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Review by Susan Granger
3½ stars out of 4
Brace yourself, the first popcorn picture of the season has
arrived! "U-571" has everything you could want in an
action-adventure. Set against the backdrop of World War II, when
Hitler launched a devastating U-boat assault against the Eastern
seaboard of the United States, it revolves around a daring mission to
capture an Enigma machine, a top-secret Nazi radio coding device. But
the crux of the story involves a young executive officer, played by
Matthew McConaughey, who proves his leadership ability in a crisis
situation when his submarine crew is deployed to answer the distress
call of a stranded German U-boat. Their assignment is to masquerade as
a resupply ship and, wearing German uniforms, board the damaged vessel
and seize its Enigma encrypting device. "Get the damned trophy and get
the hell outta there," orders the captain. But everything that can go
wrong does, as the cleverly constructed script poses several dilemmas
and one complication after another. Directed and co-written by
Jonathan Mostow ("Breakdown"), it's a taut, exciting tale of
historical fiction, a composite of actual events, not revisionist
history, which an important point which is made clear in the closing
credits. Matthew McConaughey shows remarkable emotional dimension,
ably supported by Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton, David Keith, Jack
Noseworthy, Erik Palladino, Tom Guiry and Jon Bon Jovi. And
cinematographer Oliver Wood captures the claustrophobic emotional
stress of being in the path of deadly torpedoes and depth charges and,
even more terrifying, the helpless, eerie silence of expectation. On
the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "U-571" is an action-packed,
explosive 8. If you're into ferociously suspenseful, high-tension
thrillers: go, go, go!
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
