U-571: Historically Accurate? Essay Example

U-571: Historically Accurate? U-571 was a movie released in April 2000 and directed by Johnathan Mostow. This movie depicted the capture of the Enigma cipher machine and other cryptographic documentation from a German U-boat by American forces disguised as Germans during spring 1942. According to the film makers, this film promised to be thrilling and exciting. Although the movie did live up to its promise, it fell short in the historical accuracy department. This film was split in terms of what perspective it was told from. The movie began with the German perspective. The Germans carried out a routine mission in which they located an Allied ship, most likely a supply ship or merchant ship, and destroyed it in an effort to hinder supplies to the Allied forces in Britain. This already slightly skewed history since these attacks usually occurred between a convoy of ships and a team of U-boats in a system called the Rudel (wolf pack) by the Germans. During this attack, all of the German mechanics died and the submarine was stranded until a German resupply boat could come along and help them out. It just so happened that this was one of the submarines carrying the top-secret Enigma machine. This was where the American perspective came into play. The United States Navy decided to take advantage of this situation. They converted a U.S. Navy S-class submarine into a replica of a German U-boat and sent it to "help" the stranded U-boat. The perspective of the film switched back and forth between the Germans and Americans until the Americans captured the German U-boat. From this point, everything was from the American point of view. This leads to the most blatant historical inaccuracy I have ever seen. This movie portrayed the Americans as the victorious group who stole the Enigma from the Germans. This action was supposedly a consequential factor in breaking the German ciphers and helped turn the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic. This is, in fact, completely