U-571 (2000)

Director:

Jonathan Mostow

Writers (WGA):

Jonathan Mostow (story)
Jonathan Mostow (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 April 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

You won't come up for air until it's over!

Plot:

A German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine.

Plot Keywords:

U Boat | Sos | Code | Submarine | Mission

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Matthew McConaughey	...	Lt. Andrew Tyler, Executive Officer
Bill Paxton	...	Lt. Cmdr. Mike Dahlgren
Harvey Keitel	...	CPO Henry Klough
Jon Bon Jovi	...	Lt. Pete Emmett, Chief Engineer
David Keith	...	Maj. Matthew Coonan, USMC, Office of Naval Intelligence
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Capt.-Lt. Gunther Wassner
Jake Weber	...	Lt. Hirsch, USNR
Jack Noseworthy	...	Seaman Bill Wentz, Radioman
Tom Guiry	...	Seaman Ted 'Trigger' Fitzgerald, Radioman
Will Estes	...	Seaman Ronald 'Rabbit' Parker, Torpedoman
Terrence 'T.C.' Carson	...	Steward Eddie Carson
Erik Palladino	...	Seaman Anthony Mazzola, Planesman
Dave Power	...	Seaman Charles 'Tank' Clemens, Machinist Mate
Derk Cheetwood	...	Seaman Herb Griggs, Helmsman
Matthew Settle	...	Ens. Keith Larson, Chief Torpedoman

Also Known As:

U-571 (France)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for war violence.

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

France | USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:PG (Nova Scotia) (re-rating on appeal) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-14 | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | South Korea:12 | Singapore:PG | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Canal Plus Image International

Trivia:

The Germans did in fact introduce a new, 4-rotor version of their Enigma machine in February 1942; and the code was in fact practically unbreakable by the Allies until the capture of associated codebooks from a submarine, in June 1944. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterseeboot-505 for details But in real life this was a British operation and did not involve a deception like that depicted in the film. The sub itself, the U-559, sank shortly after the codebooks were removed.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When U571 is under depth charge attack from the German destroyer, on the soundtrack you can hear sonar pings that would be attributable to ASDIC. The Germans did not have ASDIC.

Quotes:

Eddie: It's the first time you ever seen a black man ain't it... get used to it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Top Gear: (2004-11-21)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

My Heart Stood Still

U-571 is a movie with a horrible story and contains a lot of false pathos

Thank god for the US-Navy. The german U-571 is seriously damaged, so that the full, perfectly trained german crew isn`t able to run it. Of course a hand-full american sailors, who even can`t read the (german) instruments of the different machines in U-571 probably manage to get away with the submarine immediately. After being heavily bombed by a german destroyer, they are even able to reach an absolutely incredible depth. But not enough, of course they send the destroyer to the bottom with only one (coincidentally their last) torpedo. Not only the fact, that this heroic voyage is absolutely implausible and ridiculous, makes U-571 the worst movie I´ve ever seen. Also the story, that the Americans found and decoded the Enigma is just a falsification of history. Of course America did a lot for ending the nazi-tyranny, but in this case, it was the achievement of english sailors and scientists. I´m really not a german nationalist and there were a lot of good and even great movies about WWII ( e.g. Saving Private Ryan) but U-571 isn`t. It´s really a disgusting, poor effort of making money with the most primitive sort of patriotism.