movie review u 571

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

"U-571" is a clever wind-up toy of a movie, almost a trailer for a video game. Compared to " Das Boot " or "The Hunt For Red October," it's thin soup. The characters are perfunctory, the action is recycled straight out of standard submarine formulas, and there is one shot where a man is supposed to be drowning and you can just about see he's standing on the bottom of the studio water tank.

To some degree movies like this always work, at least on a dumb action level. The German destroyer is overhead, dropping depth charges, and the crew waits in hushed suspense while the underwater explosions grow nearer. We're all sweating along with them. But hold on a minute. We saw the Nazis rolling the depth charges overboard, and they were evenly spaced. As the first ones explode at a distance, there are several seconds between each one. Then they get closer. And when the charges are right on top of the sub, they explode one right after another, like a string of firecrackers--dozens of them, as leaks spring and water gushes in and lights blink and the surround sound rocks the theater.

At a moment like this, I shouldn't be thinking about the special effects. But I am. They call attention to themselves. They say the filmmakers have made a conscious decision to abandon plausibility and put on a show for the kids. And make no mistake: This is a movie for action-oriented kids. "Das Boot" and " The Hunt for Red October " were about military professionals whose personalities were crucial to the plot. The story of "U-571" is the flimsiest excuse for a fabricated action payoff. Submarine service veterans in the audience are going to be laughing their heads off.

Matthew McConaughey stars as Lt. Tyler, an ambitious young man who thinks he's ready for his first command. Not so fast, says Lt. Cmdr. Dahlgren ( Bill Paxton ). He didn't recommend his second-in-command because he thinks he's not there yet: Not prepared, for example, to sacrifice the lives of some men to save others, or the mission. This info is imparted at one of those obligatory movie dance parties at which all the Navy guys look handsome in white dress uniforms, just before they get an emergency call back to the boat.

The mission: A German U-boat is disabled in the mid-Atlantic. On board is the secret Enigma machine, used to cipher messages. The unbreakable Enigma code allows the Nazis to control the shipping lanes. The mission of Dahlgren, Tyler and their men: Disguise their U.S. sub as a Nazi vessel, get to the other sub before the German rescuers can, impersonate Germans, capture the sub with a boarding party, grab Enigma and sink the sub so the rescuers won't suspect what happened.

"But we're not Marine fighting men," protests one of the sailors. "Neither is the other crew," says a Marine on board, who has conveyed these instructions. "And I'll train your men." Uh, huh. In less than a week? There are no scenes of training, and I'm not sure what happened to the Marine.

The details of the confrontation with the Nazi sub I will not reveal. Of course it goes without saying that Tyler gets a chance to take command and see if he has what it takes to sacrifice lives in order to save his men and his mission, etc. If you remember the vivid personalities of the sub crews in "Das Boot" and "Red October," you're going to be keenly aware that no one in this movie seems like much of an individual. When they do have dialogue, it's functional, spare and aimed at the plot. Even Harvey Keitel , as the Chief, is reduced to barking out declarative sentences.

The crew members seem awfully young, awfully green, awfully fearful, and so headstrong, they border on mutiny. There's a scene where the (disguised) U.S. sub is checked out by a German reconnaissance plane, and a young sailor on the bridge panics. He's sure the plane is going to strafe them and orders the man on the deck machine gun to fire at it. His superior officer orders the gunner to stand fast. The kid screams, "Fire! Fire!" As the plane comes closer, the officer and the kid are both shouting their orders at the gunner. Without actually consulting Navy regulations, my best guess is that kid should be court-martialed.

You can enjoy "U-571" as a big, dumb war movie without a brain in its head. But that doesn't stop it from looking cheesy. Producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis and director Jonathan Mostow (" Breakdown ") have counted on fast action to distract from the plausibility of most of the scenes at sea (especially shots of the raft boarding party). Inside the sub, they have the usual cliches: The sub dives to beyond its rated depth, metal plates creak and bolt heads come loose under the pressure.

"U-571" can't be blamed for one story element that's standard in all sub movies: The subs can be hammered, battered, shelled, depth-bombed and squeezed by pressure, and have leaks, fires, shattered gauges, ruptures, broken air hoses, weak batteries and inoperable diesel engines--but in the heat of action, everything more or less somehow works. Better than the screenplay, anyway.

In case you're wondering, the German sub on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is U-505, and it was boarded and captured not by submariners, but by sailors from the USS Pillsbury, part of the escort group of the carrier USS Guadalcanal. No Enigma machine was involved. That was in 1944. An Enigma machine was obtained on May 9, 1941, when HMS Bulldog captured U-110. On Aug. 23, 1941, U-570 was captured by British planes and ships, without Enigma. This fictional movie about a fictional U.S. submarine mission is followed by a mention in the end credits of those actual British missions. Oh, the British deciphered the Enigma code, too. Come to think of it, they pretty much did everything in real life that the Americans do in this movie.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Kung Fu Panda 4

Christy lemire.

You Can Call Me Bill

Clint worthington.

Marya E. Gates

Simon Abrams

American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders

Brian tallerico.

Film Credits

U-571 (2000)

Rated PG-13 For War Violence

115 minutes

David Keith as Coonan

Jon Bon Jovi as Emmett

Harvey Keitel as Chief

Matthew McConaughey as Tyler

Bill Paxton as Dahlgren

• Sam Montgomery

Directed by

• Jonathan Mostow

Latest blog posts

On Luca, Tenet, The Invisible Man and Other Films from the Early Pandemic Era that Deserve More Big-Screen Time

How The Ladykillers Kicked Off Tom Hanks’ Weirdest Year Two Decades Ago

Short Films in Focus: I Have No Tears, and I Must Cry

Steve Martin Is an Auteur Without Having Directed a Thing

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

A very tense and exciting war movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Nonstop tension, many characters killed.

A few strong words.

Some social drinking, smoking.

Parents need to know that U-571 is an exceptionally intense and scary movie. Many people are brutally killed, including characters that the audience comes to care about.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that U-571 is an exceptionally intense and scary movie. Many people are brutally killed, including characters that the audience comes to care about. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (5)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Great Movie. Much More Profanity Than Review Indicates.

What's the story.

U-571, a fictional story inspired by several different WWII incidents, follows a group of sailors who are trying to capture the German's Engima code machine, so that they can find out where the U-boats are headed in time to prevent them from sinking the Allies' supply ships. As the movie begins, Lt. Tyler (Matthew McConaughey) is bitter at not having been recommended for command. The Captain (Bill Paxton) explains that it is not enough that Tyler is willing to give his life for the men. He must be willing to order them to give their lives, and then he has to be able to live with the consequences. And he as to be able to do it "without pause, without reflection, or you've got no business being a submarine captain." Later, when Tyler and his men have taken over the U-Boat, and his first orders are tentative, Chief Klough (Harvey Keitel), the non-commissioned officer who has seen it all, takes him aside to tell him that "The skipper always knows what to do, whether he does or not." Tyler is confronted with decision after decision, forced to choose quickly and credibly among nothing but long shots.

Is It Any Good?

Minute for minute, U-571 is one of the most tense and exciting war movies ever made, with the crew on the brink of disaster and often several disasters at once, for most of the running time. Indeed, it's so busy being exciting that it is sometimes impossible to tell what is going on, especially since the sets are so dark, drippy, and claustrophobic and the dialogue so jargon-crammed. Still, as Lt. Tyler learns, it isn't enough to be brave, loyal, and honorable.

Submarines immediately grab our attention. They are isolated and vulnerable. Once they leave the dock, they become a world of their own, with no time to wait for orders when they get into trouble. In movies from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Operation Petticoat , Crimson Tide and The Hunt for Red October , we see men who must make life and death decisions without time or information, and we get to think, as we lean back and eat our popcorn, about how we'd fare so deep below the surface. We get to see some terrific examples of problem-solving and moral choices.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how we develop the foundation of values and experience to enable us to make those choices. They should also talk about the difference between fiction and reality. The setting and the references to historical incidents like the capture of the Enigma may lead people who watch this movie to believe that it was based on a true story. It is not. It is based on pieces of several stories, mostly involving British, not American, sailors and soldiers, and it is heavily fictionalized, at times bearing more relation to Star Wars than it does to history.

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 21, 2000
• On DVD or streaming : October 24, 2000
• Cast : Bill Paxton , Harvey Keitel , Matthew McConaughey
• Director : Jonathan Mostow
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 116 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : war violence
• Last updated : July 1, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Crimson Tide

Best action movies for kids, best action games for kids.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Love Lies Bleeding Link to Love Lies Bleeding
• Problemista Link to Problemista
• Late Night with the Devil Link to Late Night with the Devil

New TV Tonight

• Mary & George: Season 1
• Star Trek: Discovery: Season 5
• Sugar: Season 1
• American Horror Story: Season 12
• Loot: Season 2
• Parish: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• Lopez vs Lopez: Season 2
• The Magic Prank Show With Justin Willman: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• The Gentlemen: Season 1
• Palm Royale: Season 1
• Manhunt: Season 1
• X-Men '97: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• We Were the Lucky Ones Link to We Were the Lucky Ones
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Pedro Pascal Movies and Series Ranked by Tomatometer

Dwayne Johnson Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

TV Premiere Dates 2024

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

• Trending on RT
• Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
• Play Movie Trivia

U-571 Reviews

U-571 is junk as history; as a mindless Saturday night action flick, its pretty good

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 26, 2022

Well-executed but troubling wartime historical revisionism.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 15, 2021

... more like a Star Trek television episode

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 7, 2013

A very tense and exciting war movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 29, 2010

[Both] a rousing action thriller...[and] near-parody of the rah-rah American military adventures that filled screens in the '40s and '50s. [Blu-Ray]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 20, 2008

Delivers action scenes that are both visually dynamic and highly suspenseful.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

I've never seen a movie as dependent on a fancy sound system.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 25, 2007

The film needs something more to make it interesting and different.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 14, 2007

Without much charge and even less depth.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2006

Like the rusted old subs deployed in the story, the picture seems designed to stay in the safe shallows and not to plumb any real dramatic depths.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Dec 6, 2005

It's a wham-bam bumpy ride, great fun in the old-fashioned war movie tradition.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 21, 2005

A top-notch, high quality actioner that is destined to hit its male-oriented, testosterone-driven demographic and make a pile of money in the process.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Apr 9, 2005

It's really hard to go wrong with a submarine war movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 14, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 25, 2003

This film has the effects and the performances to keep the thrill ride going non-stop.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 8, 2003

(Mostow's) theme of what it takes to be a leader nearly breaks a surprisingly decent action film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2002

Sharply edited and vigorously directed and performed.

Full Review | Dec 2, 2002

For all its realistic bluster, feels vaguely hollow.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 24, 2002

U-571 superbly mixes classic touches and brand-new thrills.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 7, 2002

Review of U-571

During World War II, the crew of a United States submarine is trained (and assigned) to infiltrate German U-boat 571 in an effort to gain access to Enigma -- a coding device for German communications which¿if possessed¿would give the U.S. invaluable insight into enemy activity.

Matters are complicated when the U.S. sub is destroyed while her crew is still on-board the enemy vessel¿

U-571 is not a bad film ¿ sometimes it is intriguing and rather effective. But it is a severely flawed film which wears-out its welcome via unerring predictability, and tediously repetitive underwater ¿suspense¿ sequences (see The Bad section of this review for more thoughts on this).

Even though the film¿s many action sequences are frequently well executed, when all is said and done there's little here we haven¿t seen done before ¿ and little we haven¿t seen done better.

One sequence nailed by the filmmakers is McConaughey and his crew storming U-571. It is magnificent, and perfectly executed ¿ if only the rest of the film had carried the same ¿snap¿. Basically, the scenario is simple: our heroes jump down into the very cramped confines of an enemy submarine ¿ guns-a-blazin¿. The interior of the sub is basically one long, claustrophobic corridor heading forward and aft, populated by little supply closets, enclaves, bunk beds, etc. ¿ all of which are places where someone from the enemy crew could be hiding. But those people have to be eliminated, or they¿ll get our heroes first.

Solution? Something of a Hail Mary through the U-boat, during which gunshots echo through the vessel¿s cramped metallic confines with nightmarish intensity. It's almost like running the gauntlet in a haunted house, or a sequence out of DreamWork¿s magnificent video game shooter Medal of Honor . Very effective.

One of the most fascinating elements of U-571 has nothing to do with submarine warfare (or encoding devices) at all -- specifically referring to the bizarre and welcomed spectacle which is Harvey Keitel¿s performance as a non trash-mouthed, non-mob-related, non-antagonistic, non-intimidating boat ¿chief¿. Sure, it¿s happened before ¿ but not too often. Generally, he is stereotyped & pigeonholed as a tough guy ¿ it¿s nice to see him in a role which shows other sides to his versatile capacities and talents (although, paradoxically, this makes his Chief Klough character seem a bit underutilized).

Sound Effects design and editing by Keith Bilderbeck, Angelo Palazzo, Tim Gedermer, Charles B. Maynes, and Sandy Gendler is stunning ¿ providing U-571 with a gut-gobbling¿and often unnerving¿soundtrack that audiences may have trouble getting used to (especially in a good THX auditorium).

Visual effects (supervised by Allen Hall of Forest Gump , Contact ) are, as a whole, excellent. In general, water effects are notoriously hard to pull off ¿ but Hall and the crew of Cinesite visualize some rather amazing work in this film, although there are still a few moments of unevenness (which I won't specify ¿ if you don't notice, it won't hurt you).

As mentioned above, there are some very competent and solid aspects to this movie. Unfortunately, U-571 is often guilty of heinously telegraphing its dramatic intents ¿ which doesn't leave many surprises.

Primarily, this issue stems from a brief sequence in which the U.S. sub¿s commanding officer (Bill Paxton) grills his executive officer & captain wannabe (Matthew McConaughey) about whether or not McConaughey has the spine to send members of his crew to their deaths, should his potential captaincy require it. This scene not only serves as pointed foreshadowing (which may have felt less obvious on paper), but the potential scenarios laid out by Paxton serve as something of a roadmap for much of what happens to McConaughey throughout the rest of the film ¿ an element which not only seems convenient, but a bit like tipping one¿s hand in a poker game.

The usually likeable Bill Paxton (Hudson the crazed space Marine in Aliens , the tornado-chasing lead in Twister ) is not as engaging in U-571 as in those previous projects -- he doesn't have the ¿command presence¿ necessary to bring either believability or gravity to his role.

Other performances are competent, but characterizations in this film are generally ¿paint-by-the-numbers¿. Character development in U-571 only seems to be utilized when a certain character requires development to reach ¿X¿ dramatic end (so we can say¿in a non-literal example¿¿Ooooohhh, pooooor Johnny ¿ it¿s too bad he died. He¿s the one who had the beautiful wife, three kids, puppy dog, and sick grandmother they were all talking about earlier. So sad!¿)

This feels a bit manipulative, and is an element which serves to undercut dramatic tension throughout the rest of the film. We know so few of these people, there's nothing to hold our interest for very long during the life-or-death struggle going on during the film. Thus, U-571 is not as dramatically effective as it could have¿and should have¿been.

Another ailment plaguing U-571 is what I call SPR Syndrome (aka Saving Private Ryan Syndrome). When SPR was released, I encountered numerous people who felt that film¿s violent excess undermined storytelling later in the film. Basically, their argument was: a viewer can be horrified and appalled by the graphic or intense nature of combat is on-screen, but after a while, the viewer becomes anesthetized to it.

To some people, the fact people on-screen were being sawed in half by machine gun fire¿their innards splashing wetly to the ground¿became irrelevant after a while because we¿d already seen great quantities of it earlier in the film. They wanted the story to move on , instead of dwelling on countless variations of the same theme.

It has been argued that such excess¿and subsequent anesthetization¿is ¿realistic¿, because that¿s what happens to people in war. This is probably true, but the fact remains we are watching a movie ¿and trying to stay with a visual narrative ¿ and it is the filmmaker¿s imperative to maintain the flow of his or her product first and foremost. Especially if the horrors they are throwing at us all represent a road we¿ve been down before.

In U-571 , the SPR Syndrome manifests itself in the guise of tediously repetitive and predictable action. One can only watch for depth charges to tumble towards our heroes for so long, take-in so many ¿near misses¿, hear so many sub-rattling concussions, and see so many leaks spring before one becomes anesthetized to the whole thing ¿ and hopes something fresher may be around the corner. But in this film, it isn¿t¿

Cinematographer Oliver Wood¿s ( Die Hard 2 , Face Off ) overly bright photography contributes little to the film¿s ambiance -- esentially abandoning U-571 to be an "atmospheric piece" without very much visual atmosphere. With backgrounds that are so well lighted¿so unnaturally lighted¿it¿s hard to get a sense of depth or feel for many of the movie's environments, sometimes giving U-571 the feel of a stage-play.

Director Jonathan Mostow ( Breakdown , HBO¿s From the Earth to the Moon ) manages to evoke some genuine tension at several points throughout the film, but repetitive style¿and the above-mentioned SPR Syndrome¿keep him from sustaining the tension for very long.

¿The Ugly¿ portion of this review is a nit-pick, but something which is so annoying I felt it warranted mention. Before I saw U-571 , a friend (who had attended a screening of the film last week) warned me about the finale of the movie, in which a ship¿hit by a single torpedo¿detonates in a glorious cascade of billowing debris plumes.

Problem is, this is the only ship in the movie which dies in such a manner, all of the other vessels explode in a more sedate and ¿realistic¿ manner. While providing the film with a spectacular visual finale, this visualization feels incongruous with what has come before: and comes across as an artificial means to bring oomph and impact to a sequence which might otherwise have fallen a bit flat for those used to ¿the last explosion is always the biggest¿ philosophy of movie making.

However, it feels contrived, and the Hollywoodization of such a moment only serves to pull the audience out of the general reality the film was trying to achieve. But that¿s a minor crime, considering the film¿s general tweaking of historical accuracy ( Editor¿s Note : see Entertainment Weekly¿s recent report on the British government¿s reaction to the movie¿s portrayal of American involvement in snagging Enigma. The Poles, British, and French had it before we did, but that¿s mentioned as merely an afterthought in the film [in text presented immediately before the closing credits]. Jump HERE to access an Enigma resource page, or HERE to jump to the National Security Agency (NSA) website for more information on this).

So, when all is said and done, U-571 is just a movie. In light of the film-specific shortcomings discussed above, the question has to be asked: how does U-571 stack-up against other notable films in the same genre? Films like The Hunt for Red October or Das Boot ? The answer is: not very favorably. U-571 lacks the stylistic flare and well-chiseled characterizations which made Red October work as well as it did, and doesn't ring with the gritty and harsh ¿truth¿ which helped Das Boot become one of the genre¿s most respected titles.

Existing in a strange netherworld between earnest sincerity and mainstream Hollywood storytelling, U-571 challenges the quality of those films on only a few occasions. But it¿s too predictable to be compelling, and too redundant to be involving. It obviously wants to be a classic in the same vein as its predecessors, it simply lacks the artistry, freshness, or dramatic punch to get there. - Glen

The official U-571 website can be accessed by CLICKING HERE .

A FAQ about the real events portrayed in U-571 can be found by CLICKING HERE .

2.5 out of 5 Stars, 5/10 Score

In This Article

IGN Recommends

U-571 Review

02 Jun 2000

116 minutes

In his Steven Spielberg biography, John Baxter asserts that the director's great skill is to "scavenge Hollywood's scrapyard, salvaging genres and recycling them." Faint praise, but that's exactly what Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan two years ago, dusting off the World War II mission movie for a new generation. Thus, Jonathan Mostow's $62 million punt owes its big fanfare to Spielberg.

If Ryan was Spielberg's '90s upgrade of a moribund genre, U-571 is so old-fashioned it might have been made by J. Lee Thompson 40 years ago. But Ryan and U-571 have one thing in common: the appropriation of real events for fictionalised ends. And in both cases America effectively wins the war without any help from Britain. Spielberg distilled Operation Overlord down to the experience of the US First Army on Omaha Beach; U-571 brazenly amalgamates two key British Navy swoops on Enigma parts and documents in 1941 and 1942 and magically turns them into an American operation.

As it is, the Enigma (which one dim crew member disparages as "a typewriter") is U-571 's MacGuffin; a prop for some straight-down-the-line military heroics at sea. After all, a mission movie needs a mission. It also needs a flawed hero - here, it's Matthew McConaughey's grimacing Lieutenant Tyler, who learns at the outset of the film that he's been turned down for the command of his own submarine because he's not ready yet. It's odds-on that sometime in the next two hours, he will prove himself an able seaman. Against all odds, McConaughey also comes through, and by the end of his journey, bad memories of Amistad and A Time To Kill are gone.

Because U-571 makes no attempt to overturn expectations, anyone who's ever seen a submarine movie will be able to second-guess the plot. But the incredibly assured Mostow - whose only other feature was the nail-biting Breakdown - has at least two aces up his sleeve: the pulse-quickening sequence where the US crew must take control of the U-boat but find that all the instructions are in German, and a depth-charge attack which cranks up the tension through the sheer use of sound alone. Talk about being right there with them.

Comparisons to Das Boot will be made - indeed, German production designer Gotz Weidner worked on both films - but U-571 is more about derring-do than claustrophobia.

Such old-fangled, iron-jawed pre-postmodernism should not put anyone off, though. By adding nothing new to an old genre but Dolby sound and a web site, Mostow has fashioned something with an admirable level of purity about it. You can almost see the edge of the water tanks in which the above-waves sequences are shot, but this merely adds to the sense of matinee excitement.

Related Articles

Movies | 12 03 2002

Movies | 29 01 2002

Movies | 05 06 2001

Movies | 22 05 2001

Movies | 27 03 2001

Movies | 07 06 2000

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

U-571: You give historical films a bad name

Director: Jonathan Mostow Entertainment grade: C- History grade: Fail

Enigma machines were used by the Nazis to encrypt secret messages before and during the second world war. Based on the work of a team of Polish mathematicians in 1932, and several captured machines and codebooks, the Enigma was broken at Bletchley Park on 1 June 1941.

It's spring 1942, and an American submarine is making its way through the Atlantic. The target: a stricken German U-boat. Posing as a German supply crew, the American sailors plan to board the U-571 and steal its Enigma. Just a few problems here. First, the real submarine U-571 was never captured, though it was sunk by an Australian plane off Ireland in 1944. Second, by 1942, allied intelligence already had several Enigma machines. The first capture took place in February 1940, when the U-33 was taken by HMS Gleaner off the coast of Scotland. Three Enigma rotors were found, according to some sources, in a German sailor's trousers. Third, as eagle-eyed readers may already have noticed, the Enigma had actually been deciphered almost a year before this film is set – and seven months before the US entered the second world war.

Inspiration

The film seems to be based on the real story of Operation Primrose. On 8 May 1941, German submarine U-110 attacked an allied convoy that included the British ship HMS Bulldog. Damaged by depth charges, U-110 surfaced and was boarded by the Bulldog's crew, who collected all the papers they could find (no one spoke German, so they couldn't be selective), and an Enigma machine. Bletchley Park already had several Enigmas at this point. Bulldog's triumph was recovering the codebooks.

A generally B-list and exclusively American cast is headed up by Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton and Harvey Keitel, with the tokenish addition of TC Carson as an African-American cook. After the German crew is taken prisoner, Carson jeers at them: "It's your first time looking at a black man, ain't it? Get used to it!" It's absolutely true that Nazi Germany persecuted black people. Whereas the United States in 1942, of course, was a model of racial equality, and ... oh. Never mind. Obviously, at some point during pre-production, someone asked the question: "But how can we make this film even more ridiculous?" Fortunately, the answer was readily to hand: cast poodle rocker Jon Bon Jovi as the chief engineer.

The men successfully swipe the Enigma machine, but soon find themselves pursued by a very angry German destroyer. Quickly, they realise they must get the Enigma machine to Britain, or die in the attempt. If they are captured by the Nazis, they will be tortured, and allied cryptography may be revealed. Or, as Lieutenant Bon Jovi might put it, "We've got to hold on to what we've got. It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not. Whoa, oh, living on a prayer."

Amid any number of explosions and deaths, the original scene in which Lieutenant Bon Jovi was decapitated by a bit of flying debris was cut. Instead, he is shot through the heart, and you're to blame. Baby, you give love a bad name. Sorry, that's not true. Actually, he falls over the side. But he does go out in a blaze of glory.

Controversy

At the time of its release, Tony Blair condemned U-571 in parliament as an insult to the Royal Navy. A far more entertaining response would have been for Britain to fund a big-budget revenge epic, in which a small platoon of foppish yet plucky Brits swans over to Vietnam in 1968, defeats the Viet Cong, and wins the war. Moreover, it would be nearly as accurate as this.

The director actually has the audacity to end on a title card dedicating his film to the memory of the real sailors who captured Enigma machines. Yes, that same memory he has just desecrated. This is exactly the most tasteless gesture the film-makers could have made.

The only honest thing about U-571 is its tagline: "Nine men are about to change history."

• Period and historical films
• Reel history

Most viewed

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Matthew McConaughey as Lt. Andrew Tyler; Bill Paxton as Captain Dahlgren; Harvey Keitel as Chief Klough; Jon Bon Jovi as Lt. Pete Emmett; Jake Weber as Lt. Hirsch; Erik Palladino as Mazzola; Matthew Settle as Larson; David Keith as Marine Major Coonan

Home Release Date

• Jonathan Mostow

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

Set during World War II, U-571 is a fictional tale inspired by a composite of events that transpired during the Battle of the Atlantic. In April of 1942, Allied forces lose ship after ship all along the eastern U.S. seaboard. The German submarines (a.k.a. U-boats) responsible for most of the losses are using a secret radio code which the U.S. Navy can’t crack. So a Navy sub is sent in to steal the enemy’s coding device which is know as “Enigma.” Posing as a German repair sub, the Americans board the crippled U-571, take it over and secure Enigma. Their intent is to then scuttle the U-boat and return to their own vessel, but just as they begin to raft back to safety, their “ride home” blows up. Trapped in a foreign submarine, surrounded by hostile waters, the small crew of Americans face one hazard after another to get Enigma back to Navy headquarters.

Positive Elements: The honor of military service. These Navy submariners aren’t even properly trained for their mission, but they carry it out with fortitude, resourcefulness and determination. Lt. Tyler, called Andy though most of the movie, gets passed up for a big promotion right before the mission begins. His disappointment and feelings of betrayal don’t stop him for competently fulfilling his own responsibilities with alertness and professionalism. When Andy finds himself the de facto captain of the U-boat, he learns that a military leader must make excruciating decisions that not only affect his own life, but the lives of those in his command. He loves his men. And while he is forced to make hard choices, he only puts them in harm’s way when it’s the only way.

Spiritual Content: A crewman crosses himself.

Sexual Content: A couple of crude comments include references to female anatomy. A soldier jokes about pornography.

Violent Content: Warfare violence, explosions and a claustrophobic intensity make for a spine-tingling, but not overtly gratuitous ride. A few scenes feature close hand-to-hand combat (one encounter shows a man being strangled and shot at close range), but the majority of the violence in U-571 comes in the form of gigantic explosions and “impersonal” gunfire. Depth charges. Ship cannons. Machine-gun fire. Torpedoes. In one scene, a soldier dies when his clothing catches on fire.

Crude or Profane Language: Less than what has come to be expected in most military dramas. No f-words. About 10 s-words (once in German with English subtitles). Numerous uses of other profanities. There are also several instances in which God’s name is taken in vain.

Drug and Alcohol Content: When Andy doesn’t get his promotion, he drowns his sorrows in hard liquor. Cigarettes and cigars make several appearances. Champagne flows at a USO dance.

Summary: U-571 isn’t driven by a great script. In fact, one barely remembers even a scrap of dialogue while walking out of the theater. U-571 is about whether or not the titled vessel gets blown out of the water or not. Sure, you care about the people in it, but you end up thinking of them as a corporate whole rather than relating to or becoming invested in any one character. Andy’s quest to become a captain, and the question of whether he’s good enough to be one, is a functional subplot, but it plays a distant second to the grand explosions and suspense surrounding the submarine’s battle to survive. Even the crew’s original mission—to get that coding box—remains in the background. It doesn’t matter much why the men are out there, the point is whether they can make it back in one piece.

U-571’s use of violence and foul language is remarkably restrained when compared with many of its recent big-screen peers. The submarine flick Crimson Tide fairly swam with the f-word. WWII epic Saving Private Ryan blasted viewers with ultra-realistic depictions of combat violence. That doesn’t counterbalance the problematic nature of motion picture violence and vulgarity, but it does lend perspective. As an edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting war thriller, U-571 rides high. As a character-driven reflection of WWII’s great heroes, it sinks faster than a torpedoed warship. As a quality film for teens and adults, it floats somewhere in the middle.

Steven Isaac

Latest reviews.

Someone Like You

The Beautiful Game

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Weekly Reviews Straight to your Inbox!

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW; They're Heading Home With the Prize? Great. What? On a Nazi Sub?

By Elvis Mitchell

• April 21, 2000

The new World War II submarine drama ''U-571,'' which focuses on the efforts to retrieve a Nazi code-making machine, the Enigma, from a German sub, brings to mind the Kurt Vonnegut line from ''Slaughterhouse Five'' about the Germans' cutting a better figure in their uniforms than the Americans, whose gear made them look like postmen. The submarine wear of the Nazis -- slate-gray three-quarter-length leather jackets and matching pants -- were probably designed for warmth, but it also turns the briny underneath into a runway show.

''U-571'' manages to work up some generic claustrophobic discomfort: the director, Jonathan Mostow, does an impressive job of moving his cameras around very cramped spaces and uncomfortably close to his actors, so that you can see the sweat beading on their foreheads. It's part of the genre of film in which the tension is so ubiquitous it's measurable.

That it is difficult -- impossible, actually -- to take a sub movie where no man has gone before must have appealed to Mr. Mostow, as would the contrast between ''U-571'' and his last picture, the plainspoken and effective 1997 ''Breakdown.'' There, he brought an urban-legend dread to the sunny, wide-open spaces of the American Southwest by using B-picture minimalism, and got one of the great performances out of Kurt Russell.

''U-571'' begins with Lt. Andy Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), his face already screwed into a knot of unease, walking into a dance hall, one of the few opportunities Mr. Mostow gets in this film to shoot a big space. Tyler has just learned he has been denied command of a sub. ''You care too much about your own men,'' says Tyler's skipper, Captain Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), a fact that has already been made clear, as every sailor attending the party has exchanged a hearty handshake or a smile with him.

Tyler and the rest of the crew set sail on a top-secret mission to capture a Nazi sub and to snare an Enigma code machine, which looks like very important stenographic equipment. ''She's old, but she'll hold,'' Dahlgren says of the sub he commands, but he could very well be talking about the story mechanics of ''U-571.'' There really is only one sub movie: ''Das Boot,'' Wolfgang Petersen's look at the lives of the men on a Nazi U-boat. But ''Crimson Tide'' came as close as it could to wringing some change by making the petty, entertaining chatter of the crew a continuing distraction from the inevitability of gauges exploding as the sub goes way too deep and the angry dialogue about whether the ship's hull can withstand the pressure.

These movies are always tests of a man's manful masculinity, his ability to keep himself together. Tyler is a man of the people, but is he ready to run his own boat? That question comes when he and a few of his men, led by a Navy intelligence officer, Lieutenant Hirsch (Jake Weber), hijack a German sub. When their own sub is torpedoed, they're left without a ride home and are forced to take the German sub, U-571, through unfriendly waters and get it, and the Enigma, to the Allies.

Mr. McConaughey, who has shown a likable orneriness as a guy whose eyes sparkle in anticipation of a good time -- he almost made the square ''EdTV'' work on his own -- is in the uncomfortable position of looking as if he were cramming for finals. Everyone's jaw line is hard enough to strike a match on, which may be the only way Harvey Keitel could deliver a line like ''I'm a sea dog. Need some salt, sir,'' with a straight face.

Mr. Mostow somberly evokes ''Das Boot'' by setting the first few minutes on U-571 and running subtitles as the Germans go about their work. He doesn't make them noble sufferers, though; they execute British survivors in a lifeboat. The payoff for fans of such films is in the details. ''U-571''is filled with painstaking re-creations of the sonar pings that sound like the conga drums from Marvin Gaye's ''What's Going On?,'' and lovely shots of depth charges dropping into the water and spouts of water flung topside when they hit -- all cranked to ear-splitting Dolby magnificence. Even the scraping of metal sounds epic.

Yet there is so little characterization that when the sub goes down, you may find yourself confused as to which of the supporting cast members lived through the torpedo blast. And one detail is notable by its absence. Tyler sneaks off to have a smoke and chats with the cook (T. C. Carson, who offers an interesting note about racism during the period). People smoked like burning barns in the 1940's. Even the recent, lame live-television version of ''Fail Safe'' lived by the smoke-'em-if-you-got-'em ethos, and here the rarity of cigarettes is strange.

''U-571'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes innumerable tense submarine situations, exploding submarines and various loud incidents of violence.

Directed by Jonathan Mostow; written by Mr. Mostow, Sam Montgomery and David Ayer, based on a story by Mr. Mostow; director of photography, Oliver Wood; edited by Wayne Wahrman; music by Richard Marvin; production designers, Wm. Ladd Skinner and Gotz Weidner; produced by Dino de Laurentiis and Martha de Laurentiis; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 120 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Matthew McConaughey (Tyler), Bill Paxton (Dahlgren), Harvey Keitel (Chief), Jon Bon Jovi (Emmett), Jake Weber (Hirsch), Matthew Settle (Larson), Erik Palladino (Mazzola), David Keith (Coonan), Thomas Kretschmann (Wassner), Thomas Guiry (Trigger), T. C. Carson (Eddie) and Jack Noseworthy (Wentz).

"Flawed Heroics"

What You Need To Know:

(CC, BBB, LLL, VV, M) Redemptive worldview with strong moral elements including someone says “God speed”; 33 obscenities, 15 profanities (2 misuse the name of Jesus, one “Mary, Mother of God” said like a prayer & 12 GD’s; wartime violence, with many tense moments, explosions, gunfights, hand to hand combat, & National Socialist (Nazi) sailors murder survivors on raft, but movie cuts away from most of the gory details; no sex but a couple of mild verbal references to sailors sharing intimate moments with women while on shore leave, including a sailor who says he “consummated” his marriage; no nudity; and, Nazi sailors carry out Hitler’s orders to murder all survivors of naval campaigns & panicked American sailor violates chain of command but is properly rebuked.

More Detail:

The success of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN has made World War II a hot story in Hollywood these days. Several more World War II movies will be released in the next couple years, including another big-budget extravaganza on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. This spring comes the release of a submarine drama titled U-571. Unlike SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, it is an old-fashioned adventure yarn. Like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, however, it intends to celebrate the courage, bravery and fortitude of America’s fighting men.

Set in 1942 when advances to Germany’s Enigma machine made German codes unbreakable for nine months, U-571 stars Matthew McConaughey as Lt. Andrew Tyler. Tyler’s submarine captain, Lt. Commander Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), has passed over Tyler for advancement because he feels Tyler is not ready to make the life-and-death decisions which are necessary when leading men into battle. Tyler, of course, disagrees with his captain, who is also his mentor.

Their disagreement, and Tyler’s hurt feelings, are cut short by a special mission. Per the Admiral’s command, their ship, the SS-33, has been rigged to resemble a German U-boat, one of the National Socialist (Nazi) submarines which played havoc with Allied shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean. The Admiral orders them to rendezvous with what appears to be a stranded German submarine. Once there, they will pose as a German rescue sub, whereupon they will commandeer the stranded U-boat and capture the Enigma. An unexpected turn of events leaves a small group of the American trapped on the German sub, deep in hostile waters. Tyler takes command and tries to lead his men to safety before the Germans can discover what happened.

U-571 is a rousing submarine movie that may remind many viewers of great American submarine movies like THE ENEMY BELOW (1957) and RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP (1958). The movie is also similar, in the way it is shot, to the acclaimed German movie DAS BOOT, about the harrowing life of a German U-boat crew. Director Jonathan Mostow (BREAKDOWN), who wrote the original script for this movie, obviously has a flair for suspense and tense situations. Also, although his character has a very bad habit of using the “GD” word, Matthew McConaughey delivers an intense and strongly heroic, yet vulnerable, performance as the lieutenant who takes command in tragic circumstances. His performance is unforgettable.

U-571 deftly returns a more old-fashioned and ultimately more honorable spirit to the World War II movie, even when compared to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. It also contains some redemptive elements. At one point, for example, the Americans must release the body of one of their own dead men into the water to fool a German battleship. “His body is gonna save our lives,” one of the characters tells the other men. As the poor man’s body is released, another character says, “We commend his soul to God and commend his body to the deep.” Finally, at another crucial moment in the movie, one of the men sacrifices his life to save the rest of the crew, and their mission.

Adding to this redemptive worldview is the movie’s tasteful, but exciting, use of wartime violence. U-571 either cuts away from some of the more brutal violence, or it simply tones down the violence which it actually depicts. U-571 also includes no sex or nudity, although there are a couple verbal references to seeing women on shore leave, including one man who says he “consummated” his marriage.

Hence, this movie is truly a welcome relief, except for the PG-13 rated foul language. This regrettable aspect of the movie includes 14 strong profanities. Though they are exclamatory, they are really gratuitous and will offend Christians and Jews who take the Bible seriously.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.

Get news & reviews in your inbox

• Prime Video
• Documentary
• Producers Corner
• Watch Lists
• More Than A Movie Night
• It’s Dove Approved – Family Movie Trivia Game
• Dove Ratings
• Privacy Policy

Dove Review

There have been many great wartime sub movies throughout the years, perhaps the best being “The Hunt For Red October,” but “U-571” adds nothing new to the genre. It doesn’t just freely borrow from other submarine movies, it downright steals from them. The plot development, the characters, the action sequences are all clichéd, simply because we have seen them so often. To make it more up to date for an audience that evidently demands loudness in place of character development, “U-571” gives us 10 times the amount of depth charges seen in similar films. If you are among a generation who has yet to see a film depicting victories at sea, you will be entertained. Alas, due to the liberal amount of profanity, I am unable to recommend this for family viewing. Certainly, soldiers under the tension of combat would be prone to uttering volatile language, but when the film’s lead uses God’s name followed by a curse ten times, it portrays the character as a man who does not reverence God and a screenwriter unable to present anxiety other than with the use of this one expression. In similar movies made in the ‘40s and ‘50s, actors such as Clark Gable, John Wayne, Richard Widmark and others gave us portraits of men under pressure, able to communicate that emotion without profaning God’s name.

Dove Rating Details

More information, film information, dove content.

Faith Film Producer DeVon Franklin Steps in Front of the Camera for ‘Jesus Revolution’

Cyrano: Love is a Verb

Redeeming Love: Grace Rising Up Out of the Dirt

Filmmakers Highlight the Hope and Heroism in “Gi...

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

• TV Listings
• Cast & Crew

U-571 Reviews

• 62   Metascore
• 1 hr 56 mins
• Drama, Suspense, Action & Adventure
• Watchlist Where to Watch

A doomed German submarine is carrying a special coding device and a U.S. sub crew is sent out to rescue the vessel, but German forces have picked up the distress call and are already en route to save their comrades.

Calling a movie "claustrophobic" isn't usually praise, but in submarine pictures, claustrophobia is all. This tautly directed thriller doesn't take the submarine movie to new heights — or would that more properly be depths? — but you never forget that tons of water are pressing in on the leaking walls. And it's consistently suspenseful and well acted, even though you can rest assured that a remark like, "Mother of God, those Germans know how to make a submarine," is the cue for rivets to start popping. A small crew of American sailors is conscripted for a special mission: They must board a crippled German U-boat and capture a coveted Enigma code machine. The crew is led by Lt. Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), who's smarting none-too-graciously at having been denied his own submarine command, and doesn't much like Lt. Hirsch (Jake Weber), the German-speaking mastermind behind the daring plan. With the exception of grizzled Navy lifer Chief Klough (Harvey Keitel), Tyler's men are young and wet behind the ears, right down to Wentz (Jack Noseworthy), the fresh-faced farm boy tapped for a pivotal role in the operation purely because he's fluent in German. The plan: Convince the U-boat's crew they're a German rescue squad, overpower them while they're off guard, grab the coding device and scuttle the ship. Naturally, the plan goes horribly awry, and Tyler must get his men (and the precious machine), out of a series of increasingly hopeless-looking situations. Loosely inspired by several actual WWII missions and writer/director Jonathan Mostow's longtime interest in submarine warfare, this is a profoundly old-fashioned war film. That's an observation rather than a criticism; it's clearly intended as a celebration of courage under fire, rather than a revisionist take on the much-examined Second World War. As such, it's straightforwardly entertaining and a genuine nail-biter.

Find Family Movies, Movie Ratings and Movie Reviews

U-571 Parent Guide

Commanding officer Mike Dahlgren's (Bill Paxton) crew is surprised when they are assigned to an aging S-33 WWI sub that has been retrofitted to look like a German U-boat. From intelligence officer Lt. Hirsch (Jake Weber) they learn another German U-boat lies disabled in the Atlantic and their mission is to fool the German crew on board into thinking help has arrived so they can take control of the lame sub, and an encryption device it carries.

Release date April 21, 2000

Run Time: 116 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

When commanding officer Mike Dahlgren’s (Bill Paxton) crew is recalled early from shore leave, they are surprised to be assigned to an aging S-33 WWI sub that has been retrofitted to look like a German U-boat. Dahlgren and executive officer Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey) learn from intelligence officer Lt. Hirsch (Jake Weber) that another German U-boat lies disabled in the Atlantic. With the intent of fooling the German crew into thinking help has arrived, the Americans intend to take control of the lame sub, and more importantly, capture the encryption device on board. The secret code it generates has been thwarting Allied Forces attempts to intercept German communications.

But like any good war movie, plans begin to unravel when the S-33 is suddenly torpedoed while the Americans are attempting to take control of the U-boat. With most of both crews dead (and a huge assortment of extras out of the script), the balance of the movie focuses on Tyler commanding a handful of Americans in the limping U-boat while evading German ships.

Bound to be appealing to young audiences who like action and war films, parents’ greatest concerns will stem from the violence in U-571. To keep within the confines of the PG-13 rating, only a couple of killings are displayed on screen, but the script involves the deaths of hundreds as ships and subs are destroyed. The Germans are particulary ruthless, with one scene showing a German commander firing upon a lifeboat full of helpless shipwreck survivors. Again, we see the gun, but not the violence resulting from its use.

Claiming to be based on some facts, the violence may be justified considering the reality of World War II, but unfortunately the script assumes that sailors swear up a storm with many moderate profanities. Certainly an exciting edge-of-your-seat movie, be aware that for some families U-571 may be sub-standard.

About author

Rod Gustafson

U-571 parents' guide.

When a German commander orders his crew to begin firing upon a lifeboat full of helpless survivors, the crew is reluctant to do so. Often in movies, everyone on the side of the enemy is depicted as being completely bad or evil. What examples can you find in U-571 that demonstrate shades of grey between good and evil, and do you think these portrayals are more realistic?.

The most recent home video release of U-571 movie is December 13, 1901. Here are some details…

U-571 releases to home video on 24 October 2000.

Related news about U-571

Memorial Day Movies

{parents:pull_quote}

Movie Review: In ‘Girls State,’ Missouri teens start a mock government

What would an all-female government look like in the U.S.

What would an all-female government look like in the U.S.? Or even a majority female government? It’s something that remains a fantasy. But for the ambitious high school students in the Girls State program, given the spotlight in a new documentary arriving on Apple TV+ Friday, it’s something they can play at for at least a week.

Six years ago, documentary filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss brought their cameras to the Boys State camp in Texas in the aftermath of a historic and, according to that 2018 class, embarrassing stunt in which their predecessors voted to secede from the U.S. By the time the filmmakers were finishing that effort, they were already thinking about a follow up focused on the girls’ program.

In “Girls State” they move away from Texas and to Missouri, and give voice to several midwestern teens during a heightened week in which a draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, had leaked to the press. This is hardly a consensus issue among the young women at the camp: Even at a single lunch table, many sides of the debate are represented. One girl is firmly pro-choice, but even those opposed also have differing viewpoints of what the government’s purview should be.

During another moment, two girls talk about the right to bear arms. One preaches the importance of protecting a constitutional right, the possibility of arming teachers and the comfort she would get from having access to a bedside automatic rifle should an armed intruder enter her house at night. The other wonders if that’s more of a danger to the household than anything else. And they eventually agree to disagree. Minds are not necessarily being changed through these talks, but all seem excited for the opportunity to be heard (and, sometimes, to hear what others have to say).

McBaine and Moss take pains to find a group of main characters with different backgrounds and viewpoints. There’s the city girl from St. Louis who thinks she’s probably the most liberal of the bunch. There’s the reformed conservative who once followed her family but in recent years has started disagreeing. There’s a moderate conservative who truly believes in bipartisanship. And there is one Black girl who wonders if she’s the first Black person that some of the others have seen. The microaggressions, she says, have been few at least. She ends up being elected attorney general, while the others run for the highest office: governor.

Perhaps the most compelling turn of events is how a bit of camp gossip about Boys State, being held on the same campus for the first time ever, evolves into a movement. The girls are dispirited by rumors of more funding and less fluff for the boys. They also all cringe when time is taken to scold them for wearing shorts and tops that are too revealing and wonder if the boys are getting similar lectures. After the election , one girl takes it upon herself to do some investigative journalism about the rumored inequities.

Like “Boys State,” this film presents a fascinating microcosm of American teenagers. Granted, it’s a rather narrow, self-selecting group of kids who choose to spend a week of their summer vacation creating a mock government. You wonder whether four or eight years from now, when they are voting and entering the workforce, they’ll have a similar interest in politics and policy and the ambition to do something about it. For the sake of democracy, let’s hope so — these kids are really something.

“Girls State,” an Apple TV+ release streaming Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association but should be appropriate for most audiences. Running time: 98 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Top Stories

Why April's total solar eclipse will be a historic event in the US

• Apr 3, 10:27 AM

Ruby Garcia's family disputes Trump talked with them after he used her name at event

• Apr 3, 10:00 AM

Trump not immune from prosecution in criminal hush money case, judge rules

• 2 hours ago

Elderly American tourist killed in elephant attack while on safari in Zambia

• Apr 3, 3:00 PM

Total solar eclipse forecast: Clouds could block eclipse in these areas

• Apr 3, 11:12 AM

ABC News Live

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

• Cast & crew

The First Omen

A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hop... Read all A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate. A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

• Arkasha Stevenson
• Keith Thomas
• Nell Tiger Free
• Ralph Ineson
• Sonia Braga
• 6 Critic reviews

• Father Brennan

• Sister Silva
• (as Sônia Braga)

• Father Gabriel

• Father Harris

• Cardinal Lawrence
• Carlita picture double

• Sister Anjelica
• (as Ishtar Currie Wilson)

• Sister Romano

• Father Spiletto

• Pregnant Woman
• Red Headed Girl
• Smoking Nun
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Goofs All entries contain spoilers

Father Brennan : [from trailer] How do you control people who no longer believe? You create something to fear.

• Connections Follows The Omen (1976)

User reviews

New and upcoming horror.

• How long will The First Omen be? Powered by Alexa
• April 5, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Điềm Báo Của Quỷ
• Viterbo, Italy
• 20th Century Studios
• Phantom Four Films
• Abbey Road Studios
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• March Madness
• AP Top 25 Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Movie Review: In ‘Girls State,’ Missouri teens start a mock government

This image released by Apple TV+ shows a scene from “Girls State.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Brooke Taylor, center, in a scene from “Girls State.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Emily Worthmore in a scene from “Girls State.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Brooke Taylor and Nisha Murali in a scene from “Girls State.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

• Copy Link copied

What would an all-female government look like in the U.S.? Or even a majority female government? It’s something that remains a fantasy. But for the ambitious high school students in the Girls State program, given the spotlight in a new documentary arriving on Apple TV+ Friday, it’s something they can play at for at least a week.

Six years ago, documentary filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss brought their cameras to the Boys State camp in Texas in the aftermath of a historic and, according to that 2018 class, embarrassing stunt in which their predecessors voted to secede from the U.S. By the time the filmmakers were finishing that effort, they were already thinking about a follow up focused on the girls’ program.

In “Girls State” they move away from Texas and to Missouri, and give voice to several midwestern teens during a heightened week in which a draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade , which legalized abortion nationwide, had leaked to the press. This is hardly a consensus issue among the young women at the camp: Even at a single lunch table, many sides of the debate are represented. One girl is firmly pro-choice, but even those opposed also have differing viewpoints of what the government’s purview should be.

During another moment, two girls talk about the right to bear arms. One preaches the importance of protecting a constitutional right, the possibility of arming teachers and the comfort she would get from having access to a bedside automatic rifle should an armed intruder enter her house at night. The other wonders if that’s more of a danger to the household than anything else. And they eventually agree to disagree. Minds are not necessarily being changed through these talks, but all seem excited for the opportunity to be heard (and, sometimes, to hear what others have to say).

McBaine and Moss take pains to find a group of main characters with different backgrounds and viewpoints. There’s the city girl from St. Louis who thinks she’s probably the most liberal of the bunch. There’s the reformed conservative who once followed her family but in recent years has started disagreeing. There’s a moderate conservative who truly believes in bipartisanship. And there is one Black girl who wonders if she’s the first Black person that some of the others have seen. The microaggressions, she says, have been few at least. She ends up being elected attorney general, while the others run for the highest office: governor.

Perhaps the most compelling turn of events is how a bit of camp gossip about Boys State, being held on the same campus for the first time ever, evolves into a movement. The girls are dispirited by rumors of more funding and less fluff for the boys. They also all cringe when time is taken to scold them for wearing shorts and tops that are too revealing and wonder if the boys are getting similar lectures. After the election, one girl takes it upon herself to do some investigative journalism about the rumored inequities.

Like “Boys State,” this film presents a fascinating microcosm of American teenagers. Granted, it’s a rather narrow, self-selecting group of kids who choose to spend a week of their summer vacation creating a mock government. You wonder whether four or eight years from now, when they are voting and entering the workforce, they’ll have a similar interest in politics and policy and the ambition to do something about it. For the sake of democracy, let’s hope so — these kids are really something.

“Girls State,” an Apple TV+ release streaming Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association but should be appropriate for most audiences. Running time: 98 minutes. Three stars out of four.