U-571
"Thrilling! Excitingly Taut And Kinetic!" -Entertainment Weekly
A U.S. Navy Captain and his crew are just beginning to enjoy 48 hours of leave when they receive word to immediately return to duty. On a top-secret assignment, they must disguise themselves as Nazis and infiltrate a severely damaged Nazi U-boat. Once on board, they are to steal the Nazi's top-secret decoding device and sink the sub before the Germans catch on to what's really happening. Their mission is more dangerous and frightening than anything they could have ever imagined, but one which has the power to turn the tide of battle.
"U-571 is exciting!" says Newsweek. Filled with incredible explosions, raging fires and speeding torpedoes, this suspense-filled action-packed film sets a new standard for high impact entertainment and features an impressive all-star cast.
Member Reviews
I really liked it - Beak
This has been one of my favourite rentals for years.
The plot is based loosly in fact in that the allies went to extreme lengths to crack the codes created by enigma equipment during the war.
The plot is a bit predictable with some interesting twists.
The action is quite good and special effects quite good.
Bluray transfer quality was firts rate.Oops...A Damaging Americanization of History - MovieProf
I imagine that if I had relatives who fought in a world war, they would expect to see a film about their exploits produced with a keen eye to authenticity. In the Case of "U-571," any attempt at such authenticity has been thrown out the window.
The film centres around the an American submarine that attacks a German U-Boat in the hopes of obtaining her Enigma Code device. During the war, several such attempts were made on German boats and subs in the hopes of extracting these devices for the purposes of breaking German codes. The capture of these devices was of paramount importance during the war. In the end, many devices were captured.
All this is fine and dandy.
Unfortunately, no Enigmas were captured by the United States.
Here is where my anger begins.
After the film was completed, and before it was released, it sparked a mini-outrage in Britain, quite deservedly, for its Americanization of history. Clearly the producers felt the heat by the fact that just before the final credits roll, the actual Allied subs that played a role in this sort of warfare are listed. Screenwriter David Ayer also admitted afterwards to feelings of guilt about the decision to make the Allied sub American rather than British. He conceeded that the change was made to satisfy American audiences.
A sad statement about filmmaking.
I have to say, however, that if one puts the aforementioned mistakes out of their mind, the film is quite good. The action scenes are palpable, the acting (apart from the always wooden Bill Paxton) credible, and the story impactful. This is why I gave the film two stars out of five.
I am not saying every historical film needs to be completely accurate: "Gladiator" and "Braveheart" warp history, but they are still great films. But when dealing with a subject in which its participants are still living, producers should think twice about changing history to suit audiences.Action plus - FieroGT
This is a very good movie destined to be a classic war film. Matthew McConaughey is excellent here as an officer thrown into a near impossible situation trying to survive and keep his men alive. The action is intense at times the cast is a well picked group that work well here. The effects are as good as it gets. If you like the WW II genre of films this should be near the top of the list. There are also a good bit of extras here well worth the rental
Member Reviews
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I really liked it - Beak
This has been one of my favourite rentals for years.
The plot is based loosly in fact in that the allies went to extreme lengths to crack the codes created by enigma equipment during the war.
The plot is a bit predictable with some interesting ...Oops...A Damaging Americanization of History - MovieProf
I imagine that if I had relatives who fought in a world war, they would expect to see a film about their exploits produced with a keen eye to authenticity. In the Case of "U-571," any attempt at such authenticity has been thrown out the window.
The ...Action plus - FieroGT
This is a very good movie destined to be a classic war film. Matthew McConaughey is excellent here as an officer thrown into a near impossible situation trying to survive and keep his men alive. The action is intense at times the cast is a well picked group ...