Rating: 
Summary: Submarine yarn rises above leaky story
Review: Sometimes a movie is able to rise above it's trite and oft told storyline. The one used for U-571, which is about submarine warfare in W.W.II, can be summed up as follows: sub meets sub, sub loses sub, sub gets sub. Fortunately, in the hands of director Jonathan Mostow and his crew, U-571 has been crafted into a tight little thriller which should have most viewers on the edge of their seats. I should add that it is not recommended for anyone who is more than mildly claustrophobic. The story is a blend of several true events, although in real life, most of the heroes were British, not American. German submarines were equipped with a radio device called Enigma, which was able to transmit coded information that only the Germans could translate. Without the device itself, the Allied Forces had a very hard time of tracking the U-boats. These were devastatingly effective in sinking our ships. A fancy wedding reception for an American Naval officer is interrupted by military police bearing the news that leave has been cut short for the men of one sub. Navy brass has learned that a German U-boat has been disabled in the Atlantic and is awaiting a repair sub. The plan is simple. The Americans will use a sub outfitted to look like a Nazi one. They will attempt to reach the German sub before the Nazi rescue vessel does. They will then board the enemy vessel and seize the Enigma. After taking the Germans prisoner, they will sink their U-boat. The Germans will then have no way of knowing that the device has been captured. Like most simple plans, this one quickly gets very complicated. It also gets extremely dangerous. Jonathan Mostow uses some effective tricks to make U-571 rise above its script. From the opening shots, which show how the German ship was crippled in battle, he manages to keep the movie's tension level very high. The American sub is an old one. It creaks constantly. There is water always dripping from its old pipe joints. These effects work well, because they convince us landlubbers that this thing would be unsafe to be in during peacetime, much less during a war. So, we have already been set up before the first enemy torpedo races towards our heroes, trapped as they are in this unnatural craft. Later, there are the depth charges. The crew can't see them, but they can hear them. They get louder and louder as a Nazi destroyer gets closer and closer. It all turns into a suspenseful game of cat and mouse, and the tension level is raised even higher as everything about the mission goes dreadfully wrong halfway through the movie. . While this film is filled with great actors, there is not much to be said for this cast, simply because the characters are subordinate to the special effects. This is appropriate for this kind of movie, where too much character development tends to get in the way of the action. If you think about it, a thriller, by its very nature, doesn't work if there are lulls in the story. In U-571, there are hardly any.
Rating: 
Summary: oh dear
Review: An absolutely awful awful film. Take an event in history, and corrupt it so almost nothing of the truth remains. As a nation are we really so insecure we have to steal the history of other countries to bolster our own national pride and identity?! In short, this film takes an event of amazing heroism done by the BRITISH during World War 2, and makes out it was done by AMERICANS. Frankly I'm embarassed my nation feels it's necessary to go down this low. What next?! How the USA won the Battle of Britain?! How America beat Napolean?! How we were responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire?! Anyone with the slightest sense of nation or even the remotest knowledge of history will feel the same.
Rating: 
Summary: America wins the war again
Review: In all probability one should not complain to much about films which are not very realistic. The idea of a film is someting which is meant to entertain regardless of whether it says much about life or in fact anything. During the Second World War the Germans used a machine to generate their codes. The machine was called Enigma. The British had purchased a copy of one of these machines from some Polish agents early in the war. The film is based on an incident in which a British trawler forced a German U Boat to surrender. They were able to capture the German book of settings for the machine and also some of the rotor wheels. This break through was of importance as it enabled the British to dimply direct convoys around the German boats. (The German boats gave position reports to their high command on a regular basis) It significantly cut down the losses of merchant boats for a while. British viewers are no doubt annoyed that this exploit of a trawler captain has become a special covert operation run by the Americans. Other viewers will be annoyed by the complete failure to look at anything to do with how U Boats actually operated at the time. In recent years submarines have had torpedoes which have homing devices and as a result torpedoes can be fired at submerged submarines. In the Second World War this simply was not possible. To have combat occur in a way which was impossible grates. If one can however free oneself from reality the film is a reasonably well paced piece of hokum and is easy to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: I've seen worse
Review: This movie is o.k. and like I said in the title of this review, I have seen worse. That implies that I hvae seen better. I have seen better. This movie is no where near the caliber of "Das Boot." If you want a movie about WWII submariners, then that is what I would get.
Rating:
Summary: spitting on the graves of the RNs war dead
Review: This travesty of a film really takes the biscuit. Despite what many US reviewers say, films like this form attitudes and opinions in their viewers. Thanks to U-571 many people now believe that the USN secured an enigma machine and saved the free world from Nazism. What rubbish!!!!! The RN captured the machines, and we had to tell the USN how to run its anti u-boat campaign. Make a film about that. When you take your history and distort it, like in the patriot you just make yourselves look stupid. When you steal someone elses glory you just look like you are desperate for the world to look up to you. The Yanks CAN make really good war films- The Thin Red Line, Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down were all superb, this disgusting rubbish should be scrapped.
Rating: 
Summary: Read before stating your opinion
Review: I am getting sick and tired of movie critics and ignorant people. I did not see anywhere where it said "based on a true story". Tis is a work of fiction. Fiction being the key word here. Meaning not based on actual facts. Yes parts of the movie were set to be authentic to the time period but not the premise, which was to capture the enigma machine. Yes there was one, and at the end of the movie right before the credits it gives credit to the actual boats that found it! This movie is meant to be entertaining, you want history watch discovery you morons. People go to the movies and rent movies to be entertained. They want to feel something, and for two hours they are not faced with the hardships of life. Their minds are no longer so focused on reality and for those brief two hours even we can be heroes. Movies are made to convey an emotion, a feeling. Not your mind to start wondering well, they were off about a few hundred years. Who cares. Next time, sit down, shut up and enjoy that time, don't get so wrapped up in whether they were accurate or not. This movie was great, it has everything a good movie requires. The story is great, the intense awesome and the photography state of the art. Cast was perfect for their roles.
Rating:
Summary: popcorn movie, little more
Review: This movie does what movies are more or less made to do, entertain. It has fairly good acting, and is decently written. The special effects are excellent, as is the sound(which won an oscar). It's pretty fun to watch, and is worth renting from your local blockbuster, and the extras on the DVD are interesting and there are lots of them. If your looking for any history though, this isn't the movie for you. After reading some of the one and two star reviews, I realized that the limeys get upset when they don't get there due credit for what they did in WWII. And in this case I agree. There was no mention of what the British had done earlier in the war to get the enigma machine. Not even a mention of them early in the movie when the officers are getting briefed on the situation. (That would have been enough to silence the British resentment and then the movie would only have to get bad reviews from Americans who think that movies need to be historically accurate 100% of the time) In all, this movie is a visual feast, and lots of fun on a slow weeknight. But it's forgettable and doesn't have the affect of Saving Private Ryan.
Rating:
Summary: Revisionism at its worst
Review: I was given this as a present as most of my friends knew my fascination with naval history - especially WWII. By chance, I had just finished reading an account of the capture of the Enigma from U110 in May 1941 (a very hazardous boarding led by Sub Lt David Balme from HMS Bulldog). I was aware the film was only loosely based on these events but I as I watched I realised that any enjoyment I would have got from the film was totally ruined by the building resentment that Hollywood had totally rewritten the story to give its core audience (the American public) home grown heroes to cheer. Nothing wrong with that you might think - but why not choose any one of the many heroic feats of arms performed by the USN - esp in the Pacific Theater - where there would not be the need to take credit away from some very brave men and there would also be the opportunity to educate the public about the real sacrifices made on our behalf 60 years ago. To those who think I am being over defensive - firstly I think, as a matter of principle, historical revisionism is dangerous and should be exposed when encountered and secondly just imagine the reaction if a British film came out detailing the capture of Iwo Jima by British Royal Marines or one showing an outnumbered Royal Navy carrier force inflicting grievious losses on the Japanese at Midway....
Rating:
Summary: full of smart plot and exciting moment. very touching
Review: I was very touched by the decisions the accidental skipper
had to make when he had to save the crew from german
territory and trying to steal a german decoder which
can be very useful to the victory of the war. and had cost
most men's lives on his sub. Lots of exciting moment right from the start
and didn't end till the end. it might not be as graphic as some of the war films like
saving private ryan but it is still a very well plot film
with excitement at the right time. I would recommend this film to anyone. much better than
pearl harbour too much of the love angle film there
Rating:
Summary: Old Fashioned Hollywood Submarine Action Move
Review: U-571 is a throwback to the good old fashioned days of the Hollywood W.W.II submarine genre. U-571 has a very implausible plot but it still remains to be extremely entertaining through its execution of action and suspense. My only real complaint is that the film gives credit to the theatrically heroic Americans for recovering a German Enigma machine for decoding orders sent to their submarines. This was something that the British had actually accomplished and should be given credit for. The United States did not recover an Enigma machine till near the end of the war. That being said, a real highlight of this DVD is the incredible surround sound. Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel and David Keith all give credible performances.
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