U-571 (2000) / **
Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Screenplay by Mostow, Sam Montgomery and David Ayer, from a story by Mostow. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Jake Weber. Running time: 119 minutes. Rated PG for mild language by the MFCB. Reviewed on April 30th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
For the past few years, most movies set during World War II have been more about the mentality and morals of war than about simple military adventure and heroics. Even the last great submarine movie, "The Hunt For Red October," was as much a character study of Sean Connery's Captain Marko Ramius as it was a Tom Clancy actioner. "U-571" bucks this trend, hearkening back to the simple but exciting Saturday matinee flicks which were so popular half a century ago.
The plot here is straightforward, existing mainly as an excuse for deep-sea dramatics. A British destroyer has crippled a German U-boat, the U-571. The Allies are aware that the submarine is equipped with an Enigma device -- the key to unlocking Nazi ciphers, and possibly to winning the War. An American sub is sent out to reconnoitre with U-571, poising as a German supply ship. The American troops are to seize the vessel, capture the crew, and bring the Enigma back to their ship. All this has to be done without the Nazis getting suspicious, because if they find out the Allies have the Enigma, they'll just change their codes and all will be for naught.
The mission, led by young up-and-comer Executive Officer Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), goes smoothly at first. Then the American sub gets torpedoed, killing most of its crew except for the U-571 boarding party. Trapped on the damaged German submarine, Tyler and his remaining men have to find their way back to Allied territory before they're discovered by the Nazis.
In terms of being sheer popcorn fare, "U-571" does a pretty good job. Although the film takes too long to get going, things heat up nicely once the Americans are trapped on board the U-boat, and the tension keeps building from there. Particularly exciting is a lengthy sequence in which the sub is being depth-bombed by a Nazi ship. Having devised a desperate plan for survival, Tyler orders his crew to take the dilapidated vessel deeper than it should go even under normal operating conditions. The explosions get nearer and nearer; the groaning of the bulkheads grows constantly louder. It's an engrossing piece of cinema.
But other plot developments are more routine. For instance, in the aftermath of the explosion of their ship, the Americans find the Nazi captain of the U-571 (Thomas Kretschmann), still manacled after his initial capture, struggling to stay afloat. In an act of mercy, Tyler has him pulled out of the water and chained up in the engine room. I was counting the minutes until the captain betrayed the Americans, and my expectations proved correct on not one but two occasions. A lot of the movie feels like this: standard action/military scenes transposed onto the submarine setting.
"U-571's" biggest deficiencies, though, lie in its almost total lack of characterisation. Part of what makes other war movies, like "Saving Private Ryan," so good is that each of the soldiers involved are portrayed with depth and feeling. They might not have a lot of screen time, but they feel like real people with real lives nonetheless.
The same cannot be said of the cast of "U-571", who prove to be a faceless, unmemorable bunch. Even the main stars play cookie-cutter characters. Take McConaughey's Andrew Tyler, for example. At the start of the movie, he argues with his commanding officer, Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) about whether he's ready for his own command. Dahlgren doesn't believe he is, and explains why. By the end of "U-571", surprise surprise, Tyler has learned exactly those lessons Dahlgren had described. You could almost check them off a list as they come up. Tyler is just a standard military action hero, and what attempt there is to flesh him out comes across as transparent and uninspired, like the above. McConaughey does a decent enough job as the heroic lead, but to propel it, "U-571" needs its lead to be more interesting than that.
The other headliners are similar non-entities. Harvey Keitel plays the Chief as if he'd just stepped out of any one of a hundred similar movies. He's an old sea dog who hands out spoonfuls of advice every few scenes on cue. Jon Bon Jovi, in his acting debut, is passable but forgettable as Tyler's best friend, Pete Emmett. Paxton is surprisingly lacking in passion or involvement as Dahlgren.
At least "U-571" looks good. Despite the limited choices of location and camera angles, director (and co-writer) Jonathan Mostow keeps our eyes glued on the screen. There are some nice shots, for instance, where the camera actually follows the submarine as it dives beneath the waves. On the other hand, one thing Mostow seems to attempt with success is to convey a sense of claustrophobia in the leaky submarine. Characters sweat and look about nervously, and water drips from every corner. But the feeling that those metal walls are closing about them -- just barely keeping out the crushing ocean waves -- simply isn't there.
As light entertainment, you could certainly do worse than "U-571". It's fun and exciting, and every now and then might even set your pulse racing a little faster. But ultimately, as a big-budget update of those old postwar action films, Mostow has borrowed a few plot elements and characters too many. And in the end, that's what sinks "U-571".
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/U-571.html
-- _______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | shannon@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
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