U-571 (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the film. For the U-boat, see Unterseeboot 571.
U-571
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Martha De Laurentiis
Hal Lieberman
Written by Jonathan Mostow (Story)
Jonathan Mostow
Sam Montgomery
David Ayer (Script)
Starring Matthew McConaughey
Bill Paxton
Harvey Keitel
Thomas Kretschmann
Jon Bon Jovi
Music by Richard Marvin
Distributed by StudioCanal
Universal Pictures
Release date(s) Flag of the United States April 21, 2000
Running time 116 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

U-571 is a 2000 movie directed by Jonathan Mostow, and starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes, and Tom Guiry. In the movie, a World War II German submarine is boarded in 1942 by disguised United States Navy submariners, seeking to capture its Enigma cipher machine.

The movie, although fictional, is based on real events. It attracted criticism for two reasons: first, it was British personnel from HMS Bulldog who first captured a naval Enigma machine, from U-110 in the North Atlantic May 1941, before the United States entered the war. Second, German U-boat crews were portaryed in a negative light.

The real U-571 was not captured and was sunk in January 1944, off Ireland, by a Short Sunderland flying boat from No. 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force.

U-571 was shot in the Mediterranean Sea, near Rome and Malta.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The movie begins with a summary on how the Allies are struggling to stop U-boats from sinking their freighters. The scene transfers to U-571, which torpedoes and sinks a British freighter. Seconds later, however, the sonar man reports to have detected high speed screws. The captain turns the periscope to sight a destroyer moving in, forcing U-571 to dive. The destroyer drops depth charges; unfortunately for the submarine, the depth charging snaps a fuel line which ignites while the engine crew attempt to patch it, setting them all on fire. Due to the amount of damage sustained, the captain orders U-571 to resurface. The captain learns from his chief who extinguished the fire in the engine room that their batteries are practically flat, both diesel engines are inoperable, and all of their engineering crew are dead. After passing word to conserve electricity, he has his radioman send an SOS to Berlin for aid.

Meanwhile, the crew of a US Navy submarine, S-33 are celebrating the wedding of crewman Larson and leave for 48 hours. During the party, Lt. Tyler enters looking solemn, having been denied his own command. After complaining to Captain Dahlgren, he is rebuffed and upset to learn that Dahlgren vetoed against him receiving the promotion. While talking to the chief engineer, military policemen suddenly arrive to announce the end of their shore leave for a secret mission. All the men arrive at the base to find their boat, the S-33, being modified to resemble a U-Boat. Hirsch, a Naval Intelligence officer, orders Tyler to locate Radioman Wentz, who is fluent in German due to his immigrant parents. At the same time a Marine named Coonan arrives in a convoy loaded with high explosives. After the S-33 sails Hirsch explains that the Allies intercepted the disabled U-571's SOS. They are going to masquerade as the resupply ship U-571 called for, board the ship, capture her enigma coding device and then scuttle the U-571. Tyler is skeptical about the scheme working, but goes along.

Back on U-571, attempted repairs fail and the captain is alerted that survivors from the merchant ship he sank have been spotted on a lifeboat asking for asylum. He orders his men to shoot them as their orders are to not to spare any survivors. His men reluctantly do so.

During a rainstorm, the S-33 comes across U-571 and sends its boarding party over, led by Coonan. They take the boat by force but capture the Enigma and begin rounding up the prisoners including the captain. As the prisoners are transferred between ships and the scuttling charges are laid, the S-33 is torpedoed and sunk by the real resupply sub and the captain is killed. Coonan, Larson, and many others are lost forcing Tyler to take command and dive the captured U-boat. After struggling with interpreting the German controls they fire a salvo of torpedoes destroying the enemy U-Boat, draining the last of the sub's batteries and spending all but the last torpedo, loaded in the malfunctioning aft torpedo tube. Surfacing, Tyler and his men search for survivors and find two: the black cook from the S-33, Eddy, and a German sailor claiming to be an electrician, but who is actually the captain of U-571.

After repairing one of the diesel engines, thus restoring power and propulsion, Tyler decides to take the disabled submarine to England. They spot an aircraft, which appears to be coming in for an attack, but is only scouting for a German destroyer, the Anschluss. The captured German captain breaks free and attacks two of the crew, killing one, before being subdued. Unaware that the U-571 has been commandeered by Americans the Anschluss sends over a small contingent to meet and greet with their 'German comrades'. Right before boarders arrive, the crew of the U-571 fires a shot into the ship's radio tower and dives underneath it. The destroyer begins to drop depth charges to try to sink the U-571.

Tyler plans to trick the destroyer into stopping by ejecting debris and the body of the killed sailor out of an empty torpedo tube, faking their own destruction. U-571 will then surface and hit the ship with their last torpedo. While underwater, the German captain taps out in Morse code on the bulkhead of the ship ("I am U-571 destroy me") to alert the Germans; he is then caught and killed by Hirsch with a monkey wrench.

The German destroyer continues dropping depth charges. 'U-571', hiding at great depth, is damaged by the high water pressure. In preventing the submarine from sinking, control of the ballast tanks is lost and the ship ascends uncontrollably. The U-571 surfaces, but the rear torpedo tube is still not functional. The destroyer begins firing upon the submarine, now a sitting duck limping on a single engine. Tyler orders the youngest crewman, Trigger, to crawl into a flooded compartment and close the valves to reconnect the pressurized air supply to the torpedo tube. Trigger drowns in the attempt but succeeds in re-pressurizing the tube which fires head on into the Anschluss's bow. The German ship is destroyed; however U-571 has taken severe damage and will not stay afloat for long - the crew abandons ship with the Enigma in tow and watches her sink, seemingly mourning both for their lost crewmates and also for the German sub which ironically saved their lives. Floating aboard an inflatable lifeboat, they are eventually spotted by a US Navy PBY Catalina flying boat.

[edit] Cut scenes

The movie was originally (in the USA) rated “R” due to a scene where Lt. Pete Emmett (Jon Bon Jovi) is decapitated by flying debris. To get a “PG-13”, the shot was redone with Emmett this time knocked overboard by flying debris. This led to many audience members not knowing what happened to his character. A death scene was also filmed for Maj. Matthew Coonan (David Keith), but the effect did not work well so it was cut from the film. [1]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Historical inaccuracies

[edit] Americanisation of similar historical events

The first capture of a Naval Enigma machine[2] and associated cipher keys from a U-boat was made in May 1941 by HMS Bulldog of the British Royal Navy, commanded by Captain Joe Baker-Cresswell. The U-boat was U-110 and the material was critical for breaking Naval Enigma. (This first enigma machine was captured prior to America's entrance into the war following the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.)

There were some 15 captures of Naval Enigma material during World War II, all but two by the British. The Canadians captured U-774; the U.S. Navy seized U-505 in June 1944. By this time the Allies were reading Naval Enigma routinely.

The film caused irritation and anger in Britain. At Prime Minister's Questions, Tony Blair agreed with questioner Brian Jenkins MP that the film was "an affront" to British sailors.[3] In response to a letter from Paul Truswell, MP for the Pudsey constituency (which includes Horsforth, a town proud of its connection with HMS Bulldog), U.S. president Bill Clinton wrote assuring that the film's plot was only a work of fiction.[4] A written acknowledgement does appear on-screen that the Royal Navy captured the first, and subsequently the vast majority, of the Enigma devices.[5]

David Balme, the British Naval officer who led the boarding party aboard the U-110, expressed positive feedback about the U-571, calling it "a great film"[5] and arguing that the movie would not have been financially viable without being Americanised[4].

In 2006, screenwriter David Ayer admitted that U-571 distorted history and stated that he would not do it again.[6] Ayer told BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme that he "did not feel good" about suggesting Americans captured the Naval Enigma cipher rather than the British:[6]

“ It was a distortion...a mercenary decision...to create this parallel history in order to drive the movie for an American audience. Both my grandparents were officers in World War II, and I would be personally offended if somebody distorted their achievements. ”

[edit] Falsely negative portrayal of U-boat sailors

The movie portrays a scene in which the U-boat sailors kill the Allied merchant crewmen who have survived their ship's sinking, in compliance with naval policy and so that the survivors do not report the U-boat position. In contrast to the negative depiction of U-boat men in the movie as well as wartime propaganda, U-boat crewmen in reality were known to assist survivors with food, directions and occasionally medical aid.[7] Assistance to survivors only stopped after Admiral Karl Dönitz issued the "Laconia order" following a U.S. air attack on U-boats transporting injured survivors under a Red Cross flag. In fact, out of several thousand sinkings of merchant ships in World War II, there is only one documented case of a U-boat crew deliberately attacking the ship's survivors: that of the U-852, whose crew attacked survivors of the Greek ship Peleus.[8]

[edit] General inaccuracies

The real S-33 was stationed in the Pacific Ocean from June 1942 till the end of the war. It was not sunk in WWII, it was sold for scrap in 1946.[9] The S-26 did not sink in a test dive, instead sinking in a collision with a patrol combatant, PC-460, in January of 1942.[9]

The real U-571, captained by Oberleutnant zur See Gustav Lüssow, was sunk on 28 January 1944 by depth charges dropped from a Short Sunderland Mark III flying boat, belonging to No. 461 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, west of Ireland.[10] U-571 sank at 52°41′N 14°27′W / 52.683, -14.45Coordinates: 52°41′N 14°27′W / 52.683, -14.45. The Sunderland's commander, Flight Lieutenant R. D. Lucas, reported that most of the U-boat's 52 crew successfully abandoned ship, but soon died from hypothermia. The plane, EK577 (callsign "D for Dog"), was crewed partly by Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel, and was based at RAF Pembroke Dock, in Wales. The rest of the crew was Sgt J. R. Brannan (RAF, a Canadian), F/Sgt W. J. Darcey, Sgt D. Musson (RAF), F/Sgt S. T. Burnett, Sgt D. McWalker (RAF), Flying Officer (F/O) H. D. Roberts, F/Sgt G. H. Simmonds (RAF), F/O R. H. Prentice, and F/Sgt C. D. Bremner.

Another inaccuracy was the presence of the German destroyer in the Atlantic Ocean, as most of the surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine never ventured out that far west, and none did so from 1942 onwards. The few exceptions were their capital ships, such as the Admiral Graf Spee, Scharnhorst, and Bismarck.[1]

Furthermore German Type XIV supply U-boats didn't have any torpedo tubes and thus couldn't have attacked S-33.[11]

Also the "German reconnaissance aircraft" was a 1940s-era Swiss attack trainer; the same type of aircraft was used in the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."[citation needed]

Also the German resupply U-boat would not have been sunk by U-571. The only instance of a submerged submarine sinking another submerged vessel was in February 1945 when HMS Venturer sank the U-864 with torpedoes whilst submerged. This would have also been hard from a German U-boat especially a damaged one as U-571 was, as German sonar was not as advanced as British at any point during the war.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ "Salon interview with Jonathan Mostow", Salon.com, 2000-05-04. (English) 
  2. ^ An earlier military Enigma machine had been captured by Polish Intelligence in 1928.
  3. ^ "U-boat film an 'affront', says Blair", BBC News, 2000-06-07. Retrieved on 2006-08-18. (English) 
  4. ^ a b "Storm over U-boat film", BBC News, 2000-06-02. Retrieved on 2006-08-18. (English) 
  5. ^ a b "Capturing the real U-571", BBC News, 2000-06-02. Retrieved on 2006-08-18. (English) 
  6. ^ a b "U-571 writer regrets 'distortion'", BBC News, 2006-08-18. Retrieved on 2006-08-18. (English) 
  7. ^ Blair, Clay (1996). Hitler's U-Boat War - The Hunters, 1939-1942. Modern Library, pp. 81, 85-86, 144. ISBN 0-679-64032-0. 
  8. ^ "NOVA Online: Hitler's Lost Sub", PBS, 2006-12-16. Retrieved on 2006-12-16. (English) 
  9. ^ a b SS-105 S-1 (English). Globalsecurity.org (2007-7-30). Retrieved on 2007-07-30.
  10. ^ uboat.net - Boats - U-571
  11. ^ uboat.net - U-boat Types - Type XIV
  • David Kahn, Seizing the Enigma: the Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939-1943, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
  • Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Enigma: the Battle for the Code, Phoenix, 2001.

[edit] External links