Is U-571 the most controversial war film every made?!

A wonderful coincidence of S-33 (American submarine ) resembling a German Milch Cow supply submarine (there is no resemblence , the shape and outlook is off ) , Boarding party consist of twelve sailors who are not trained in close combat. US Navy sailors not only running a German U-Boat but doing it with just nine men (!) , German destroyer having endless depth charges , disabling German Zerstörer's radio tower with one shot from deck gun they never used before......my god G.I. Joe cartoons have more historical accurancy. I mean I get it , entertainment for masses and general audience but really anyone interested a little bit about Battle of Atlantic and its conditions would feel insulted by watching U-571. Unfortunetely these action adventure productions are substitute for real historical productions , education and interest. People believe what they see on screen or what they are entertained with....

 

Certainly compared to say The Dirty Dozen, U-571 is completely unrealistic!

Lets look closer to prove the point.

10 weeks before the scheduled invasion of France a gathering of German Officers are targeted at a isolated French Chateau (they can always be found at isolated French Chateaus with extremely lax perimeter security) with almost no security personnel except those in a make shift barracks. Killing these officers are the only thing that will guarantee the invasion working.

Now we could use US Rangers, or possibly British Commandos, or American and/or British Paratroopers, or maybe SOE Operatives, or perhaps the French Resistance, or maybe have British heavies drop TallBoys, and of course they could use Mosquitoes in a low level lightning strike.

But hey why use highly trained professionals when all we need to do is go to a US military prison and select a dozen homicidal, nutjobs who have never worked together before, never made a combat jump, never operated behind enemy lines and ask them after perhaps a month and a half of training where much of their time is spent building their barracks and one night with a truckload of prostitutes, enjoying a drunken orgy, to execute a highly complex co-ordinated assault requiring split second timing.

Without question that is far more realistic!

I do love the film because as absurd as the premise is, it is an entertaining movie, nothing more, nothing less.

 

So Godzilla's not real either I guess.

 

The Dirty Dozen didn't advertise itself as "Based on a true story"...

When you look at U-571, they're probably comparable when it comes to truth...

I mean, there was a D-Day landing, right?

 

I'm working on a script inspired by this thread. It's 1942 and a controversial naval officer who looks a lot like Lee Marvin sweeps out the naval brig at Norfolk to get the most evil and depraved sailors on the east coast, including one guy who looks like Telly Savalas. After extensive frogman training and some prostitute action, they are dropped into the North Pacific to swim down to a Uboat filled with Nazi debutantes having a fancy dress ball for Thomas Kretschman, who wears a monocle.

I don't want to give any more away, but I envision a taut action thriller based on true events.

 

South Pacific, not North, only U-862 is large enough for such a ball.(after all, this has to have some basis in history).

Make sure they don't forget to grab the submarine's Enigma machine.

Oh, and leave room for a John Belushi look-a-like.

 

Not U-571:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNIiBy_Z2Ag

 

Well to get back to the original question, I got off topic before, I do not think of U 571 as controversial but rather plainly dumb, much like "Pearl Harbor", "Windtalkers" and the like.. To me controversy implies differing views, opinions that rise to a worthwhile level of discussion, no one here seems to have but one view on U 571 For controversy I can see "Inglorious Bastards" ,did not they spell it as the English would ?????? , or the latest "Thin Red Line". IB made no attempt at correctness but had emotional content, craftsmanship, creativity, etc. but I would not consider it a true war movie. "Thin Red Line" , was , to me, a beautifully filmed "art : movie"
but like IB does not tick my list as a true WW2 movies. In both cases the war was a vehicle not the subject. They are controversial in that they can be seen in many ways by people with different yet valid views.....controversial IMHO. .

So U 571.....NO, just dumb. I find "Kelley's Heroes" and "The Longest Day" non controversial, but love watching them for entertainment value, they simply lack the gravity of "A Bridge too Far or "Das Boot." Of course they are quite different from each other in approach, KH being totally implausible fun and LD actually based on events but I cannot shake the what movie star is going to show up next quality of LD..

Gaines

 

You want controversial?
try

"Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom" (1975) by Pier Paul Passolini.

If you can sit through it...