FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved
Film
by Julie PithersU-571
STARRING: Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton
DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Mostow
Opens Friday, April 21Hollywood’s guilty pleasure has resurfaced again. They just can’t lay off their Second World War jones. But who could blame ’em? There’s a built in evil antagonist whose nasty portrayal won’t lead to protests or bomb threats. Except for the odd Thin Red Line, there are good, clean American G.I.s as protagonists who get to have a coming-of-age moment, and – hell!! – there’s a war to shoot, with all the bells and whistles a computer can make, and money can buy.
In U-571 we go to a very exciting time and place during the war – a time when the German’s had the upper hand, especially in the North Atlantic where their U-boats were acting like a 14-year-old looking for a high score at the video arcade. It didn’t matter how long they stayed in the dark, away from family and friends, they were going to rack up destroyers, merchant ships and the odd cruise liner until they broke the record.
Enter the heroes. A young untried crew on an aging American sub is ordered to bust this man’s war open. A decoder called the Enigma is onboard each U-boat, and if the Allies get their hands on one, they can shut the Germans down. Matthew McConaughey plays Lt. Andy Tyler, a young but very qualified officer who wants to skipper a sub, yet hasn’t shown the cold-bloodedness it takes for the job. His men, who signed up to be a regular submarine crew, are swept into the action as Navy Seals to sneak onto a floundering U-boat (U-571) and steal an Enigma.
As you can imagine, the tight quarters of the subs are the perfect place to bring out a little emotion from the actors, and the depth charges provide for a lot of action-packed eye-candy. Under the guiding hand of his chief engineer (Harvey Keitel), Lt. Tyler shows what he’s got under fire and that he is willing to make the sacrifices he was told he didn’t have the guts for.
Meanwhile on the U-571.... The German sailors seem like they are just doing their jobs and getting a lot of satisfaction from doing them well. But in order for the filmmakers to make the heroes properly heroic, the Germans have to make themselves, well, a little more Nazi-ish. So in the only moment of character revelation, they kill a bunch of unarmed people. There! Now the good guys can get killin’.
Character-wise, there isn’t much camaraderie aboard ship. The McConaughey character doesn’t seem at all like a man who wouldn’t think twice about sending you to your death for the sake of the others. There is no gallows humour when things are at their worst, and poor old Jon Bon Jovi is basically ballast. Only Keitel gets a little meat on his bones as the war-weary veteran.
All that said, the suspense and the look of the film are quite enough to keep her afloat.
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