Portrait of the artist as a young Yank submariner

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2000)

If you want history, get a decent book on Enigma, Ultra, and submarine warfare during World War II. If you want to see a great World War II submarine movie, rent DAS BOOT; if you want another Coming of Age During WWII movie--with death replacing sex--you can do worse than U-571.
The "thesis," or, you should pardon the expression, "surface" level of U-571 is a gung-ho propaganda flick (and if you're under 30, and don't know WWII US propaganda, and might be surprised by the-kid-from-_______-who-is-too-young-to-die actually dying, what follows might include a SPOILER). Matthew McConaughey's Lt. Andrew Tyler must learn that it's not enough to be willing to die for his men; it's not enough for him to be willing to kill for his men; it's not even enough to allow his commanding officer (Bill Paxton's Lt. Commander Mike Dahlgren) to sink to a watery grave--he didn't his skipper much anyway; no, a real naval CO must be willing to send to their deaths men he loves like kid brothers, men who love and respect him like an older brother. If the mission or the boat or the Navy requires it, you send your sailors to their deaths.
Okay, but "Semper Fi, do or die! Gung-ho, gung-ho, gung-ho!" is US Marine Corps jive, not Navy, and there's a (sorry!) deeper level, if you want to see it, with a more subversive antithesis.
Lt. Tyler learns that a submarine in wartime is not run democratically. He learns to take command and act as if he knows all. He learns that to achieve a crucial mission in a crucial war, he has to use the love and respect of one of his young sailors to get a job done, one where the sailor does "do _and_ die" (to quote Lord Tennyson correctly).

Lt. Tyler learns the art of war and enters military manhood, doing what must be done in a Just Cause.
Still, these Yanks at sea are in a U-boat, a German sub, dressed in German uniforms. In fighting for that Just Cause, they take on the appearance of their enemies and two crucial doctrines of their enemies: that democracy is dispensable when really serious issues are at stake and that the individual may and should be sacrificed--killed off--if necessary for the greater good.
According to the movie (SPOILER COMING), Tom Guiry's nice young Trigger is the kid too young to die who bloody-well _will_ die to save das Boot--sorry, the Boat--and do much to win the war for the Allies. Where U-571 surpasses your average propaganda piece is that it subtly but surprisingly strongly suggests that we count the costs of this crucial victory. To defeat our enemies, we may become uncomfortably like our enemies.