U-571 ***½ (2000, Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton) – Classic Movie Review 1196

Co-writer/director Jonathan Mostow’s 2000 release is a controversial, but exciting, supposedly real-life World War Two submarine action adventure set in 1942, in which a German submarine is boarded by disguised United States Navy submariners seeking to capture her Enigma cipher machine.

They masquerade as Nazis and take over the U-boat, but then they get stranded on the submarine.

The tale of a daring mission behind Nazi lines is splendidly tense and action-packed, so it’s very disappointing and insulting to have the Enigma Code story foolishly Americanised and the Brits sidelined into nothing. The fictitious plot is an offence as it was British personnel from HMS Bulldog who first captured a naval Enigma machine from U-110 in the North Atlantic in May 1941, months before the United States had even entered the war. Prime Minister Tony Blair told MPs in Parliament that the film was an affront to British sailors.

The real U-571 was never involved in the events shown in the movie. It was not captured and was sunk in January 1944 off Ireland by a Short Sunderland flying boat from No. 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force.

Inconvenient history, facts and the truth aside, the film makes for an entertaining fantasy adventure. Matthew McConaughey is surprisingly spirited and convincing as the executive-officer hero, Lieutenant Andrew Tyler, Harvey Keitel enjoys himself as the grizzled veteran, chief petty officer Henry Klough, and Bill Paxton is stalwart as Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren.

Jon Bon Jovi, Jake Webber, Matthew Settle, Erik Palladino, David Keith, Thomas Kretschmann, Jack Noseworthy, Tom Guiry and Will Estes also star.

Filming in the Mediterranean near Rome and Malta, Mostow also provided the original story and writes the screenplay along with David Ayer and Sam Montgomery.

It was a box-office hit and well reviewed by American critics not bothered by historical inaccuracy. It won an Oscar for Best Sound Editing (Jon Johnson).

2001 brought the British film Enigma. McConaughey and Bill Paxton teamed up again for Frailty in 2001.

http://derekwinnert.com/enigma-2001-dougray-scott-kate-winslet-jeremy-northam-classic-film-review-1186/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1177

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

The capture of the U-570 in August 1941.