Review of U 571

Introduction

After the director, Johnathan Mostow, made Breakdown – a critically acclaimed and fairly well received film at the box office – Universal decided to give him a little more pocket money to splash out on his next feature U-571.

During the Second World War the Nazi U-Boats used to communicate with each other via these coding machines. They would hunt and destroy supply ships coming from America to Britain, and Britain’s inability to decipher the messages was costing the allies the war. The story essentially follows a crew on their mission to steal the Enigma coding machine from a U-boat.

Obviously this doesn’t all go quite according to plan, and it’s Mostow’s ability to place the characters in a realistic situation and the decisions they have to make which make it work. That and his wonderful ability of creating tension and suspense so high, it positively bristles off the screen!

Whilst I do believe that this is a top notch story, with first rate actors and a director that is showing real promise in the quality of the films he is churning out. This has to have a point deducted for fact that he wanted historical accuracy in the film. Well that should have meant hiring British actors for the role. They stole two Enigmas in 1942, with a further Enigma being captured by the US in 1944.

Video

The subject material does lend itself to problems… murky underwater scenes, and cramped conditions in dark metallic U-boats. However, the picture on the film is excellent. The print is very clean no speckles or artefacts. Shadow detail is excellent, and the picture offers amazing depth and clarity, which is vital on a film like this. It allows you to see the attention to detail that has gone into the interior design of the leaking U-boats. In fact the picture is so good you can feel the sweaty atmosphere on the young soldiers faces as the depth charges are dropping.

Audio

This is one of those films that makes you sit up and prick up your ears from the word go. You know your listening to something that has been recorded extremely well, and, no matter what your system consists of (TV speaker sound right up to 5.1), this is going to make your system sound as though you had actually spent an extra grand on it.

The film has both Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks, and both are excellent. The DTS has the slight edge on the DD track, creating a more palpable 3D presence of the sound on offer. The depth charges are placed very accurately in the soundstage. When they come close to the boat, they kick harder into your room with DTS, the mechanics of the boat’s engines and torpedo hatches are slightly clearer on the top end, and the tension created when the depth charges are just “splashes” is captured perfectly by a slight but menacing sound presence…

I have to admit, this is how you want all films to sound. For example the crew are eating food off a table within a rocking submarine. As the plates roll towards you, so does the sound, with the final clattering of falling cutlery disappearing off into your rear speakers. And when those depth charges go, be prepared for an aural assault! They start off very far away, and gradually get nearer and nearer. The sound gets closer and closer – and then, well you are suddenly in a very small enclosed room with explosions ripping through your speakers, and your walls start to feel very leaky!

Features

The DVD contains a number of bonus features – a lot of which go to redress the balance of the film by stating that it was the British who captured the Enigma machines around the time that the film was based. The spotlight on location is your usual documentary “Making of” feature, but reveals some interesting facts – such as the construction of a nearly-to-scale submarine for external filming shots. There is a piece that explains at a very basic level of how an Enigma machine works. This really could have gone into a lot more detail. The Enigma machine is highly complex and a very fascinating piece of equipment (if you’re into cryptography and cyphering). Unfortunately this short piece couldn’t or didn’t go into the depth needed.

The best feature has to be the audio commentary from the director Jonathan Mostow. Here he gives a very detailed and interesting account into all aspects of the filming, for example, the attention to detail given to the internal design of the submarines. He talks about the actors and what they were put through to create the shots needed. He gives a very honest account without doing too much sycophantic “back slapping” which can sometimes be the case on these commentaries. He also discusses his passion for the films that he likes to see. A film with a good character story and development is important, however he enjoys the action parts as well, and discusses the visuals and sound that go to make up that part of the picture too.

Conclusion

Well I really can’t recommend this film more highly. You have a total package here. A cracking film with a good strong story (however it gets a point docked for not being entirely accurate – the Enigma sailors were British old boy!), characters that you go on a journey with, wonderful visuals and some of the best surround moments committed to DVD. This is also combined with some extras that go to paint a better picture of life in WW2, and a very insightful and interesting audio commentary. If this isn’t worth £18 of your hard earned… I don’t know what is!!