Cliched and unrealistic representation of a great original sea story.

Rating: 6/10 (24 April 2000)

I must admit I liked the film as I was watching it, but looking back later, its very cliched. The XO passed over because of a lack of leadership, the Captain who just manages to push the XO through the personal development door, plus quite a few other co-incidences of the highest order.
Plus it's was also unrealistic and unrepresentative. The original version had a British Corvette, not an American Submarine pull off the mission. Torpedos of that era were point and shoot weapons. The idea submarines would use them against submarines is like two people trying to shoot each other with pistols at fifty meters with blindfolds on. Any of those near misses with depth charges would have sunk a real submarine. While Condor reconnaissance aircraft could travel long distances they certainly couldn't be used to escort a german Destroyer alone in the Atlantic. And there were no Destoyers in the Atlantic, the german surface navy was impotently confined to local waters or the Meditterenean for the duration of the war, their escape routes effectively blocked by the geography of Scandinavian/Danish water and the Royal Navy, and by the narrow confines of the Gibralter Strait to the south. And submarines certainly didn't have radar in 1942.
Those annoyances beside, if you can suspend disbelief, then the sound quality is excellent and it looks good and it dramatic enough.
Otherwise, stay at home and rent 'Das Boot'.