U-571

Plot synopsis:
After sinking a merchant ship from an Allied convoy, German U-boat U-571 has her engines badly damaged by depth charges from a British destroyer. U-571's skipper Kapitänleutnant Gunther Wassner makes a distress call that is intercepted by American intelligence, so the US Navy has submarine S-33 modified to resemble a German resupply U-boat to steal the Enigma coding device and sink the U-571. As the crew of S-33 receive their assignment, the submarine's executive officer Lieutenant Tyler is unhappy about his promotion being blocked by commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren.
During a storm, S-33's boarding party surprises and overwhelms the crew of U-571. After securing U-571, the American S-33 is torpedoed by the German resupply sub that was sent to aid U-571. Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren is blown off the deck of S-33 and seriously wounded, while struggling to stay afloat he refuses rescue and orders the boarding party on the captured U-boat to submerge. Lieutenant Tyler takes command of U-571 and dives below the surface where they engage and sink the resupply sub in an underwater battle.
After making repairs and restoring power Tyler decides to route the disabled submarine to Land's End in Cornwall, England. They are spotted by a German reconnaissance plane which is unaware that U-571 has been commandeered by Americans; a nearby German destroyer sends over a small contingent but right before boarders arrive, Tyler gives orders to fire a shot from the deck gun, destroying the German destroyer's radio room, and preventing it from reporting the capture of a German sub and its Enigma machine and code books. The sub dives underneath the German destroyer, which then begins to drop depth charges to sink U-571. U-571's original master Kapitänleutnant Wassner escapes captivity and kills one of Tyler's crew but he is subdued before he can sabotage the boat's engines.
Tyler attempts to trick the destroyer into stopping its attack by ejecting debris and a corpse out of a torpedo tube, faking their own destruction, however the German destroyer continues dropping depth charges. The crew then realizes that Kapitänleutnant Wassner, despite being shackled, is using Morse Code tapping to signal to the destroyer that the submarine was captured and knock him out. U-571, hiding at below 600 feet (180 m), is damaged by the high water pressure. Control of the main ballast tanks is lost and the ship ascends uncontrollably. Tyler orders crewman Trigger to submerse himself in the bilge underwater to repressurize the torpedo tubes.
Trigger uses an air hose to enter the flooded compartment. He closes the air valve to the torpedo tubes, but a second leak and broken valve are found, which Trigger can't reach. U-571 surfaces heavily damaged and begins to flood, unable to fire its last torpedo from its stern tubes. The destroyer gives chase and fires upon U-571 with its main guns; the first hit causes pipes to collapse, pinning Trigger's leg, after he has left the air hose behind. Unable to turn back, he reaches for the valve and closes it before he dies. The second the pressure is available, Tyler orders Tank to fire the final torpedo. The German destroyer is unable to take evasive action and is sunk. As the crew sigh in relief, Tank reports Trigger's death. U-571 has taken severe damage and will not remain afloat for long. The crew abandons the submarine with the Enigma in their possession. The crew watch U-571 as she slips beneath the waves. Floating aboard an inflatable lifeboat, they are eventually rescued by a US Navy PBY Catalina flying boat.

Tags: suspenseful, action, psychedelic, murder, violence

Review:
The British captured the enigma first, the Canadians caught another later and the U.S. WASN'T EVEN IN THE WAR YET!This is beyond "just entertainment" as Americans are now laying quasi-historical claim (and we all know how many will take some or all of it as true - most) to victories and sacrifices purchased by people of other nations.
Those are the films where north american soldiers are the only ones capable of any wit, wisdom, intelligence and courage.Unfortunately, by now the rest of the world is a bit brighter, and we know that, really, Ben Affleck didn't save Great Britain from the Germans.
If a future historian only had U.S. war movies to base history upon, he would decidedly declare the rest of the world sub-human idiots, and the U.S. civilization as a more evolved race.A theory Hollywood debunks quite nicely..
The American boarding party ends up trapped on the U-boat and must figure out how to get home with their prize.The special effects, including sound effects, are good, and there are lots of satisfying explosions and interesting underwater camera views.
The plot is a bit predictable, and seems to owe a lot to many previous submarine movies, including Das Boot.
There are a few technical issues that purists will notice; for example, American S-boats were not actually equipped with radar, an awful lot of bullets were sprayed around the interior of the U-boat without appearing to damage anything vital, and the plan to open the torpedo tubes at a depth of 200 meters seemed ill-advised, to say the least.One scene was disturbing, however.
The truth about the Laconia order is it did forbid picking up survivors but did not specify that they be shot, simply that they not be rescued or aided as well as the only case on record in World War II in which a U-boat purposely fired on survivors in the water.In general, this is a good action film.
In an interview in the 23 April Washington Post, the director, Jonathan Mostow, states that the movie Das Boot was "based on a lie" because "[...] it pretended that the captains and crews were submariners first, and only incidentally Nazis.
The REAL story behind the films exploits is far more embarasing & not one that Hollywood is going to tell the great American public.The British cracked Enigma before the US even entered the War!
This tripe was perpetuated by a director who has no appreciation for history, and who sets himself up as an authority on "what appeals to American moviegoers..forget for a moment the fact that the British first secured enigma from U-110.
If you want a good Submarine movie, try Das Boot, or The Enemy Below.
Of course a hand-full american sailors, who even can`t read the (german) instruments of the different machines in U-571 probably manage to get away with the submarine immediately.
I´m really not a german nationalist and there were a lot of good and even great movies about WWII ( e.g. Saving Private Ryan) but U-571 isn`t.
As for its mindless entertainment value, if you have only ever seen one u - boat movie you will essentially have seen U-571 because it goes to great pains not to miss any cliché in the book; the first third in particular is an almost exact copy of "Das Boot".What really angers me about U-571 though, apart from it being a really bad movie, is the premeditated way it tries to remanufacture history.
perhaps acceptable when the propaganda was necessary (in the 40's), but certainly not 50 years after the fact.The film also fails to capture a good sense of life in one of these submarines...
since the film concentrates on military glory and good triumphing over evil, the potentially powerful, subtler moments of suspense are hopelessly lost, and the film degenerates into a muffled confusion of trumpets and excessively justified violence.It is impossible to watch this without thinking of Das Boot, and how much more powerful the cinematography and directing are, not to mention how much more tolerant and accurate a picture it paints of the morality of warfare and of Germans as real people during the war.My rating is 2/10 on this film, because it has wasted a potentially powerful concept on mindless and destructive entertainment, questioned Germans as human beings, took millions of dollars to do it, and is essentially a cultural regression from its ancestor Das Boot, made 20 years prior..
The German movie Das Boot was criticized by former U-boat sailors for its portrayal of depth charges being too close to the U-boat and not sinking it.
The movie's feel and ambience was never quite involving enough.Because of my complete lack of history knowledge, I didn't know what happened in the real events relating to this film.
In fact, a typical plot-twist in this movie would have been that the Enigma device was actually given to the Germans by a pro-Hitler OSS faction within the US government.
Yet again, Hollywood rewrites history to make it look like America alone won the Second World War!
This really is an awful movie that spectacularly distorts the history of the Battle of the Atlantic and, as a proud Briton, I find it downright insulting to my nation and it's efforts during the Second World War. It totally ignores even the basic historical facts concerning the true story of the breaking of the Enigma code, apart from a little mention in the end credits at the point where most movie-goers have already begun to walk out of the theatre and are unlikely to ever see it.
And with all of the other factual errors, distortions, and cultural stereotypes, this is about as far from being even a semi-accurate depiction of the war at sea as you will ever get.If you want a movie that has no basis in reality and just panders to national stereotypes and American patriotic jingoism, then you'll probably enjoy this movie - Just remember that what you are watching is complete fiction and not in any way a representation of true history.
However, if you want something that accurately depicts submarine warfare in the Atlantic during the Second World War, you'd be far better advised to watch Das Boot instead..
Most action movies exaggerate those things - and heroes mostly don't die - but there's one thing that I absolutely didn't like: the distortion of the truth as the British captured the Enigma but not the Americans..
This movie for some reason had lots of people complaining about how Americans were not the first to find the decoder depicted in the film.
The decoder was just a way to get some guys on a German U-boat so we could have a pretty good action movie.
So a nice action movie, with some good submarine battles, I preferred "The Hunt Red October" and I have heard the German film "Das Boot" is the superior submarine film of all of them, but have never seen that one.
It is based (loosely) on history (history being that there once were German and Allied submarines that fought in a war known as World War II, and that there was a German code machine the Allies called the "enigma").Not only is it not historical regarding the event (the capturing of U-571 and the enigma code machine by Americans) but in many other areas such as what submarines of that era and their weapons could and could not do (such as dogfighting underwater with torpedo's).Don't look for character development either.
The German U-Boats are wreaking havoc in the North Atlantic, sinking every Allied ship in their path and threatening to cut off the critical supply line from America to Britain that is saving the Allied War Effort.
In a Special Operation Mission a US Submarine Crew, headed by Captain Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), are sent to capture the Enigma Code (the German Code that is allowing them to position there submarines without alerting the Allies) which will change the course of the war.The main plot of the movie, thought completely fictional, works well and maintains a viewers interest.
As a fan of 1981's Das Boot I don't think the ending of any submarine film could ever be as good.
That's like a nightmare most of us have had at one time.This movie is the doofus-y little brother of films like "Das Boot" and "Hunt For Red October".
Somebody looking for an intense World War II film that has a few shocking twists, can't go too wrong with this movie.
Rent Das Boot (preferably the directors cut) to see a truly great U-Boat submarine movie.
Perfect production design by Gotz Weidner who also made 'Das Boot' .The film belongs to submarine genre, along with : ¨ Torpedo(1958) ¨ by Robert Wise with Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable 'Torpedo run(1958)' by Joseph Pevney with Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine; 'Das Boot(1982)' by Wolfgang Petersen with Jurgen Prochnow; 'Hunt for red october(1990)' by John McTiernan with Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery ; 'Crimson tide' by Tony Scott with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; 'K19' with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson and in similar style ¨U-Boat(2004)¨ by Tony Giglio with Scott Caan , William H Macy and of course Tomas Kretschmann who in U-571 also stars a German officer , as usual .The movie produced by the great producer Dino De Laurentiis is based on historic deeds , thus the construction of new U-boats continued at a record -breaking during WWII.
The cost was great on both sides .In the six years of war ,the Germans,by their own statistics,destroyed more than 2000 British,Allied ships in the sea.Hitler had built 1162 subs ,of which 783 were lost.Of the 41000 men recruited into the underwater service ,between 28000 and 32000 lost their lives and 500 were taken prisoners.The film provides a realistic detailing of life aboard and a portrait about the crews subjected to stressful and psychological tensions .
I felt it did a good job with depicting what it would be like to serve on a submarine.It saddens me to see several reviews that are scathing in nature because the reviewer felt the movie slighted all nations other then the US.To the credit of the movie makers, at the end of the movie was a message that went something like this, "This movie is dedicated to all the brave sailors of the allies who risked their lives during WWII." I will agree this movie makes the Americans appear to be head and shoulders above the Germans they were fighting, but it was made by Hollywood, don't be mad at the whole USA.The ending credits make it clear the British were the first to capture an enigma.
Some of the many errors: -The British captured the first two enigma machines, and the Americans didn't get their first until 1944 -In reality, U-571 sank 7 ships and was sunk with all hands off England, and S-33, sunk in the movie, was in Alaska (it survived the war) -The Germans had no surface fleet in operation during the war (other than the Bismark's ill-fated sortie)so why would they have a destroyer to chase U-571?
Let's start by saying as a historical document it sucks - everyone knows that it was a British crew that found the naval Enigma machine and code books, fact.
There have been many submarine films including the superb German made "Das Boot" and an old British black and white film made on a shoestring budget - "Morning Departure" - based on the true story the sinking of HMS Truculent and the attempts made to rescue her trapped crew..
If you like sub movies do yourself a favor and watch Das Boot.
In a movie like this one, it's hard to separate facts from fiction if you don't know the true history in advance.
Despite the director's denials this film is based on the true story of U-110 which was captured by the British destroyer Bulldog on May 9th 1941 - several months before the US entered the war.
There was an attempt to replicate the tense atmosphere of Das Boot with a true life story.The film takes place in 1942, a US submarine is in the Atlantic looking for a stricken German U-boat.Posing as a German supply crew, they plan to board the U-571 and steal the Enigma machine, the device the Nazis used to send coded messages.The film ends with the director putting on a title card dedicating the film to the memory of the real sailors who captured Enigma machines who were British sailors to be more exact, something this film glosses over.Historical accuracy and this film are total strangers.However this is not to say the film is entertaining, it is well made, McConaughey does his bland best but is out-blanded by Jon Bon Jovi.Stern support is provided by Bill Paxton and Harvey Keitel..
Three of my top ten favorite films are submarine movies (The Hunt for Red October, Das Boot, and Crimson Tide).
My one concern was that this movie was going to completely distort the true history of the capture of the enigma machine in World War II.
However, they easily alleviated that concern at the end by describing the actual events.Set near the U.S. entry into World War II, this is the fictitious story of an American submarine outfitted to look like a German submarine and assigned the task of capturing a crippled German sub's code-decryption machine (enigma).
And this film likewise accomplishes its mission quite well.The picture is inspired by actual World War II missions on which American and British soldiers recovered Enigmas, secret German coding devices which allowed the Allies to read encrypted messages, and thus to anticipate the Nazis' moves.
Sometimes seeing how people handle the situations they find themselves in is all it takes."U-571" is not a great war film, but it's an effective and engaging thriller, and I think audiences will enjoy it a great deal as long as they're not expecting the "Saving Private Ryan" of submarine movies..
I had great expectations before watching this movie, but when I came out of the cinema, I was totally shocked, how BAD a film can be.In addition to this opinion of mine, I want to tell, what really happened to U-571: Commander of U-571 was Kptlt.
See the information filmmakers clearly provide at the end of the film.Did the Brits rely on fake duplicates of German subs to capture an enigma machine?
Have i seen the film ....no, i will not watch something so made up when it does not honour the real guys who died carrying out this mission, come on how does the English dropping the 2 atomic bombs on Japan thus ending Japans involvement in WW2 sound for a film......no!, see what i mean, yes by all means make war films but do it right or if you care not for those that died so we might live keep making films such as this, take a leaf out of our history in films......not one WW2 film made by Uk has any changes in who took part and who died in the name of freedom.SAY WHAT YOU WILL ITS FACT LOOK IT UP FOR THOSE WHO CAN READp.s line above is only for those fools who will just write back saying blah blah brits this brits that, have no miss givings with people who know what i mean, we all did great things ENGLAND AND USA just show them as it happened..
At least they did mention the real heroes who captured the Enigma machines during the war (about the only thing done right in the entire film).Joe. God Bless America (sarcasm implied).
The main plot about the enigma is not true in that way (Touring has cracked the enigma code earlier) and beside from that, the royal navy has recovered the enigma first.2.There are many typical sub-movie-cuts i have seen already in "Das Boot".3.
torpedo fired from a range much too far from the sub.a direct ship-artillery hit from the destroyer on the subs deck has only left a black spot.the destroyer in the movie  itself was obviuosly a grey painted tender-boat.the underwater views does'nt look like state of the art.There are simply too much of this mistakes, so i cant' say it's a good film..
The movie circulates around the capture of the enigma device (the code device for deciphering the secret codes of the German Navy) from a Nazi U-Boat.
The director has taken plot from actual WWII event, the capturing of Enigma Coding machine, and reworked history to Hollywood standards.
But of course, this is a fictional WWII adventure film, so who cares about minor details?The first scenes look like direct rip-offs from "Das Boot", with Germans sinking British ship.
Happily they paddle into sunset with their small raft.For a moment I really hoped a German sub would surface and machine-gun them to the bottom.But the movie reaches The End and tries to give some credit to the British who in fact stole the Enigma coding machine and won the battle for Atlantic.
And while "Das Boot" was an excellent and accurate depiction of submarine warfare, "U-571," is just a depiction of what we've already seen in submarine movies (depth gauges going off the line, sailors looking upward, waiting for depth charges to explode, leaking sea water spraying everywhere.)  Jonathan Mostow is a very good director; he really kept us guessing and on the edge of our seats in "Breakdown," but he tries way too hard here, and isn't half as successful.
I don't hate Hollywood per se but this is the stereotypical example of what they do to history and heroism.Oh how I was praying that those depth charges would drown them all, but no, even when the sub is hit almost directly by several depth charges, everyone is fine apart from a few popped rivets.If you want to watch a really good submarine movie, watch Das Boot.