a real combat situation. Really.
But then you watch the making-of segments, and you hear the film school dude-- Mostlow, I think, talk about the kind of movie he wanted to make: An actual replication of a 1940s era WW II movie. And elderly Dino DeLarentus talking in the same vein-- and then you get it. And the effects guys and the set designers and the costume lady show off the research they did, and you appreciate "U-571" even more.
OK-- it's a little cheesy, a little corn-ball. But knowing what the producers and director set out to do, it's also spot-on entertainment!
One point that should be addressed: Some British viewers wrote early on that the movie was "bad" because it insinuates that the Americans first captured Enigma, rather than the British. The points should be made: 1) No American student of history would ever deny the British the hallmark of being the first to capture the Enigma device (although the British actually had their first machine delivered to them by a Finnish businessman; it wasn't captured). Everybody over here knows that the British combined bravery and genius to round up a few of these priceless gizmos, and contrive Bletchley Park's amazing and heroic team of code breakers and communications analysts on a scale almost equalling America's Manhattan Project. Yaay Britain. It is also true that even with the machines, there was much more work to do. Consider that by mid 1942, the movie's time frame, the allies (due, of course, to the British) had the Enigma machine for close to 2 years, and we still had NO idea what the German U-Boat service was saying to itself. And, the Americans had been able to crack the tough Japanese 'blue' Naval Code that same year, in time to defeat the Japanese at Midway, without an Enigma machine. And with continuing mechanical and cryptographical improvements and alterations introduced by the Axis Powers throughout the war--- code breaking and daring military raids throughout the war were on-going affairs.
The movie does not claim America was the first. In fact it dedicates the film to the British submarines who actual were. But American submariners did mount such attempts-- one which actually succeeding in 1944. AND, this is just a MOVIE! An American movie, for American audiences, with enough truth to have integrity, and enough glam and flash and theater to entertain the intended audience.