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U-571

179 statements
34 feature instances
22 referencing feature instances

U-571	type	TVTItem
U-571	label	U-571
U-571	page	U571
U-571	comment	Released in 2000, directed by Jonathan Mostow and written by David Ayer, this World War II movie Very Loosely Based on a True Story is about a submarine crew who board a disabled German sub to steal an Enigma Machine, a secret German encryption device used to send coded messages. Caused a degree of controversy as the film places the Americans in center role as the heroes... except that in real life, the first to capture the submarine-based ENIGMA machine was the British. Although the film is also partly based on the American action that led to the capture of the U-Boat now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, though by "partly," we mean "altered so much as to be unrecognizable."The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Andrew Tyler, Bill Paxton as Mike Dahlgren, Harvey Keitel as Henry Klough, Jon Bon Jovi as Pete Emmett, Jake Weber as Michael Hirsch, Erik Palladino as Anthony Mazzola, Matthew Settle as Keith Larson, David Keith as Matthew Coonan and Thomas Kretschmann as Günther Wassner.
U-571	fetched	2023-11-24T20:14:58Z
U-571	parsed	2023-11-24T20:14:58Z
U-571	processingComment	Dropped link to HollywoodHistory: Not a Feature - IGNORE
U-571	isPartOf	DBTropes
U-571 / int_1237828f	type	Anyone Can Die
U-571 / int_1237828f	comment	Anyone Can Die: And almost everybody does. Seven men survive to the end, that's it.
U-571 / int_1237828f	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_1237828f	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_1237828f
U-571 / int_18dd6739	type	Dressing as the Enemy
U-571 / int_18dd6739	comment	Dressing as the Enemy: How the crew gets aboard the U-571.
U-571 / int_18dd6739	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_18dd6739	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_18dd6739
U-571 / int_19d06ef7	type	A Father to His Men
U-571 / int_19d06ef7	comment	A Father to His Men: Tyler who's good buddies with his fellow officers, an older brother figure to the enlisted, has a good respected advisor in the Chief's and in an era when the military was still heavily segregated even the black mess workers are comfortable enough around to have a smoke with. He says he'd give his life for anyone on the sub and is notably crushed when they take their first casualty. This is actually why he's turned down from command at first as that kind of mentality is great for an XO who's the bridge between the Captain and the rest of the crew but not necessarily for a Captain who has to remain detached enough to order the crew into potential situations where they might lose their lives.
U-571 / int_19d06ef7	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_19d06ef7	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_19d06ef7
U-571 / int_213dc284	type	Closest Thing We Got
U-571 / int_213dc284	comment	Closest Thing We Got: After a depth charge kills the U-boat's engineering department, the captain is seen badgering the only man he could find with any mechanical experience to fix the engines, with no success, as the poor guy protests that he only has a summer's worth of experience fixing motorscooters.
U-571 / int_213dc284	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_213dc284	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_213dc284
U-571 / int_24f4c82a	type	Semper Fi
U-571 / int_24f4c82a	comment	Semper Fi: Coonan, a Marine officer, is an expert in demolitions and commando raids and is brought onboard to give the submariners a crash course in boarding actions they would otherwise be unprepared for.
U-571 / int_24f4c82a	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_24f4c82a	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_24f4c82a
U-571 / int_2612a967	type	It Has Been an Honor
U-571 / int_2612a967	comment	It Has Been an Honor: Inverted; Chief Klough does say, "Well, Mister Tyler, if you ever need a chief, I'll go to sea with you anytime," but after the danger is over.
U-571 / int_2612a967	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_2612a967	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_2612a967
U-571 / int_2b706ca	type	More Dakka
U-571 / int_2b706ca	comment	Anyone with even faint understanding of conditions on a submarine will find the entire scene with shootout aboard U-571 (with rapid fire weaponry!) downright cringeworthy. Submarines were (and still are) essentially enclosed, steel cylinders — which means that for starters, using firearms in such an environment would be extremely noisy and all participants of such shootout would get their eardrums blown very quickly. Secondly, being completely surrounded by steel walls means your bullets will ricochet frequently, giving you plenty of opportunities to hurt not only your intended target, but many other people, including your own teammates and even yourself. There are good reasons why in the real world, U-Boats carried little to no personal firearms aboard, and while the British actually did send an armed boarding party to capture U-110, no shots were fired (since U-110 was abandoned by its crew earlier).
U-571 / int_2b706ca	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_2b706ca	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_2dddd99d	type	False Flag Operation
U-571 / int_2dddd99d	comment	False Flag Operation: In addition to boarding the ship, they have to pretend to be Germans in order to avoid being attacked by German forces in the area. At one point this involves cheerfully waving at a Messerschmitt fighter that spots them and makes a low pass.
U-571 / int_2dddd99d	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_2dddd99d	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_2dddd99d
U-571 / int_3052f23e	type	Sink the Lifeboats
U-571 / int_3052f23e	comment	Sink The Life Boats: To prove how evil the German U-boat crew is. In reality, out of the tens of thousands of hours logged by the U-boat Force, there is only one recorded incident of a crew attacking survivors, and this was never an official policy of any sort whatsoever (because, like with a number of war crimes, there was the fear that it would provoke the enemy to respond in kind). It was much more common for German submariners to provide aid to the crews they sank. That said, in the film, the German captain seems to hold distaste for this policy, and his men are just as unhappy as he is when they are ordered to murder the helpless survivors of a British ship they just sank.
U-571 / int_3052f23e	featureApplicability	1.0
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U-571 / int_3eee0728	type	Captain Obvious
U-571 / int_3eee0728	comment	Captain Obvious: "Everything's in German!"
U-571 / int_3eee0728	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_3eee0728	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_3eee0728
U-571 / int_4ad1816a	type	Everyone Knows Morse
U-571 / int_4ad1816a	comment	Everyone Knows Morse: Justified. On a WWII warship, everyone did.
U-571 / int_4ad1816a	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_4ad1816a	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_4ad1816a
U-571 / int_56515a39	type	Artistic License â€“ History
U-571 / int_56515a39	comment	Artistic License – History: The real U-571 and S-33 didn't even operate in the same ocean as each other. In addition, the Germans never sent their destroyers that far west. Most of the German surface fleet was destroyed early on, this was why the Germans sunk most of their naval resources into their U-Boats.
U-571 / int_56515a39	featureApplicability	1.0
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U-571 / int_5d3483cc	type	Reading The Enemy's Mail
U-571 / int_5d3483cc	comment	Reading The Enemy's Mail: The main objective is to capture a German Enigma coding machine and the associated codebooks, allowing the Allies to decode and read German transmissions.
U-571 / int_5d3483cc	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_5d3483cc	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_5d3483cc
U-571 / int_619985d7	type	Sacrificial Lion
U-571 / int_619985d7	comment	Sacrificial Lion: Dahlgren.
U-571 / int_619985d7	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_619985d7	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_619985d7
U-571 / int_6366f900	type	Old Soldier
U-571 / int_6366f900	comment	Old Soldier: Chief Gunner Klough, who served on submarines during World War I.
U-571 / int_6366f900	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_6366f900	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_6366f900
U-571 / int_6eb4e408	type	Artistic License â€“ Military
U-571 / int_6eb4e408	comment	Artistic License – Military: There's more examples of this than you can shake a stick at, but one stands out to those familiar with military history. The cook on board the sub is a black man. This would not have occurred during World War II, as the armed forces were not desegregated until 1947. However, the filmmakers may have been aware of this and simply chose to ignore it. Extra credit has to be given to them for portraying him as a intelligent and capable individual, who takes over the sub's helm when the regular helmsman is killed, and never gives in to panic or fear. Also, he's treated as an equal by everyone on board, with absolutely no hint of racism from anyone. Messmen (later stewards) were the only black sailors allowed to serve on U.S. submarines during the war. Seventy-four black messmen/stewards went on "eternal patrol." Executive Order 9981, desegregating the U.S. military, was issued in 1948.
U-571 / int_6eb4e408	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_6eb4e408	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_889f217f	type	Hot Sub-on-Sub Action
U-571 / int_889f217f	comment	Hot Sub-on-Sub Action: The German boat that sinks the American sub is stated as being a resupply boat. The Type XIV "Milchkuh" (or "milk cow") did not even have torpedo tubes. In addition, during the entire war, there is exactly one recorded instance of a submarine being sunk by another with torpedoes, and this was done by the British HMS Venturer.
U-571 / int_889f217f	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_889f217f	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_a796d2a6	type	Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy
U-571 / int_a796d2a6	comment	Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Generally, a submarine could not be within short range of a destroyer without getting ripped to shreds.
U-571 / int_a796d2a6	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_a796d2a6	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_a796d2a6
U-571 / int_a7c904c3	type	America Won World War II
U-571 / int_a7c904c3	comment	America Won World War II: invoked Infamously so. In Real Life, the Enigma Machine was stolen from a German submarine... by the British. Enigma machines were actually captured multiple times from U-Boats during the war, and one such action was accomplished by the US Navy, but the real event was nothing at all like the movie. As can be expected, this did cause one hell of an uproar in the UK, to the point it was called "An Affront to British Sailors" during Prime Ministers Question Time upon release! For what it's worth, American veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic who saw the movie generally agreed with the British. An Enigma was cracked as early as 1928 by the Polish. Germany exported civilian versions of the Enigma machine in 1930s. British government had a few of these even before the war began.
U-571 / int_a7c904c3	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_a7c904c3	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_a7c904c3
U-571 / int_a858bec5	type	Banging for Help
U-571 / int_a858bec5	comment	Banging for Help: A captured prisoner uses a wrench to knock out a message in Morse Code for other German ships to hear on Sonar: I am U-571... destroy me!
U-571 / int_a858bec5	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_a858bec5	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_a858bec5
U-571 / int_a8c1433e	type	Dead Star Walking
U-571 / int_a8c1433e	comment	Dead Star Walking: A number of American submariners, including Bill Paxton (who's set up to be one of the main characters) and Jon Bon Jovi, are killed a quarter of the way through the film during a disastrous escape from a German U-boat.
U-571 / int_a8c1433e	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_a8c1433e	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_ad1db87c	type	Oh, Crap!
U-571 / int_ad1db87c	comment	Oh, Crap!: Emmett has a moment of slack-jawed horror when the German resupply submarine launches a torpedo at the S-33.
U-571 / int_ad1db87c	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_ad1db87c	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_ad1db87c
U-571 / int_b4a6ae4c	type	Everyone Has Standards
U-571 / int_b4a6ae4c	comment	That said, in the film, the German captain seems to hold distaste for this policy, and his men are just as unhappy as he is when they are ordered to murder the helpless survivors of a British ship they just sank.
U-571 / int_b4a6ae4c	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_b4a6ae4c	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_c4942576	type	Cunning Linguist
U-571 / int_c4942576	comment	Cunning Linguist: Two of them in this film, including a professional linguist and a sailor who is half German.
U-571 / int_c4942576	featureApplicability	1.0
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U-571 / int_caf8c66c	type	The Chains of Commanding
U-571 / int_caf8c66c	comment	The Chains of Commanding / "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tyler gets no less than two speeches about being unfit for command:
U-571 / int_caf8c66c	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_caf8c66c	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_ce1c73e2	type	Just Plane Wrong
U-571 / int_ce1c73e2	comment	Just Plane Wrong: The German fighter appears to be a Messerschmidt Bf 109, which had nowhere near the range to patrol the middle of the Atlantic, and the Germans never constructed any aircraft carriers.
U-571 / int_ce1c73e2	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_ce1c73e2	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_ce1c73e2
U-571 / int_d45c0b86	type	Refuge in Audacity
U-571 / int_d45c0b86	comment	Refuge in Audacity: When the captured U-571 is spotted by a German patrol plane, the Americans wave at it, just as German sailors would to friendly flyers. Since the Germans don't know the sub has been captured yet, it works.
U-571 / int_d45c0b86	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_d45c0b86	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_dc119567	type	InfiniteAmmo
U-571 / int_dc119567	comment	Infinite Ammo: The German destroyer drops at least eighty depth charges. The average destroyer of World War II had no more than thirty.
U-571 / int_dc119567	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_dc119567	featureConfidence	1.0
U-571	hasFeature	U-571 / int_dc119567
U-571 / int_e52a0409	type	Calling the Old Man Out
U-571 / int_e52a0409	comment	Calling the Old Man Out: Rather early in the film, Lieutenant Tyler gets this from Chief Gunner Klough, for admitting to his crew that he didn't know what to do next, thus undermining his own crew's confidence in his leadership. Also, the beginning of the film: Tyler is itching for a command of his own, and knows that the only thing that could stop him from being promoted and getting it is if his current CO doesn't recommend him. When he is passed over he seeks his CO out and demands to know why.
U-571 / int_e52a0409	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_e52a0409	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_e652089c	type	Artistic License â€“ Ships
U-571 / int_e652089c	comment	Artistic License – Ships: The German destroyer hunts for U-571 with sonar pings, even though the Kriegsmarine never developed active sonar (the one with pings) and relied on passive sonar (very sensitive listening devices). Anyone with even faint understanding of conditions on a submarine will find the entire scene with shootout aboard U-571 (with rapid fire weaponry!) downright cringeworthy. Submarines were (and still are) essentially enclosed, steel cylinders — which means that for starters, using firearms in such an environment would be extremely noisy and all participants of such shootout would get their eardrums blown very quickly. Secondly, being completely surrounded by steel walls means your bullets will ricochet frequently, giving you plenty of opportunities to hurt not only your intended target, but many other people, including your own teammates and even yourself. There are good reasons why in the real world, U-Boats carried little to no personal firearms aboard, and while the British actually did send an armed boarding party to capture U-110, no shots were fired (since U-110 was abandoned by its crew earlier). The American submarine is supposedly sunk by German resupply sub... even though Type XIV "Milchkuh" ("milk cow") supply U-boats did not even have torpedo tubes.
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U-571 / int_ed2bbf8a	type	You Are in Command Now
U-571 / int_ed2bbf8a	comment	You Are in Command Now: Lieutenant Tyler, when his submarine is torpedoed and sunk, while he is leading a boarding party on the U-571.
U-571 / int_ed2bbf8a	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_ed2bbf8a	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_f8ec3418	type	Someone Has to Die
U-571 / int_f8ec3418	comment	Someone Has to Die: The climax of the film and the moment Tyler's development comes to a head. The Sub can't fire it's torpedo unless a critical repair is made in an area that's underwater and filled with debris, so attempt to repair it will almost certainly mean the crewman's death. Worse the "someone" is already selected by necessity. Tank, the guy who's job it should be to fix it can't fit through all the debris and of the rest of the crew only Rabbit and Trigger are small enough to fit and Rabbit is their torpedo guy and needed at his post which means Trigger is the only option and Tyler needs to order him to certain death despite Trigger's terror and reluctance. Trigger pulls it off but drowns in the hold as everyone expected.
U-571 / int_f8ec3418	featureApplicability	1.0
U-571 / int_f8ec3418	featureConfidence	1.0
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U-571 / int_f909b16b	type	Dark Secret
U-571 / int_f909b16b	comment	Dark Secret: Mild example. One of the American sailors doesn't want his crewmates to know he's half German.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

U-571	hasFeature	Adaptational Nationality / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	America Saves the Day / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	America Won World War II / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Artistic License â€“ Ships / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Banging for Help / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Bullet Holes and Revelations / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Closest Thing We Got / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Creator Provincialism / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Cunning Linguist / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Everyone Knows Morse / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Historical Fiction / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Hot Sub-on-Sub Action / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Poisonous Captive / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Reading The Enemy's Mail / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Sinking Ship Scenario / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Sitting Duck / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Sub Story / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Vehicle Title / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	Vehicular Turnabout / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	You Are in Command Now / int_b3708bb4
U-571	hasFeature	The Chains of Commanding / int_b3708bb4

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