U-571 (2000)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
In the midst of World War II, the battle under the sea rages and the Nazis have the upper hand as the Allies are unable to crack their war codes. However, after a wrecked U-boat sends out an SOS signal, the Allies realise this is their chance to seize the 'enigma coding machine'.
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17 films that influenced U-571
What critics say influenced U-571
Between "Das Boot", "Crimson Tide", "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "The Hunt for Red October", the submarine genre has pretty much been given its due.
Instead, he's keen to pay homage to the likes of "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "Destination Tokyo."
As submarine flicks go, "U-571" is midrange: The superior look, headlong action and un-hokey performances (only Harvey Keitel, keyed down to pure ballast, is miscast) are offset by too many oh-come-now moments and a key bit of subterfuge lifted directly from "Run Silent, Run Deep."
Tense submarine movies have big stars - Cary Grant in "Destination Tokyo," Burt Lancaster in "Run Silent Run Deep," Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in McTiernan's "Hunt for Red October," Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in "Crimson Tide."
I said, siting "Das Boot," "Run Silent, Run Deep," and making an allowance for the Cold War, "Crimson Tide" and "The Hunt for Red October."
Instead, he's keen to pay homage to the likes of "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "Destination Tokyo."
Tense submarine movies have big stars - Cary Grant in "Destination Tokyo," Burt Lancaster in "Run Silent Run Deep," Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in McTiernan's "Hunt for Red October," Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in "Crimson Tide."
But the biggest failing of U-571 is that we've seen most of it before, in better films like Das Boot , Run Silent Run Deep , and Destination Tokyo .
U-571 is an awfully familiar journey through the Atlantic Ocean via submarine, one that we�ve taken before in Wolfgang Petersen�s Das Boot, Tony Scott�s Crimson Tide, and John McTiernan�s The Hunt for Red October.
Wolfgang Petersen exploited this flaw in our makeup back in 1981 with his classic World War II submarine epic Das Boot, a German film that had us temporarily pulling for the German army.
Between "Das Boot", "Crimson Tide", "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "The Hunt for Red October", the submarine genre has pretty much been given its due.
Aided by persuasive effects and authoritative production design from Götz (Das Boot) Weidner, writer/director Mostow pays his dues to the genre, but without much charge and even less depth.
U-571 slickly emulates Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (even grabbing that film's production designer Götz Weidner to work with Wm Ladd Skinner).
In his DVD commentary, Mostow makes clear that he isn't interested in the you-are-there squalor of "Das Boot" -- arguably the finest sub picture ever made.
Submarines and movies were made for each other, or so I thought at the age of nine when I first saw The Enemy Below.
It is fairly obvious that writer-director Jonathan Mostow was trying to re-create the dramatic tension of the king of the submarine genre, "Das Boot," but he's not in the same ocean, nor does it reach the level of "The Hunt for Red October," "The Enemy Below," "The Abyss" and other top-line films featuring submarines.
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"Gray Lady Down," someone else suggested, referring to a 1977 Charleton Heston sinking-survival yawner.
The sports metaphor in war is used so often as to verge on cliche unless it is a means to make some other point, as in Don Delillo's novel Endzone, Robert Altman's 1970 film M*A*S*H, or Sidney J. Furie's 1978 The Boys in Company C. In U-571, though, the metaphor functions as an end in itself.
Between "Das Boot", "Crimson Tide", "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "The Hunt for Red October", the submarine genre has pretty much been given its due.
It is fairly obvious that writer-director Jonathan Mostow was trying to re-create the dramatic tension of the king of the submarine genre, "Das Boot," but he's not in the same ocean, nor does it reach the level of "The Hunt for Red October," "The Enemy Below," "The Abyss" and other top-line films featuring submarines.
I said, siting "Das Boot," "Run Silent, Run Deep," and making an allowance for the Cold War, "Crimson Tide" and "The Hunt for Red October."
There have been many great submarine films made in the history of cinema, from Run Silent, Run Deep to Das Boot to The Hunt For Red October to Crimson Tide.
Crimson Tide, for instance, had Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington discussing the finer points of stallions and The Silver Surfer, as a nuclear meltdown with Russia loomed closer.
Between "Das Boot", "Crimson Tide", "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "The Hunt for Red October", the submarine genre has pretty much been given its due.
Tense submarine movies have big stars - Cary Grant in "Destination Tokyo," Burt Lancaster in "Run Silent Run Deep," Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in McTiernan's "Hunt for Red October," Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in "Crimson Tide."
I said, siting "Das Boot," "Run Silent, Run Deep," and making an allowance for the Cold War, "Crimson Tide" and "The Hunt for Red October."
There have been many great submarine films made in the history of cinema, from Run Silent, Run Deep to Das Boot to The Hunt For Red October to Crimson Tide.
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It is fairly obvious that writer-director Jonathan Mostow was trying to re-create the dramatic tension of the king of the submarine genre, "Das Boot," but he's not in the same ocean, nor does it reach the level of "The Hunt for Red October," "The Enemy Below," "The Abyss" and other top-line films featuring submarines.
Conceived, co-scripted and directed by Jonathan Mostow, who first captured attention with his 1997 thriller "Breakdown," "U-571" aspires to the level of such popular ¹60s-era World War II "mission" films as "Where Eagles Dare" and "The Dirty Dozen."