U-571 (film)

U-571 is a 2000 submarine film directed by Jonathan Mostow from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sam Montgomery and David Ayer. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton, Jon Bon Jovi, Jake Weber and Matthew Settle. The film, telling the story of a World War II German submarine boarded by American submariners to capture her Enigma cipher machine, does not represent any real events.
Although the film was financially successful and reasonably well received by critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, the plot attracted substantial criticism. British sailors from HMS Bulldog captured the first naval Enigma machine from U-110 in the North Atlantic in May 1941, months before the United States entered the war and three years before the US Navy captured U-505 and its Enigma machine. Anger over these inaccuracies reached the House of Commons, where the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, agreed that the film was an "affront" to British sailors. The film was also criticized for portraying German U-boat crews in a negative light by showing them gunning down Allied survivors instead of giving them assistance or taking them aboard as prisoners.
Category:Films