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This blatant disregard for historical accuracy has been U-571's biggest downfall here in the UK - show me a review that doesn't mention it - and no matter how good the film actually turned out to be, this oversight on the makers part would become the single factor which prevented it from ... Read review
If you've never seen a submarine drama before, thenU-571will probably make a good ... more
impression as a tautly choreographed piece of entertainment. A strong cast led by Matthew McConaughey's sympathetic Lt. Tyler undertakes a perilous mission to seize a Ger...
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If you've never seen a submarine drama before, thenU-571will probably make a good ... more
impression as a tautly choreographed piece of entertainment. A strong cast led by Matthew McConaughey's sympathetic Lt. Tyler undertakes a perilous mission to seize a Ger...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
From the creators of the hit thriller 'Breakdown', comes Canal+ and Universal Pictures' ... more
U-571. A white-knuckle World War II suspense drama, about an American submarine crew as they battle against time, danger and their own fears. Their mission: a darin...
If you've never seen a submarine drama before, thenU-571will probably make a good ... more
impression as a tautly choreographed piece of entertainment. A strong cast led by Matthew McConaughey's sympathetic Lt. Tyler undertakes a perilous mission to seize a Ger...
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A U.S. Navy captain and his crew are just beginning to enjoy 48 hours of leave when they ... more
receive word to immediately return to duty. On a top-secret assignment they must disguise themselves as Nazis and infiltrate a severely damaged Nazi U-boat. Once ...
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If you've never seen a submarine drama before, thenU-571will probably make a good ... more
impression as a tautly choreographed piece of entertainment. A strong cast led by Matthew McConaughey's sympathetic Lt. Tyler undertakes a perilous mission to seize a Ger...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
If you've never seen a submarine drama before, thenU-571will probably make a good ... more
impression as a tautly choreographed piece of entertainment. A strong cast led by Matthew McConaughey's sympathetic Lt. Tyler undertakes a perilous mission to seize a Ger...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Advantages: tense, realistically filmed, exciting action film. Disadvantages: IT WAS THE BRITS!
...all the arguing and flag-waving, U-571 emerges as an efficient, well-made action-adventure that should provide two hours of solid entertainment for all but the most dedicated of nationalists.
The premise is a simple one, during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942 an Enigma coding machine comes up for grabs when a German U-boat - the U-571 - with one of the devices on board is attacked and damaged by allied forces.
When the stricken ... ...fan, for not only is U-571 low on power and short of weapons, all the controls are in German and the enemy forces have cottoned on to their game. From hereon in it's action-central as McConaughey & Co encounter torpedoes, depth-charges, enemy destroyers (well, one!) and a whole lotta leaks in their quest to return to American soil with their precious cargo intact.
Not surprisingly, U-571 is packed to the portholes with cliches - pinging sonars, ... more
Right, let's get one thing absolutely clear - British forces captured the Enigma encoding machine from a German sub during WWII, not the Americans.
This blatant disregard for historical accuracy has been U-571's biggest downfall here in the UK - show me a review that doesn't mention it - and no matter how good the film actually turned out to be, this oversight on the makers part would become the single factor which prevented it from repeating it's US box-office success over here. Which is a shame because once you've fought your way through all the arguing and flag-waving, U-571 emerges as an efficient, well-made action-adventure that should provide two hours of solid entertainment for all but the most dedicated of nationalists.
The premise is a simple one, during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942 an Enigma coding machine comes up for grabs when a German U-boat - the U-571 - with one of the devices on board is attacked and damaged by allied forces. When the stricken U-boat signals for help, the message is intercepted by our American friends and a search and recovery mission is hastily assembled. Why?Because the Enigma is a device which can send, scramble, recieve and unscramble tactical military transmissions. Capturing and deciphering one of these machines would play a key role in turning the entire war in the allies favour.
So, during a slow and at times clunky, opening thirty minutes we are introduced to our heroic crew, which for the most part consists of your typical submarine-movie stereotypes - the seawise captain (Bill Paxton), the hot-shot executive officer (Matthew McConaughey), the interfering special-services man (David Keith) and a handful of fresh-faced nobody's who you just know are going to die. Once all of the formalities are out of the way though, and we set sail with our boys, the film starts to gather a few knots and things start to look interesting. Following an exciting, bullet-ridden but successful takeover of the German sub everything seems to be going swimmingly for our boys until, literally out of the blue, things take an explosive turn for the worse and a handful of the crew (led by McConaughey) end up stranded on the wounded U-boat with another enemy sub hot on their keels. This is where the scheizen really hits the fan, for not only is U-571 low on power and short of weapons, all the controls are in German and the enemy forces have cottoned on to their game. From hereon in it's action-central as McConaughey & Co encounter torpedoes, depth-charges, enemy destroyers (well, one!) and a whole lotta leaks in their quest to return to American soil with their precious cargo intact. Not surprisingly, U-571 is packed to the portholes with cliches - pinging sonars, popping rivets and bursting pipes etc.. but writer/director Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown) makes the the most of them, realising (correctly) that no submarine adventure would be complete without them.
Apart from the obvious historical goof, U-571 is drenched in authenticity - the onboard procedures of the crew, the costumes, the sets and, of course the full-size, sea-going submarine itself are a credit to the production and all help to boost the tension levels considerably.
The performances are fine - McConaughey is his usual noble self, Jack Noseworthy is amiable enough as a German-speaking sonarman and Harvey Keitel adds some weight to the largely unknown, twenty-something cast as the grey-bearded old sea-dog. Sadly, the screenplay requires them to do little more than run around shouting and any fleshing-out of these characters was either trimmed in post-production due to "running time constraints", or simply not bothered with. As a result it's difficult to feel any kind of empathy for our heroes, unlike Wolfgang Petersen's classic "Das Boot" where you're with them every nerve-stretching inch of the way.
I was determined to get a joke about "sub-plots" in this review somewhere, but U-571 doesn't have any - what you see is what you get, and that is a straight-forward, WWII adventure with exciting, realistic action and great special effects - enough to keep most thrill-seekers happy for a couple of hours.
3 stars for the film.
U-571 is available on both region 1 and region 2 DVD, but, as usual, the region 1 disc is far superior. It's one of Universal's Collector's Edition DVD's, meaning that it comes with a veritable boatload of extra features. Director Mostow clearly played a huge part in the making of this DVD, personally introducing as he does the majority of the numerous featurettes. He also goes some way to making up for the film's casual treatment of it's historical content, in one the best features he interviews Lt. Commander David Balme - the *British* sailor who actually did board a German U-boat and capture an Enigma Machine. A jolly old chap he is too. Further featurettes include an interview with a genuine US submarine commander, an interview with a cryptologist about how the Enigma actually worked, naval archive footage of the real capture of U-505 and two reasonably in-depth (ho ho) documentaries on the making of the movie. Add to this a commentary from Mostow, trailer, production notes, cast & crew profiles, DVD-ROM material, and a recommendations page with further hidden trailers, all bound together with slick animated menus. The icing on the cake however comes with the inclusion of a stunning DTS audio track as well as the already impressive Dolby Digital 5.1 track - audio heaven and a big "Yah-Boo" to all those studios who claim that DTS audio takes up too much disc space.
One of the best single-disc packages around and a full 5 stars.
Like the titular submarine however, the U-571 DVD seems to have taken some severe damage in it's trans-Atlantic crossing. Released by Entertainment in Video in the UK, the region 2 disc comes without the DTS soundtrack and minus one of the "making of" documentaries. Also wave goodbye to the production notes, cast & crew information, DVD-ROM content and the animated menus. The box it comes in isn't as stylish either. Worse still, the film's original 2.35-1 aspect ratio has been chopped down to 1.85-1 - What madness is this? Why not re-master it in black & white while you're at it? True, a 1.85-1 image will fit on your widescreen telly with no black bars at the top and bottom, but this is wrong! The film was shot in the wider "panavision" format and altering it for UK viewers is nothing short of an insult.
If the powers-that-be in the film world really want to stem the flow of imported region 1 discs, then UK distributors are going to have to start doing better than this - and schnell!
Advantages: Some good action shots, suspence and fast moving in places Disadvantages: Weak cast, did not keep up the pace and they changed history
The Film U-571 caused a rather large sensation when it originally was released. It is based in the Second World War at sea, though there is nothing hugely out of place with that. The film has been totally Americanized, though only just a bit. I mean a simple mistake really getting two countries confused, especially when they are on the same side. Changing a story of heroics, stealth, cunning and bravery with British as the main people involved to ... ...is set out to capture U-571 with Captain Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) and Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey) in charge of the crew. They find the stricken U-Boat ahead of the rescue ship sent from Germany to save the sub, all part of the plan to destroy the evidence to stop Germany knowing they have the Enigma. While aboard the German U-Boat another U-Boat sinks the Americas with all the crew on aboard, leaving just a few people left in ...
Chris_Padden 31.01.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of U-571 (DVD)
Advantages: Fast paced action movie. Disadvantages: Historical inaccuracies may offend some people.
...of special features! U-571 has some superb special effects and the photography is truly remarkable, the sort of movie that has you jumping at the explosions and so on! As you would expect, given the subject matter, much of the movie is set inside both the US submarine and the German U boat. Careful editing and camera angles give a good impression of the cramped quarters submariners live in and the cheek by jowl crowded atmosphere has been caught ... ...during the Second World War, U-571 follows the story of the crew of a US submarine. The submarine crew are on a much needed 48 hour leave, when they are suddenly called together and given their orders for a mission. The crew are tasked with the job of seeking out a German Nazi U boat and capturing a top secret German Enigma encrypting device and it's code book from the boat. The German vessel is sunk and to be totally destroyed, the US submariners ...
brittle1906 07.10.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of U-571 (DVD)
Advantages: realistic, action-packed, brilliantly directed Disadvantages: if it were to be 100% fair, a British crew would feature as the heroes
Once again it is up to the British public to overcome any prejudices they may have as to the way “history has been re-written” by Hollywood to make the Americans look as heroic as possible. This has been done somewhat at the expense of the “Tommies”, who made by far the most valuable contributions to cracking the Enigma code machine (the central focus of this submarine scenario). “U-571” is much like “The ... ...see it actually enjoy it. This theory is strengthened by the fact that, at the time of writing this review, most of the top opinions in the “U-571” sub-category are positive. Indeed, I have heard by far the most scathing criticisms of this movie from those who have not even seen it.
The bottom line is that “U-571” does not actually re-write history, as it is a work of pure historical fiction. It is unwarranted to expect American ...
Marechal_Grouchy 28.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of U-571 (DVD)
Advantages: Good solid action/adventure Disadvantages: Fact?
The premise for this film is good. They'd made some great factually based war films in the past. With modern effects and film making techniques this should be a winner...shouldn't it?
With their 'unbreakable' codes, the German forces are winning the war - their navy rules the waves and their armies are battering Europe. When u-boat 571 is crippled in an attack, the US navy seizes it's opportunity to capture one of the prized Enigma cypher machines. ... ...seize the stricken sub but can do nothing when their own vessel is destroyed by the German's rescue team. Stranded in the north Atlantic in a damaged, enemy submarine, can the 9 plucky heroes make it home with their valuable cargo?
The story is fundamentally good and the fable that ends up on screen is dynamic, exciting and great entertainment, so what's the problem? Fact is the simple answer. Once again the Hollywood history writers have been busy ...
TheNeil 12.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of U-571 (DVD)
...be able to approach the U-571 without arousing suspicion. They manage to locate the U-571 and even to capture it. But while Lt. Tyler and his special commando are waiting on the conquered U-571, another U-boat sinks their own submarine and almost the entire crew dies. Lt. Tyler, who’s in charge now after the death of Capt. Dahlgren, has to try to get the Enigma back, with his limited team and in a submarine they barely know.
The critics
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... ...original German crew of the U-571 massacres an entire cutter of helpless refugees searching for help. The Americans on the other hand, save the only surviving member of the U-571! I will not spoil the rest, but I can assure you that this black/white view only got worse towards the end of the movie. This movie was so extremely patriotic and anti-German it disgusted me. If it had been made 60 years ago I’d say it’s pure war propaganda.
...
Bastien 19.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of U-571 (DVD)
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Advantages: Loaded with Features Disadvantages: Hard job rooting for the Good Guy
arrive as soon as possible.
While the movie may not be worth the plastic it comes on, at least there's a chance the special features will make up for it given the fact that it's a Universal disc. Sure enough, one of the top DVD-producing studios doesn't disappoint with this one. Included on the disc is a "Spotlight on Location" featurette, theatrical trailer, audio commentary track with Director Peter Hyams, a special effects feature that takes a look at how ten of the intense special effects scenes were created, a text-based feature that explains the Book of Revelation, a music video from Everlast and another from Rob Zombie, production notes, cast & crew bios, a trailer for U-571, and DVD-ROM support.
This disc is loaded with features, and the presentation score is truly excellent as well. While the menus are completely static ...
Advantages: The best submarine drama to date Disadvantages: Very long
It was only after watching my newly acquired copy of U-571 the other day that prompted me to dust-off my DVD of Das Boot (Director’s Cut) and give it another look.
In the past, this movie has been seen in several formats. Serialised on BBC2 and in standard movie length being two of them.
The DVD version runs for 200 minutes – and that’s just the movie! I suspect that this is closer in length to the TV mini-series in content than the normal movie.
The advantage of the DVD format, is that you can hear the soundtrack dubbed into English, or for the purist, in German with or without English* subtitles, which is, of course, much closer to the original. Tip – If you speak any German, see if you can spot the points where the somewhat primmer English subtitles deviate from the more lavatorial German dialogue ...
BNibbles 07.02.2001 (08.04.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Das Boot (DVD)
Advantages: Exciting, Thought Provoking, Tense Disadvantages: None
Sam Neill Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin
James Earl Jones Admiral James Greer
Joss Ackland Ambassador Andrei Lysenko
Directed By John McTiernan
Feature Running Time : 134 Minutes
Certificate : PG
Other Recommendations
If you like this film, others I would recommend are Crimson Tide and Das Boot, but definitely not U-571.
Where To Buy
At the time of writing the cheapest price I could find is £4.99 from the online retailer BlahDVD.com. That's a bargain. ...
The Germans are causing major problems in the North Atlantic in 1942 and threaten to cut off the vital supply lines from America to Britain. A Special Operations Mission is sent out which changes the course of the war...
"...[A] well-executed tale...mixing some cinema-rumbling big bangs with plenty of screen-cinging pyrotechnics..." (Total Film, p.82-3, 01/07/2000)
DVD Description
Faithful to the conventions of the World War II genre, Mostow's (BREAKDOWN) submarine thriller pays earnest homage to the pluck and determination of ordinary people forced to overcome extraordinary odds. The mostly young and inexperienced crew of the S-33 is deployed on a top secret, high-priority mission to intercept a disabled German u-boat (the titular U-571) and capture the ship's encryption system--the Enigma--in order to crack the Nazi's communication codes and hasten an allied victory in the North Atlantic. Racing against a German rescue effort, the S-33 stages a daring raid on the U-571. But after capturing the U-571, the Americans find themselves its prisoner as they must pilot the leaky, disabled vessel through hostile enemy waters. McConaughey (EDTV, DAZED AND CONFUSED) leads a strong cast (Keitel - HOLY SMOKE, Paxton - A SIMPLE PLAN) in this fast-paced, tense, submarine adventure.
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