Directed by Jonathan Mostow, starring Bill Paxton, David Keith, Harvey Keitel, Jake Weber, Jon Bon Jovi, Thomas Kretschmann (add more)
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
Throughout this movie these guys were shooting off more rounds than Rambo. In an enclosed sub, wouldn't they be concerned with getting hit by their own bullets once they ricochet off the walls? [Sure they'd be concerned, but what's the difference if they get shot by their own bullets or German bullets? They're not going to run through the boat waiting to be shot, so it's an acceptable risk they are willing to take.]
Throughout the movie, when the sub is submerged, it show the submarine about 10 meters down, not 100, or 200 as the characters stated. [The shots of the sub are correct. The shots looking up at a vessel's props from only a few meters below the surface are of the Nazi destroyer, not the submarine.]
For the raid on U-571, Tyler chooses to dress as a German officer, thus making himself the most likely one of the boarding party to be addressed by the German crew, even though he speaks no German (which ultimately gave the deception away early). This tactical error is inexplicable, given that there were two fluent German speakers among the Americans. [As Tyler is noticeably older than other members of the crew, so it makes sense that he should be an officer. Besides, it wasn't his reluctance to talk that tipped the Germans off: one of the Germans saw Griggs pull out his machine gun, and that's what gave it away.]
Why does the German re-supply U-boat open fire on the disguised American sub when they are docked with U-571? The American Sub is disguised well enough to pass a visual inspection, and you'd think the Kriegsmarine sailors would be pleased to see some fellow Germans at sea. They certainly wouldn't simply open fire with torpedoes because they didn't recognise the other U-boat. [The German resupply sub was at periscope depth and must have been watching for a few minutes before opening fire. Seeing the boarding party from the American sub whip out machine guns and shoot the Germans on the U-571 was probably a big clue that they weren't all on the same side.]
After having his language skills tested, the German speaking Seaman Wentz implores Tyler not to reveal his half-German background to the other men, even though he openly uses a German surname. [Thousands of Americans have German surnames, without necessarily being 2nd generation immigrants. Open any phone book in USA and you will find people with German names, whose only connection to Germany is that their families came over more than a hundred years ago. Wentz could have claimed that his family had been in USA for generations and that he had no ties to Germany, if he was afraid of being suspected as a spy.]
Corrected by Twotall
The Germans drop the bombs down on the submarine at the rate of two every 5 or so seconds. So how come there are sometimes many many explosions around the submarine within a very short space of time? [I believe time was pushed ahead to skip to the explosions to make it seem like there were multiple explosions in a small period of time. Did you notice that after each explosion, the men appeared back in their seats almost instantaneously?]
They're actually using the U-571 to flee away from the German re-supply sub (the whole movie). Wasn't the U-571 broken? If it wasn't the German crew would have sailed to port long ago of course. [The German sub was damaged and could not get much power. Tank (from the American sub) mentions that the German mechanic (who got killed so someone else was doing the repairs, someone who worked in his uncle's motorcycle garage) did not know anything.]
Corrected by shortdanzr
The German commander is depicted eating a piece of fruit just prior to the depth charge attack against the U-571. No German commander would have done this. Food was strictly rationed and accounted for on the boat for various reasons - not the least of which was making sure there was enough to last for the duration of the patrol. If men were allowed to grab food and eat it as it suited them there would be no way to control its consumption. No commander would have set such a dangerous precedent by such wanton consumption. [He could have saved it from his last meal. I know when I was in boot camp, I would often save an apple or orange to eat a little later.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
A grenade exploding in the control room of a U-boat would have destroyed and damaged many important controls and indicators - yet no damage appears to any of the controls in later shots. [It was a tear gas grenade. They are designed more like a can of hair spray, they have no explosive, just compressed propellants to discharge the gas.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Anybody with any mechanical knowledge seems to have been killed in the fire in the engine room, on a sub on patrol there would have been at least two watches, one working, one resting and both watches would not have been in the engine room at once. [When the alarms start ringing and the engine room is sustaining heavy damage, all the mechanics would have rushed in to fix it.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
In the scene on the dock where the mess steward sees the lieutenant struggling to light a cigarette, he comes over and offers his lighter. The officer was actually facing away from the sailor, so how could the mess man even know the lieutenant could not light the cigarette? [If you look closely, the mess steward is not standing with his back to Tyler. He is walking by with Tyler on his left side. He glances over and sees Tyler having trouble lighting his cigarette.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Non-whites were not allowed in the "Submarine Navy" until the next decade. [Black men were allowed on submarines as cooks or stewards in WWII. In a sub everyone has to know two or three jobs. Often this was the only way for a black man to learn technical jobs like sonar or navigator.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
The sailors - rightly so - become very frightened when the long range plane spots them. However no sub captain in his right mind would stay on the surface if he heard the sound of an aircraft - it was one of the lookout's primary tasks: alert the captain if they heard propellers, and prepare to dive. [U-571 was badly damaged. She might not be able to submerge quickly or for long periods, no matter what the lookout saw or heard.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
When the US commandos are about to board U-571, we see a cocked MP-40 gun hanging from an officer's neck, which is hidden in his jacket. You don't just let those guns hang like that, or it'll fire off at the slightest shock. Not a very smart thing to do in a stormy sea. [The MP38 (which is identical to the MP40) had that defect. It was corrected in the MP40.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
In the beginning of film, most of the welders are not wearing any goggles or helmets. That's just not healthy. [OSHA didn't exist back then!]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Once the survivors are in the U-boat the black character mans the controls. He's the cook, how does he now how to operate the controls? [Every man on the submarine learns the controls since they're out at sea for so long and it is so crucial to be able to run the submarine at all times.]
Enlisted submariners of that time period wore silver dolphins on their dress white uniforms (like the officers wore their gold ones in the movie) and not black embroidered dolphins on their sleeves. [WWII enlisted submariners did wear embroidered dolphins in their sleeves. In 1947 enlisted men were authorized to wear their dolphins on their breast. In 1950, the embroidered patch was replaced by a silver pin.]
When U-571 is supposedly at 200+ meters below the surface, the depth charges seem to be getting dropped into the water, as if they were 5 meters up, not sinking in the water as if they were 200+ meters down. [The shot of the depth charges DOES show them being dropped in at about 5 metres deep, because the view is from the back of the destroyer just below the waterline, not the back of the sub.]
In the scene in the captain's cabin where Bill Paxton is explaining to Matthew McConaughey why he didn't recommend him for a promotion, the words on the sheets on his bed are reversed. [Yes, the words are reversed, however in the DVD version the director says this was done on purpose since that's the way the sailors made their beds.]
W.W.II subs didn't have sub to sub attack capabilities and no underwater sub to sub kills were ever recorded during W.W.II. [That's not true. On 9 Feb, 1945 the British submarine HMS Venturer, commanded by James S. Launders, torpedoed and sank the German boat U-864. This is the only known incident in all of naval warfare in which one submarine sinks another while both are submerged.]
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