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U-571 - Collector's Edition

U-571 - Collector's Edition

List Price: $12.98
Your Price: $9.09
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: THE BRITISH CAPTURED THE ENIGMA MACHINE
Review: That's right - don't be fooled by this revisionist film that lifts a few scenes straight out of the vastly superior "Das Boot". I hate movies that decide to make history fit their stupid plots, and "U-571" is no exception. No Americans were involved in the seizure of the enigma code, and this movie will only serve to misinform many people. Aside from that, this is a decent action movie that steals from all submarine movies to preceed it. Also of note: Jon Bon Jovi's cameo is very funny.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie really enjoyed it !!!
Review: I enjoyed watching this movie, and happy
to have it part of my dvd collection !!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A GREAT old-school Hollywood war movie!!!!
Review: Folks, this film is a throwback to the old days of Hollywood war movies, back to the days when movies featured likeable characters whom the audience can easily relate to, put through well-scripted and well-plotted adventures to resolve a plot, show some character growth and generally entertain. In other words, it has none of the things that define most modern action and adventure movies. The heroes are not as bad as the villains. There's no sex. The characters do not remain static throughout. And most of all, this is not a normal modern adventure movie because you can actually follow a sensible plotline.

During WW2, there were captures of two full enigma machines and two other captures of engima variants. The first was by the Brits before the US entered the war. After that point, the US and the Brits each captured another machine. This movie is the story of a fictional FIFTH enigma capture, borrowing elements of the two most important real-life captures: the British capture of U-110 and the US capture of U-505.

The film took lumps for not being "realistic", but considering that the technical advisor was actually ON the HMS Bulldog when it capture U-110, it's hard to disagree with the technical accuracy.

Historical accuracy? People who harp about that discredit their opionions just by making such a claim. This is an adventure movie, after all. It wasn't made for the history channel. It uses a fictional fifth enigma seizure as a way to pay homage to all FOUR real-life captures, as the end scroll plainly states (the same end scroll with explicitly gives the Brits credit for the first capture in 1940).

Look at it this way if you can't stand seeing something in a movie that didn't happen in real life. U-571 is no less realistic a war movie than Hill Street Blues was a cop show. Both have the technical details down perfect and show exactly what it was like. Yet, there was never an actual U-571 capture, just as there isn't really a Hill Street police station. That's the beauty and the power of fiction.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Okay, I guess
Review: First off, as a US Vietnam Vet I'd like to apologize to our British cousins for the audacity of Hollywood in pretending that the US captured the first enigma device in WWII.

But then after seeing an episode of the series "MI-5" on A&E I'd like to withdraw 1/3 of the apology. Hollywood, by no means, has a corner on producing jingoistic claptrap. Another 1/3 of the apology gets withdrawn because of decades of the gutter-crawling British press blaming the US for everything wrong in the world from global warming (whoops, doesn't exist) to tooth decay. And the final 1/3 gets withdrawn after seeing Hollywood movies like "Gunga Din" and "King of the Khyber Rifles" that depict the British Army, along with the East India Company, as benefactors of India and Afghanistan. I won't even try to get into the British opium trade in China vs the fantasy special "55 Days in Peking". So let's stop the finger pointing. Glass houses and all that, y'know, old chaps.

As for U-571.

I found too much of the movie to be irritating. If you've ever been on a WWII-era submarine you'd know just how claustrophobic those boats were. Naturally the constraints of movie making make it impossible to build an accurate set and still film in it. However the cavernous interior of U-571 was laughable. I mean you could have run laps in the control room.

And then the depiction of the Exec was ridiculous. The US Navy in WWII was run by professionals. Any officer has been through at least OCS and one of the most important things taught is the importance of the mission and the possible necessity of ordering men to near certain death. There were no submarine service execs who weren't fully qualified officers with sufficient experience. Any officer who was as easy going as the one McConaughey depicts would never have made exec in the first place. Even if he were soft he would still know basic facts of command.

There were no black Americans serving on submarines in WWII. Leave it to the rampant PCism of Hollywood to require the token black... even when to do so is ludicrously inaccurate. Seeing how nuts Hollywood has gone in PCism lately we should consider oureselves fortunate that there isn't a woman crewmember aboard.

Generally the movie is entertaining, though it mainly uses well-worn plot devices. What can you do besides have mechanical problems, run low on breathable air, run low on battery charge and get depth-charged?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Run in the opposite direction! Please!
Review: I think the title of this review says it all. I lost count of the historical inaccuracies after the first ten minutes! Of course, the Germans were the brutal bunglers who cheated on zeir frauleins und vipped zeir dachsunds! No really, steer well clear of this disaster. If you wish to view a TRUE account of the Battle of the Atlantic as the sailors saw it, watch "Das Boot: The Director's Cut"...or better still, the unabridged version of the same movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VERY, VERY GOOD FILM !
Review: I bought this DVD without having seen the movie before and I am more than glad that I did. The film may not be historically accurate but then, I never saw a "based on a true story" legend anywhere on it.
U-571 is not only a very good movie but maybe even a better DVD. The soundtrack rocked my sound system like no other film since SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
Jonathan Mostow has proved to be an excelent director. His BREAKDOWN was an unexpected surprise; U-571 and TERMINATOR 3 have made me expect his next release with great anticipation.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Short and bitter
Review: In a nutshell; I will have to reinforce the comments of several previous reviewers. The film combined significant historical inaccuracy with a series of very clumsy rip offs of the dramatic high points of the film Das Boot. Viewing the original requires a three hour time commitment, but it is truly one of the best action/suspense flicks ever made. Watching this one consisted of boredom interspersed with moments of despair involving the poorly done "cut and paste" plagiarism.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Real Sinker
Review: Yet another piece of Hollywood trash trying to push a revisionist history upon the public at large. Isn't history interesting and broad enough as it is? Although loosely based on real events, this film unjustly tries to steal the laurels of English sailors and place them on American ones who were never there.

The acting was mediocre at best and much of the movie's styles were a direct rip-off from "Das Boot". Yes, the enigma encoding machine was taken from a sub but but not by Americans: it was done by British sailors. America had barely committed a submarine in the North Atlantic not to mention the Mediterranean.

Sink this film and don't pay Hollywood to produce such mediocre jingoistic propaganda.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: THE WORST
Review: This movie attempts to present itself as an historically based submarine adventure. Unfortunately, it is grossly inaccurate historically, to the point of being insulting;especially to the Brits. They seized an enigma device before we even entered the war. The submarine warfare is so over the top it's absurd. If you want to see crazy stunts and over the top action I'd recommend a good Bond film. If you want to see a great WW2 submarine flick, see Das Boot. Forget about this turkey.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie.
Review: This flick does a great job of explaining the true story of the men who boarded the German sub, U-571 and were poised to survive.

This movie has everything-- action, blood, destruction, a great plot, and many suspenseful scenes.


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