Film Review: U-571 (2000)

Americans consider Second World War to be a good war because it clearly brought their country on the side of Good against Evil, and the victory brought American prosperity and hegemony over the rest of the world. It was even better war for Hollywood by providing plenty of interesting stories that would be told through spectacular and exciting films. Many of such films, however, had problems with disregard for historical accuracy, but few were as blatantl as U-571, 2000 film directed by Jonathan Mostow.

The plot is set in Spring 1942, few months after United States entered the war on the side of Allies. This doesn’t seem that change the general impression that Axis is actually poised for victory, mostly due to German U-boats roaming the Atlantic Ocean and sinking Allied ships with impunity, thus seriously thwarting American attempts to send troops and precious supplies to Britain. As it happens, US Navy Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (played by Michael McConaughey) has more personal concerns – he is an executive officer of S-33, submarine where he thinks he has gathered enough experience to be promoted and receive command of his own. Lt. Commander Mike Dahlgren (played by Bill Paxton) appears to block that promotion. Both men are forced to settle their differences when summoned by their superiors to take part in top secret mission which would include Navy Intelligence officer Lt. Michael Hirsch (played by Jake Webber) and US Marine Major Matthew Coonan (played by David Keith). German submarine U-571 has been damaged in middle of Atlantic and is about to rendezvous with “Milk Cow” resupply submarine. By happy coincidence, US Navy has learned the exact time and location of that rendezvous. S-33 is quickly made to look like a German submarine, while its crew receives German weapons and uniforms. Their task is to trick the crew of U-571 into giving them access, take over the ship and, most importantly, Enigma, cryptographic machine which allows German Kriegsmarine radio communication with U-boats without fear of Allies learning its plans. Plan works, but just as the Americans are about to return to base, S-33 gets suddenly sunk by another German submarine. With Dahlgren going down with his ship, Tyler gathers survivors on U-571 and begins long and perilous journey. They are chased by German aircraft, a destroyer, while captured Captain Günther Wassner (played by Thomas Kretschmann), captured German officer, does everything in his power to sabotage them.

Script co-written by Mostow, Sam Montgomery and David Ayer recycles many submarine film cliches, ranging from Petersen’s classic Das Boot to more recent Crimson Tide. Lack of originality can also be seen in very poorly written characters, which all one-dimensional and forgettable, despite being played by quite capable cast. For example, even such acting giant like Harvey Keitel can breathe life into the character of Chief Gunners Mate Henry Klough. It’s even worse with Matthew McConaughey, who plays protagonist with such lack of proper expression that is becomes quite annoying even for audience that didn’t expect much from the film. Role of Lt. Tyler is among the less stellar moments of that actor’s career.

Decent budget, which allows complicated naval combat to be reconstructed and reasonably convincing way, could have made this film watchable. But that includes only the audience that was quite unfamiliar with Second World War and the way it played out in Atlantic Ocean. Anyone who knows what actually happened is going to see U-571 as terrible rewriting of history for the sake of improving film’s commercial results on American market and pandering to American chauvinism. First of all, Enigma was actually captured by Allies a year before presented in this film; it was done when USA was still neutral and it was British destroyer HMS Bulldog which did the job. Even the capture of the device wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, because the Enigma’s code had been broken with the help of first computers in Bletchley Park. US Navy in Spring 1942 didn’t appear able to fight Kriegsmarine with efficiency portrayed in this film, which is often credited to incompetence of Admiral Ernest J. King and refusal to properly co-operate with British allies, resulting in so-called “Second Happy Time” for German U-boats or “America’s second Pearl Harbor” by some of later historians. Most of the hard work in struggle against Germans was still done by British Royal Navy, and its erasure from U-571 made even such pro-American politician like British PM Tony Blair to publicly complain over Hollywood’s mishandling of historical truth. Even if some liberties are taken, the film looks unconvincing when the protagonists in the middle of Atlantic have to worry about being attacked by Me-109 fighter planes (notorious for their short range) or German destroyers in time when Kriegsmarine, after heavy losses, didn’t dare to send their surface ships that far from their bases. Many of the details of actual combat within the submarine also look unconvincing, while the transformation from ordinary submariners to commandos also looks like product of Hollywood fiction. Although some of the viewers that are unfamiliar or not caring about actual history might give U-571 a passing grade, it still isn’t the film worthy of the attention of the audience that should be most interested in the film’s subject.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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