U-571 (2000)

Never have I witnessed such a perverse example of rewriting history. Hollywood producers must ask themselves what they are trying to achieve by inflating American egos in this way? Fabricating history in movies for national glorification is something the Nazis did. Boycott this film. It's crude, it's cheap and it's immoral.

Fmovies: I rented U-571 thinking that a movie with submarines and Harvey Keitel in it would at least be vaguely entertaining, but boy, was I wrong. As for its mindless entertainment value, if you have only ever seen one u - boat movie you will essentially have seen U-571 because it goes to great pains not to miss any cliché in the book; the first third in particular is an almost exact copy of "Das Boot".

What really angers me about U-571 though, apart from it being a really bad movie, is the premeditated way it tries to remanufacture history. Without going into details: the actual Enigma machine was relatively well known, the difficult bit was cracking the code -- which was brilliantly accomplished by the British (after some spadework from the Poles). Next there is the cheap attempt to whitewash racial segregation in the US by throwing in a black sailor and then putting the onus on the Germans by showing a German sailor being shocked at seeing a black person -- maybe it was the historical inaccuracy he was astounded by. Even worse, the film promotes an almost fascist type of ideology, namely the leader principle, mindless submission to authority, the objective must be achieved regardless of the cost of human life (enemy or comrade). So ironically, U-571, with reversed sides and minus the special effects, could pass for a German propaganda movie of that era.

This tripe was perpetuated by a director who has no appreciation for history, and who sets himself up as an authority on "what appeals to American moviegoers..forget for a moment the fact that the British first secured enigma from U-110. Forget also that there was only one incident in which Germans ever machine gunned survivors in the water and that was after the sinking of the Greek ship Peleus by one Heinz Eck, who, along with the ship's doctor and Executive officer were executed for this crime.( I guess we had to believe that the Germans were more sinister this way.) Forget also, that in Mostow's world, the laws of physics do not apply. I especially liked the scene where the torpedo is fired against the bow of the destroyer and the ship is stopped dead in its wake!! If you want a good Submarine movie, try Das Boot, or The Enemy Below. actuals, the incredible Mister limpet was more historically accurate than this garbage.

U-571 fmovies. 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.

The REAL story behind the films exploits is far more embarasing & not one that Hollywood is going to tell the great American public.

The British cracked Enigma before the US even entered the War! Admiral Doenitz, suspicious that the UK had cracked the 3 code wheel Enigma (used by the German army), ordered a 4 wheel device & the British no longer were able to decode the U-Boat's messages. Sinkings of convoy vessels went up as a result, until a Royal Navy officer had the bright idea of knocking over a German weather ship in the North Sea & pinching the Enigna (they couldn't decode the messages from this ship so suspected, correctly, that it was a new, 4 wheel device). Code breaking recommenced & the U-Boats suffered such heavy losses that Doenitz eventually recalled them.

In "Operation Drumbeat", where the US, now in the war, had the shipping of it's East coast targeted, the British supplied the US Navy with intercepts, giving the U-Boats locations, courses, speed & intended target areas. Also passed on were suggested tactics for dealing with the U-Boat threat, all learned the hard way & shown to be effective. The US East coast commander, Admiral King, IGNORED them!

A bigoted Anglophobe, Admiral King refused to mount any anti submarine patrols & so condemed thousands of his own countrymen (the people he was supposed to PROTECT) to death. So many ships were sunk the U-Boat commanders called it "The New Happy Times".

Contrast this with Canada, also the target of the U-Boats, where the UK supplied intelligence was used & the anti submarine tactics employed. So few were the sinkings of ships & so heavy the U-Boat losses they were withdrawn to the SAFER waters of the US coast!

Only when Admiral King was finally replaced, after losses to shipping which could no longer be covered up, did effective anti submarine operations begin off the east coast of the US & the menace receded.

One man's obstinacy, stupidity & wrecklessness sacrificed thousands of US lives to satisfy the cravings of his ego. No Hollywood studio is going to dramatise that, so crap like "U571" is churned out. This is even more shocking when you consider that the people who died in this shameful episode still have living relatives.

The film Titanic was bad enough, but this is a step too far.I am appaled to think that if this carries on what the next step might be? How about the US wins the Vietnam War really? The US actually invented pennicillin (it was Dr Flemming, he was born in Darvel, just down the road from me)? The US wins the Battle of Britain?

Hollywood needs a kick up the pants for this film. Sadly most will go & see it & believe it's true. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose, but for the Americans killed & the families bereived, it is not the case.

This is a review written by a specialist on the U-boat warfare:

First off, I am pleased to say my worst fears were not realized. This movie is not a retelling of the capture of the Enigma machine from U-110 with Americans substituted for British. The only thing the historical incident and the movie have in common is that both include an Enigma machine and a U-boat.

The basic premise of the movie is this: It is spring, 1942. (Although not stated explicitly in the movie, this coincides with the implementation of the 4-rotor Enigma machine and the subsequent intelligence blackout which proved quite inconvenient for the Allies.) Allied intelligence learns that a crippled U-boat is awaiting a rendez-vous with a supply submarine. An American World War I S-class submarine and its crew are disguised to resemble that supply submarine, with the goal of boarding the U-boat and seizing the Enigma. Naturally the operation does not go as smoothly as predicted. The American boarding party ends up trapped on the U-boat and must figure out how to get home with their prize.

The special effects, including sound effects, are good, and there are lots of satisfying explosions and interesting underwater camera views. The plot is a bit predictable, and seems to owe a lot to many previous submarine movies, including Das Boot. There are a few technical issues that purists will notice; for example, American S-boats were not actually equipped with radar, an awful lot of bullets were sprayed around the interior of the U-boat without appearing to damage anything vital, and the plan to open the torpedo tubes at a depth of 200 meters seemed ill-advised, to say the least.

One scene was disturbing, however. Early in the film, the U-boat comes upon a lifeboat full of British sailors. The U-boat commander orders his gunner to kill them all, because "The Führer has ordered us not to pick up survivors." It is disappointing to see the myth of U-boats executing occupants of lifeboats perpetuated yet again. The truth about the Laconia order is it did forbid picking up survivors but did not specify that they be shot, simply that they not be rescued or aided as well as the only case on record in World War II in which a U-boat purposely fired on survivors in the water.

In general, this is a good action film. It's no Das Boot, but then I knew it wasn't going to be. For one thing, it lacks the emotional impact and suspense of Das Boot; also, the grim wartime mood that pervaded Das Boot is absent from this movie. In fact, for U-571 the World War II setting seems almost incidental, as the plot could be adjusted easily to fit any other twentieth century war, real or fictional, involving submarines.

In sum, this is not really a World War II movie. It's a submarine movie with nonstop action and plenty of explosions.

29 April, 2000: One more thing which needs to be mentioned. In an interview in the 23 April Washington Post, the director, Jonathan Mostow, states that the movie Das Boot was "based on a lie" because "[...] it pretended that the captains and crews were submariners first, and only incidentally Nazis. They were dedicated Nazis; they had to be to fight that hard."

As anyone familiar with U-boat history knows, this is nonsense. It is well known that the U-boat arm was the least political of any of the German military branches in World War II. While some U-boat men were indeed confirmed Nazis, many were not. Men fight hard in every war, not for reasons of ideology,