U-571 (2000)

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

Director:

Jonathan Mostow

Writers:

Jonathan Mostow (story), Jonathan Mostow (screenplay)

Stars:

Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel

Won 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matthew McConaughey	...	Lt. Andrew Tyler
Bill Paxton	...	Lt. Cmdr. Mike Dahlgren
Harvey Keitel	...	CPO Henry Klough
Jon Bon Jovi	...	Lt. Pete Emmett
David Keith	...	Maj. Matthew Coonan
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Capt.-Lt. Gunther Wassner
Jake Weber	...	Lt. Hirsch
Jack Noseworthy	...	Seaman Bill Wentz
Tom Guiry	...	Seaman Ted 'Trigger' Fitzgerald
Will Estes	...	Seaman Ronald 'Rabbit' Parker
Terrence 'T.C.' Carson	...	Steward Eddie Carson (as T.C. Carson)
Erik Palladino	...	Seaman Anthony Mazzola
Dave Power	...	Seaman Charles 'Tank' Clemens
Derk Cheetwood	...	Seaman Herb Griggs
Matthew Settle	...	Ens. Keith Larson

Storyline

In the midst of World War II, the battle below the seas rages. The Nazis have the upper edge as the Allies are unable to crack their war codes. That is, until a wrecked U-boat sends out an SOS signal, and the Allies realize this is their chance to seize the 'enigma coding machine'. But masquerading as Nazis and taking over the U-boat is the smallest of their problems. The action really begins when they get stranded on the U-boat.

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Plot Keywords:

u boat | world war two | naval officer | nazi | 1940s | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Action | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for war violence

Details

Official Sites:

West Video / Videoguide Company (russian)

Country:

France USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

21 April 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

U-571: La batalla del Atlántico

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$62,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$19,553,310, 23 April 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$77,086,030, 13 August 2000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$127,666,415, 30 June 2012

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Canal Plus Image International, Dino De Laurentiis Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS (8 channels)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Erik Palladino (Mazzola) had laryngitis during the filming of the plane-buzzing scene. He lip-syncked his lines and dubbed them later in the studio.

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Goofs

Many of the G7e/T2 German torpedoes of World War 2 were notoriously marginal in performance, having a top speed of about 30 miles per hour and a maximum range of barely 3,000 meters and a failure rate of about 30%. Knowing this, no German submarine commander would have ever wasted four precious torpedoes firing blindly, submerged, the periscope useless, at another submarine (the captured U-571), especially since the torpedoes were incapable of changing course after being fired. The same is true of the U-571, which fired back with four torpedoes of their own, and the chances of hitting a submerged submarine, without any corrections for depths or attack angles, would have been less than 1%.

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Quotes

Ens. Keith Larson, Chief Torpedoman: They wouldn't give me five minutes to consumate my marriage. Five minutes!

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Alternate Versions

The German version has a title card at the beginning, saying the movie is completely fictitious.

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Connections

References Star Trek (1966)

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Soundtracks

My Heart Stood Still
Written by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart

User Reviews

Not a bad movie as many reviews suggest

I won't put this up there with the great war movies of the 40's and 50's. However, it was entertaining. Decent filmography coming before the era where everything has to be computer generated.

Now, the acting was OK. Not what I would expect from Paxton. He was a bit dull. The short bit by Bon Jovi was amusing. McConaughy was actually pretty decent for this particular role.

Don't watch this movie like its a documentary. Watch this movie for entertainment. It is not Saving Private Ryan, and it is not Das Boot. But that's OK. It was still worth watching.

As for all of the reviewers complaining about this movie being a pro- American war movie? What do you expect? Its about WWII, and the Germans were the bad guys. That is Fact, not fiction. Depicting Germans as sub-human? I didn't see that in this movie, but that did kind of happen during WWII as well. (Trying to exterminate an entire race of people generally classifies as sub-human.)

I would say that Hollywood typically puts out movies with the opposite perspective. CIA conspiracy, US Government cover-up, etc. How many more of those movies do we need? In fact, a typical plot-twist in this movie would have been that the Enigma device was actually given to the Germans by a pro-Hitler OSS faction within the US government. Its actually nice to see a movie from the straight-up patriotic rah, rah perspective once in a while instead.

I don't normally write reviews very often, but most of the reviews that I read here did not reflect on the movie much at all. Just said it was terrible because it glorified Americans and bashed Germans. I didn't get that feeling, but many of these reviews did appear to be from those who may be trying to forget about the past. I don't think we should hold WWII against anyone descended from those who started it. However, we shouldn't exactly tiptoe around and pretend those things didn't happen. Remember it, learn from it, and we might not be doomed to repeat it.