# U-571 (2000)

### reviewed by
Eugene Novikov

    U-571 (2000)
    Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
    http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
    Member: Online Film Critics Society

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi. Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Rated PG-13.

Jonathan Mostow is a director with few pretensions. He knows what genre he is working in -- so far it has been pure action -- and invests all of his efforts in making the best damn genre movie possible. His first two Hollywood projects, the Kurt Russell thriller Breakdown and now the splendid submarine movie U-571 have both been rousingly successful in doing one thing: generating pure, unadulterated suspense. The dialogue is minimal, the characterization is purely perfunctory but with Mostow, it doesn't seem to matter. I doubt anyone is going to accuse Mostow of being the next Hitchcock, but I doubt he'll mind: he's too confident and smart a director.

The film has one of my heretofore least favorite Hollywood actors earn at least a little of my respect. Matthew McConaughey, whom I had given up on a long time ago, plays Tyler, an executive officer in the Marines who, in the beginning of the film (and in the middle of WWII), is complaining to his superior (Bill Paxton) about his being refused his own submarine to commandeer. Literally moments later, he gets his wish. He and a varied group of Marines, some experienced and some not, are being sent on a covert mission: to retrieve the Enigma, a machine that would help the Allies decode secret messages that the Axis powers are sending to each other. This involves pretending to be a Nazi submarine to raid another one that is broken down at sea.

As the film's marketing campaign reveals, the operation does not go smoothly. They retrieve the Enigma and are about to get back on their sub and go home when it is blown up by torpedoes. McConaughey and Co. are now stuck on an unfamiliar German submarine. Only one of them knows how to read German and extensive repairs are necessary to get the sub moving again. As if that wasn't enough, they also have a Nazi battleship to contend with...

U-571 simulates the same creaky, dripping underwater atmosphere as did Das Boot, the mother of all submarine movies, as well as The Abyss, which went quite a bit deeper into the blue sea. There have been others, but few done as well as this one. Not since Titanic has a camera been so much a part of the action: it tirelessly chases after the actors, sweeps around the cramped sets and goes in for terrifying close-ups of the soldiers' wrenched faces. The film doesn't bother to define interesting characters -- the people here are mostly just composites of conventions from earlier films -- and yet we worry about the people we see on the screen.

Mostow effectively uses silence to help the excitement along. I'm a firm believer that a strong soundtrack can save an action movie but moments when we hear nothing can be just as suspenseful as blaring music. As Alfred Hitchcock said, it's not the bang that scares you, it's the anticipation. When the aforementioned battleship starts dropping charges in the water above the submarine, we hear the muffled explosions get louder and louder. Before we know it, we're on the edge of our seats awaiting the "Boom" that will send our beloved crew members flying. We know it will happen but Mostow stages these scenes so masterfully that we have fun simply waiting for it.

McConaughey, it seems, has finally found his niche. Much like Keanu Reeves, the actor is most effective when the least is required from him. There is no complexity to this role -- I don't even remember the character's name -- and he shines in it. He doesn't have to emote much and he manages to make his character sympathetic.

U-571 is frightening and claustrophobic and yet it is never cold or unpleasant. Like he did in Breakdown, Mostow creates heroes we can root for, puts them in a situation we can get interested in and then has them solve the conflict at hand in spectacularly exciting ways.

    Grade: B+

    ©2000 Eugene Novikov

    Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
    Before you buy.

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