U-571

by Peter Keough

Submarines and movies were made for each other, or so I thought at the age of nine when I first saw The Enemy Below. In retrospect that still seems true, even though the most recent example is as generic as its title. The 1957 classic distilled conflict to its essence: sub and destroyer, microcosms of their societies, engage in a duel revealing the souls of the combatants. All that Jonathan Mostow's jury-rigged vehicle reveals is the creative poverty of modern studios.

The story deserved better. An American sub crew board a Nazi U-boat, seizing a machine that will break the Reich's secret military code -- the tantalizingly named Enigma. When their own vessel is destroyed, the Americans are forced to head for home in the enemy boat, unable to radio for help because to do so would reveal to the Germans that their code has been compromised.

Thus trapped in U-571, might not the American crew learn what connects them to and separates them from the enemy? Perhaps, had they any identity of their own. Instead, Matthew MacConaghey puts in a performance that is as rote as his commands, leading a nondescript bunch named Chief, Rabbit and Trigger through overproduced clichés. Even Harvey Keitel is boring. The only enigma about U-571 is what ever happened to decent genre movies.