Excellent but underrated film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This movie was set during WW II but it didn't feel like WWII at all. Watching folks drive around in old cars and putting them in old costumes doesn't automatically mean the viewer will be transported back in time. This was very surreal.The dialog, nuances, slang and mannerisms of the cast and their interactions with one another just felt too MODERN! While the plot was great, and there was suspense, the overall tone of the film and time in which it was to be taking place just didn't work for me.A film like U571 did a better job of capturing the time. William H. Macy seems to play the same guy over and over again in each of his films and shows little depth as an actor again here.The viewer is expected to sense that the crews of both subs are longing for home, but there is little effort made by the actors to sell that fact.

This movie is unmitigated rubbish. In everything that matters it fails. It is factually inaccurate, and totally ignorant of Navy protocols. German or US Navy. It must have been filmed on a modern nuclear submarine, or in a studio set. It looked like cruise ship, there was so much space. US submarine action in the Atlantic was minimal in WW2. Most submarines were in the Pacific. Survivors of any kind would never have been taken aboard a submarine. Voice radio communications ? No chance. Submarines always maintained radio silence. Any signals ( always Morse code ) would quickly be picked up by the British. Submarines had to surface to send or receive signals. They did show and mention an Enigma machine, but did not elaborate on the vital role this played in winning the war against U-boats. Also lackadaisical addressing of Officers, failure to acknowledge orders , etc. turned this into a farce. I could go on, but enough is enough. I am sorry I watched it.

This is one of the worst and most disappointing films I've seen in a long time.The acting - mostly by the actors portraying the American crew - was awful; I actually laughed through most of it. Saving some face was the performance by the two German leads; at least I could almost imagine them as part of a U-boot crew.The script could have been written by a 12 year-old, nothing but wooden dialogue riddled with terrible clichés.What let me down the most was the lack of concern to detail. Did the producers not have an adviser of some kind on hand to help with the accuracy of the uniforms and interiors of the submarines? Some of the scenes in the American sub appeared to have been filmed on location, but the U-boat? You're kidding, right? Next to Das Boot, or even (dare I say) U-571, this film is an embarrassment and should be avoided at all costs. Macy, what where you thinking associating yourself with this project?

The film is based on historic deeds,thus the construction of new U-boats continued at a record -breaking during WWII. In 1942-43 Hitler raised enormously his U-boat strength,the German submarines sank numerous ships,in early 1943 the called ¨Wolf packs¨sank 90 ships in 20 days.Then,suddenly ,between March and June 1943,an exceptional change took place .The Allies began to win the war against Hitler's underwater in the Battle of the Atlantic.By this time the technique of submarines warfare had advanced far beyond that used in the beginning the war.The Allies pitted thousands of boats,seamen,destroyers,cruisers,subs,cannons and billion of dollars against the undersea craft .As early as December 1943 Karl Doeniz ,the architect and designer of U-boat campaign,admitted the grave turn in events.The cost was great on both sides .In the six years of war ,the Germans,by their own statistics,destroyed more than 2000 British,Allied ships in the sea.Hitler had built 1162 subs ,of which 783 were lost.Of the 41000 men recruited into the underwater service ,between 28000 and 32000 lost their lives and 500 were taken prisoners.The picture narrates as the USS Swordfish underwater commanded by Cmdr Randall(Scott Caan) and the sergeant(William H. Macy)and with the crew(Jeremy Sisto,Sam Huntington among others)is sunk ,then they are captured by a Nazi U-Boat 424 commanded by a captain(Til Schweiger) and officer(Thomas Kretschman). The Americans led by the sergeant try to take over the German sub and to make their way back home confronting against Nazis sailors ,through enemies destroyers they manage to arrive at three hundred miles US coast.The movie contains nail-biting action,drama,suspense in a claustrophobic atmosphere although complemented with some of archive stock footage.The film provides a realistic detailing of life aboard and a portrait about the crews subjected to stressful and psychological tensions.In fact the sailors had sleep in shifts.For months they were lodged in close quarters because every inch the space was needed for machinery,supplies and torpedoes.The air was heavy with odors from bilges,diesel oil and unwashed bodies.The men faced sudden death from depth charges ,aerial bombing attacks or the sharp bow of a swift destroyer as happen in this film.