Movie #128 - U-571

"You won't come up for air until it's over!"

Great premise to this movie. If you are an avid fan of the History Channel, you have probably seen a number of documentaries on the effort to retrieve the Enigma device, a machine that allowed the Nazis to be able to communicate without detection - one of the key strategic advantages of the WWII U-boat campaign.

Although the U-571 film itself was fiction, it is based on various true missions in which the effort to obtain the Enigma device and its relevant code books to decipher the code were made by the Allied forces.

Cast with a solid team of actors, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, and Jon Bon Jovi are the headliners. There are some solid support roles offered by David Keith, Jake Weber, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes, and Erik Palladino.

The film starts off fairly slowly as we learn of the plot and the mission to be undertaken by the cast. With unforeseen changes to the original plans, the remaining cast members are forced to use the U-boat that they have raided to escape the Germans.

Once that part of the story begins, the movie itself becomes scripted and predictable. With a submarine movie, apart from torpedo scenes and compelling moments with depth charges, the movie isn't really exciting anymore. Maybe I am just a little jaded with this film, considering I watch the second half of it almost every time its on television. I've probably seen the chase scenes more than 10 times at the very least.

In the end, what's amazing is that the sailors of WWII actually had missions like this and that our grandparents' generation had to endure such events in their lives. For that alone, this movie is a must see, maybe not for its acting or overall quality as a film, but for its historical references to what did in fact occur during those U-boat / Enigma campaigns.