Claustrophobia. Darkness. The creaking of the hull as pressure squeezes the very life out of you. Writer-director Jonathan Mostow captures the horrific circumstances of a tour of duty on a submarine well in "U-571," turning the film into a gut-wrenching thrill ride that gets a little shaky on its historic details.
"U-571" dedicates itself to the Allies of WWII who risked their lives battling the notorious U-boats. The movie opens in a mid-Atlantic battle from the perspective of U-571. The U-boat becomes essentially paralyzed after battle and must wait for assistance. The U.S. naval mission is to go undercover as a German-support sub in order fool the crew of U-571 long enough to steal the top secret radio encryption codes from them. They must sink the U-boat before the real German sub comes so as to eliminate any evidence of what transpired.
At the same time, Lt. Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey) learns he has been denied the rank of captain because his commanding officer, Captain Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), refused to submit his recommendation. Dahlgren feels Tyler lacks the ability to risk his crew's lives at a whim to accomplish a mission.
Tyler soon gets to prove his worth, though, when a real German support sub blows the masked U.S. sub out of the water. The explosion kills most of the U.S. crew including the captain, forcing Tyler to assume command of the boarding party on U-571 to smuggle the Enigma code back to U.S. soil before they become fish food.
"U-571" effectively captures the thrill of submarine warfare despite its reliance on characteristics employed in such submarine movies as "Boot" and "Crimson Tide." The movie, though sometimes predictable, seizes viewer attention.
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"U-571" remains a good action movie, though it lacks the depth of past submarine movies. Tyler and Chief Klough (Harvey Keitel) spit out plot-advancing dialogue, leaving their characters as shallow as a wading pool. The lack of emotional attachment to the characters scraps the potential to draw the viewer in completely.
As a result, "U-571" relies chiefly on its action and special effects. "U-571" captures every creak and shrill and transports the viewer into the sardine can, gasping for air with the rest of the crew.
Several instances leave the film's plausibility in question. For instance, the film relies heavily on the tension created by the use of depth charges. The German destroyer drops them at evenly spaced intervals but as the destroyer gets closer to the submarine this spacing gets lost. Dozens explode in a brief period of time even though they are not dropped that fast up top, which suggests a lack of continuity on Mostow's part.
Limitation of radio contact between German vessels remains a key concern, but Mostow ignores the German reconnaissance aircraft that circles U-571 just before the destroyer finds them. It only makes sense that the plane would radio other ships after the explosion that results from the obliteration of the radio tower on the destroyer by U-571. In addition, U-571 dives over 200 meters at one point, a depth easily able to crush the sub, yet it still manages to survive intact and even magically repairs itself despite countless battle injuries.
Although "U-571" does not offer anything especially creative, it delivers solid action while evoking a great sense of nationalism (the U.S. is saluted here, even though the English actually were the main agents of code procurement). Bring on the Nazis!
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