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U-571 (17-Apr-2000)
Director: Jonathan Mostow Writers: David Ayer; Sam Montgomery; Jonathan Mostow Keywords: Action/Adventure, Submarine, WWII, Cryptography
REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 7-Jun-2007) The submarine movie. It
seems like everybody thinks they can make a successful one. In the
90's, 'The Hunt for Red October' and 'Crimson Tide' were among the most
popular. But the grand daddy of all submarine movies is Wolfgang
Petersen's 1982 masterpiece which re-defined the term white-knuckler
when describing motion pictures. Academically efficient and technically
brilliant, director of photography Jost Vacano actually developed (in
an authentic submarine with cramped corners) a method that allowed the
camera to run from one submarine bay to another as smoothly as if the
camera were on a flat conveyor belt. This is a feat that should have
won him an Oscar but instead the award was given to Billy Williams and
Ronnie Taylor for their easy and mostly outdoor filming of 'Gandhi'.
'The Hunt for Red October' was a sly and extremely well written
espionage film that tied itself up a little too perfectly at the end
but kept in the tradition of Hollywood standards without ticking off
the audience. 'Crimson Tide' had the distinction of being a superbly
acted film (it doesn't get much better than Gene Hackman and Denzel
Washington) with great sub woofer capabilities on the home
entertainment system. The new millennium brings in yet another movie
about a war time machine they now name a sandwich and this one has some
pretty bland ingredients and some very large plot holes. I also got the
feeling that while watching this movie that someone behind the camera
actually lost a lot of games of Battleship. You remember that Hasbro
board game where people would exclaim "You sank my battleship!" I say
this because the film is like a game of Battleship that someone wanted
to win very badly and the characters are largely portrayed as parts of
a pinball target, video game target or just about any other target you
can imagine in the name of combat. 'U-571' actually feels at times like
standing next to someone who has only emptied half of his roll of
quarters during the routine of playing a video game and you say, "Come
on. Hurry up. Let's go!"....because you're so bored after a while. The
setting for 'U-571' is World War II. Lt. Andrew Tyler (Matthew
McConaughey) and Lt. Commander Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) are the lead
officers on a mission for the United States that will allow, in theory,
for a group of navy recruits and their officers to board a Nazi
submarine, in the disguise of fellow Nazis, and steal an encoding
device which the Nazis will protect at all costs. This all goes
smoothly for a while until a clever Nazi crewman with binoculars spots
the sabotage and all hell breaks loose. The Americans have to then
fight their way aboard the submarine and steal the device while fearing
an attack from their own allies, managing the vessel's incurred damage
and looking after captured prisoners. After the initial mayhem, the
film becomes bogged down with repetitive vacuums of action which are
handled very well with a booming sound track of refined detail but it
all becomes tiresome before too long. This truly surprised me because
director Jonathan Mostow mad a crackling and totally authentic
Hitchcock style thriller in 1997 entitled 'Breakdown' which showed the
intimacies and nightmares of violent crime and had believable
performances from its cast and filled the bill nicely for two hours.
Producer Dino De Laurentis, aside from standing behind Mostow on
'U-571' also stood with him as producer of 'Breakdown' and it looks
like a compromise was reached where they agreed that one would have his
way on one picture and the other would have his way on the other
because these two films look completely different although they have
the same director and producer working on them. Even if subject matter
is completely different from one project to the next, a film buff can
spot the trademarks of an established produced and director that makes
all of their work seem similar. The mix of collaborative efforts looks
lost on 'U-571' but directors always have a better eye for films than
businessmen do any day of the week. When you go back to look at the
career of De Laurentis, he has been involved with some pretty dreadful
movies including 'Conan the Barbarian', Conan the Destroyer', 'Dune',
'Silver Bullet', 'Year of the Dragon' and 'Body of Evidence'. The last
two being razzie award nominees for worst picture of their respective
years. One thing that is mentioned at the end of the film are some of
the other missions that men in real time war have given sacrifice to.
This was a pleasant thing to see. Much in the same way that 'Star Trek
IV: The Voyage Home' paid tribute to the men and women of the
Challenger disaster of the way Oliver Stone paid tribute to the men who
fought and died in the Vietnam war with 'Platoon' and 'The Towering
Inferno' dedicated its title to fire fighters who gave their lives and
the opening scene of 'Dirty Harry' shows a wall of names depicting
deceased police officers. 'U-571' would make a great video game and it
wouldn't surprise me in this age of marketing if one actually comes
out. Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
Locate a copy of this film here.
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