The U.S. Navy disguises an aging S-class submarine, the S-33 , as a German resupply sub. Led by Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) and his passed-over executive officer, Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), the American crew is tasked with boarding U-571 , neutralizing the German sailors, and stealing the top-secret Enigma cipher machine along with its codebooks.
U-571: Hollywood Drama vs. Historical Reality in the Submarine Thriller
However, the film is also a cautionary tale about the power of Hollywood to reshape public memory. Polls taken after the film’s release showed a significant number of American viewers believed the US Navy single-handedly captured the Enigma machine.
While the movie shows American sailors capturing the Enigma machine, in real life, the first naval Enigma was captured by the British crew of the in 1941—seven months before the U.S. even entered WWII.
The U.S. Navy disguises an aging S-class submarine, the S-33 , as a German resupply sub. Led by Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) and his passed-over executive officer, Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), the American crew is tasked with boarding U-571 , neutralizing the German sailors, and stealing the top-secret Enigma cipher machine along with its codebooks.
U-571: Hollywood Drama vs. Historical Reality in the Submarine Thriller movie u-571
However, the film is also a cautionary tale about the power of Hollywood to reshape public memory. Polls taken after the film’s release showed a significant number of American viewers believed the US Navy single-handedly captured the Enigma machine. U-571: Hollywood Drama vs
While the movie shows American sailors capturing the Enigma machine, in real life, the first naval Enigma was captured by the British crew of the in 1941—seven months before the U.S. even entered WWII. While the movie shows American sailors capturing the