John Stanley
In the "Dive, Dive!" Movie Genre
Submarine movies have always fascinated me -- unlike other World War II naval adventures about destroyers, battleships, cruisers, minesweepers, aircraft carriers, PT boats and Coast Guard cutters.
Those other nautical war movies feature
the topside of the ocean and you can see where 
the watercraft are going, but sub flicks
have an aura of mystery as they plunge into the mysterious depths.
They take place in some bottomless ocean of murky darkness where
you never see the fish and there's only sound equipment and radar
to guide the men at the conning-tower controls through the perilous
enemy-controlled fathoms.
The "Silent Service" crew, far from normal nautical salts, talks in a lingo totally different from other seafaring warriors. There's a real element of romantic danger when the exec officer excitedly cries "Clear the Bridge!" and then "Take Her Down!" or "Dive! Dive! Dive!"
"Secure all hatches . . . Up Periscope!" Then the "skipper," his arms dangling over the handles of the hydraulic periscope tower, commands: "All ahead two-thirds . . . Angle on the bow . . . Set depth 12 feet . . . Come to heading one ... five ... zero." And you know when the captain (who's often called "Dad" or "Pop" or "The Skipper") says "Bearing . . . mark!" that it's time to get ready to fire some "fish." Nobody on a submarine calls those cylindrical things torpedoes, not when they're prowling the deep.
"Fire one! . . . fire two! Down periscope!" And then the ominous "Rig for silent running" as enemy ships close in for the reverse kill.
There's such a mystery about how a submarine works that it may as well be the USS Enterprise passing through a worm hole into the other side of the Universe, with Captain Jean-Luc Picard ordering his bridge hands to "make it so."
So it was with wide-eyed wonder that I recently sat through Hollywood's latest submarine flick, "U-571," a depiction of our World War II submariners and their efforts to steal the Enigma, a German-made encoding machine that was aboard all U-Boats during the early years of World War II.
"U-571" has all the earmarks
of an old-fashioned World War II adventure in the tradition of
"Destination Tokyo," "Operation Pacific"
and "Run Silent, Run Deep." It 
has a fast-moving plot with a lot of
twists since we're dealing with an American sub disguised as
a U-boat and an American crew disguised as Germans manning a
real German U-boat, and it spends very little time with unnecessary
stuff like characterizations and personality conflicts.
You've got the seasoned skipper (Bill Paxton)
at conflict with a less-experienced officer (Matthew McConaughey)
who thinks he should have his own command. And you've got "the
Chief" (Harvey Keitel), the one character in a submarine
movie who always knows what's best for the crew and backs up
the captain when the going gets tough. But . . .
What's really fascinating about this latest underwater actioner
is that it's based on an important part of our winning of World
War II, even if it does spin off from the historical truth into
vivid flights of fancy. There's an old saying that he who rules
the waves, rules the world, and that axiom was being applied
to the Germans in 1940.
During the Battle of the Atlantic, U-Boats were sinking 800,000 tons of Allied shipping per month. Important war supplies needed in England and Russia were going to the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker all because of the U-boat wolf-packs that prowled the ocean. When one sub saw a convoy, it sent signals via the Enigma machine to other U-boats, which then rendezvoused and closed in for the kill. Usually at night, the boats would fire a salvo of "fish" simultaneously, causing instant havoc as many Allied ships were hit within seconds of each other and started to sink.
The German "Kriegmariner" called this "The Happy Time," and even President Roosevelt and English Prime Minster Winston Churchill were fearful that if the submarines weren't stopped, the war would be lost. A team of decoding experts tried to decipher intercepted messages, but the Germans had so many thousands of Enigma-machine combinations that it was impossible to break the code. So our ships kept going under and the torpedoes kept coming with the sighting of each new convoy. Until . . .
Until the incident of the U-110. Its commander, one of the most decorated of Hitler's U-boat officers, daringly and singlehandedly intercepted British Convoy 318 on May 9, 1941, and sank two cargo ships. He should have stayed with the wolf-pack concept. For moments later the British destroyer Bulldog dropped a barrage of depth charges that seriously damaged the U-110 and sent it spiraling downward into dangerous depths, where the pressure threatened to destroy the integrity of the boat's bulkheads.
The sub sat silently on the bottom while the Captain awaited the damage reports. He had to decide: Either chance it on the surface, or die beneath the waves, for the submarine was beginning to break up from the pressure. The captain decided to save his men and surface, hoping to scuttle the ship before it was captured by the British. In the heat of the moment, the commander forgot to have the Enigma machine destroyed.
When he first saw the sub rising from the waves, the angry captain of the Bulldog gave the order to ram the submarine and avenge all the sailors who had been lost in the torpedo attack. But then, a cooler head prevailing, he realized that if he could capture the ship, he might be able to get his hands on the code machine. That one decision would change the direction of the war, for the crew of the Bulldog not only prevented the scuttling of the sub but also found the Enigma, forgotten and abandoned by the crew.
Now that the code machine and many code books were in friendly hands, the Allies were gradually able to intercept U-boat wolf packs and eventually the control of the Atlantic passed from the "kriegmariners" back to the British and American navies. The wolf packs got shellacked badly, and "The Happy Time" was over.
The way we really got the Enigma is not how "U-571" tells it, but hey, it's a movie and movies, especially submarine movies, are made to thrill us and provide plenty of action and nerve-wracking suspense. And "U-571" does that, for sure, even if the script has as many leaks in it as your average World War I pig-boat. Just the soundtrack alone is a thrilling experience with music by Richard Marvin and stereophonic sound effects that almost feel like real depth charges as they hit around you, or as various kinds of watercraft explode, crack open, sink, etc. Just a handful of rivets popping loose and water pouring through life-threatening leaks in the hull are enough to jar a bag of popcorn out of your quivering hands and slosh your carbonated drink all over your lap.
One thing I have to say about "U-571": It has every submarine cliche ever dreamed up. Depth charge attacks (two when maybe one would have been enough, but why quibble over an action movie), races against time to get torpedo tubes loaded and firing when there's all kinds of technical problems going on, a saboteur on board threatening to sink the ship (borrowed from "The Hunt for Red October," another submarine thriller), and all kinds of leaks and popped rivets occurring at the worst possible moment.
I did learn one new thing I'd never learned
from any other submarine movie. Never 
stand with your backbone pressed against
the hull of the ship during a depth-charge attack. The concussion
can snap your bones like brittle firewood.
All its educational values aside, "U-571" as a genre movie stirred me up and had me paying attention, since director Jonathan Mostow knows how to keep things moving and how to take your mind off some of the script's weaknesses. (Mostow made the exciting "Breakdown" with Kurt Russell, one of the more visceral thrillers about one man's stand against an overwhelming gang of bad guys.)
It also made me hungry for more submarine movies and brought back memories of some of my favorite underwater adventures. Here's a list of some of the best:
Operation Pacific (1951)
This is one of John Wayne's good World War II movies, made when
he was under contract at Warner Bros. Like "U-571,"
it has a factual background, being based on "The Gilmore
Incident."
On February 7, 1943, Commander Howard W. Gilmore of the submarine Growler was on the bridge when he was exposed to Japanese fire. Badly wounded, he fell to the deck of the conning tower, ordering his executive officer to "Take Her Down! Take Her Down!" The sub crash-dived, then resurfaced as soon as possible in an effort to save Gilmore from drowning. But his body, after being washed off the conning tower, was never recovered. Gilmore became a national hero for his self-sacrificing act through an article that appeared in Life magazine. Ward Bond plays a fictional version of Gilmore (called "Pop") with Wayne as his dedicated and always loyal executive officer. The film also deals with another factual event: many American torpedoes in the Pacific campaign were not exploding on contact. This shows how the problem was resolved.
"Operation Pacific" also features one of Max Steiner's most rousing nautical scores, capturing a sense of diving to the bottom and rising to the surface through musical motifs. His "Call to Quarters" is another superb piece of maritime action music. "Operation Pacific" features the always-excellent Patricia Neal as Wayne's love interest, a screen romance that would be continued years later in Otto Preminger's "In Harm's Way," a movie about surface naval vessels and not submarines.
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
This is a fascinating glimpse into "the bow shot" --
a technique whereby a sub fires a torpedo at an enemy ship coming
toward it head-on. Commander Clark Gable secretly trains his
crew in the intricate maneuverings required without explaining
why to his men, causing dissension among the crew. Meanwhile,
he's also engaged in a personal conflict with second officer
Burt Lancaster, who feels he deserves command of the sub. Characterizations
and action are well balanced by director Robert Wise, and the
film has a surprisingly downbeat ending. (Most submarine movies
end on a rousing upbeat emotion, usually with the sub sailing
safely into harbor after a dramatic and dangerous mission.)
Das Boot (1981)
Possibly the best and most realistic of all submarine movies,
originally made as a six-part German TV movie and then re-edited
to feature length for American distribution. Directed by Wolfgang
Petersen, the film succeeds in capturing a sense of claustrophobia
in its depiction of daily life aboard an "untersee boot."As
the commander, Jurgen Prochnow is a troubled man struggling with
his conscience and trying to keep his men happy in terrible living
conditions beneath the sea. In recent years a longer director's
cut was released on home video.
Victory at Sea: Full Fathom Five (1952)
Be sure to find this half-hour episode of the award-winning NBC
documentary series. It recounts the submarine war in the Pacific
with spectacular footage taken by the Silent Service during World
War II. Subs surface and crash dive, often with the camera strapped
to the conning tower. There is also tribute paid to the 50-plus
subs that never returned from their missions against the Japanese.
Richard Rodgers' music captures the gracefulness and menace that
subs convey, depending on the camera angle.
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Based on Tom Clancy's very first novel, this starred Sean Connery
as the commander of a Russian submarine that turns rogue and
sails toward American waters for asylum. Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
naval forces become engaged in events that threaten nuclear holocaust.
Alec Baldwin introduced the character of CIA analyst-secret agent
Jack Ryan, a role that would later be played by Harrison Ford
in "Patriot Games." Sean Connery portrays the Russian
sub commander--not an easy role when you're Scottish. This features
fewer of the World War II-style situations and focuses instead
on the contemporary political issues at stake, one's loyalty
to country, and the acts of sabotage that threaten to destroy
the Russian sub.
Torpedo Run (1958)
Although a fairly standard submarine adventure, this is memorable
for the sequence in which submarine skipper Glenn Ford is forced
to sink a Japanese ship carrying his wife and family. The strong
supporting cast includes Ernest Borgnine and Dean Jones.
Submarine Command (1950)
William Holden continues to fascinate me with the strong-willed
characters he played throughout his career, and while this is
standard action fair, Holden, William Bendix and Don Taylor lend
strong credence to a story of post-World War II submarine life.
Destination Tokyo (1943)
Skipper Cary Grant is ordered to enter Tokyo Bay to pull off
a top-secret submarine mission in a rousing Warner Bros. movie
full of propaganda, suspense and action. Grant is excellent as
the captain with a seemingly impossible assignment, with Dane
Clark, Alan Hale and John Garfield excellent as crew members.
A classic among sub flicks.
Operation Petticoat (1959)
This is the unique comedy that is a parody of all the other submarine
movies. Cary Grant does a hilarious take-off of himself from
"Destination Tokyo," playing the captain who needs
all the help he can get to keep his dilapidated, rusty and leaky
sub in one piece during the battle in the Pacific. Tony Curtis
is funny as the ship's scrounger and there's plenty of old-fashioned
sexist humor when a number of shapely women have to live aboard
the boat with the all-male crew. Blake Edwards was responsible
for this spoof that sparked a less-successful TV series.
Above Us the Waves (1956)
The British have a cool, stiff-upper lip attitude about war that
is exemplified in this non-heroic, we're-just-doing-our-duty
submarine story based on a true event. Commander John Mills takes
a miniature sub into a Norwegian harbor to attach time bombs
to the keel of a German battleship. This depiction of an act
that is said to have helped to defeat the German navy bigtime
also features Theodore Bikel as a German officer and Anthony
Newley as a submarine engineer.
Hellcats of the Navy (1957)
This is remembered more for its leading players, Ronald Reagan
and Nancy Davis, since it is the only movie they made together
before they wed and moved on into more dangerous waters, the
world of politics. It's a low-budget, standard service drama
that remains a curiosity piece for its casting.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Walt Disney's adaptation of the famous science-fictional Jules
Verne novel remains the most fanciful of submarine movies. For
the Nautilus is the very first sophisticated underwater boat,
as designed by the mentally deranged yet ingenious Captain Nemo,
and there is no end to the visual underwater delights that Disney
injected into this epic movie at the same time he was building
Disneyland. James Mason is a memorable Nemo and Kirk Douglas
makes for a fitting adversary, but the underwater sequences and
the battle with a giant squid steal the show. Captain Nemo appears
again in the Ray Harryhausen special effects fantasy, "Mysterious
Island" (1961), in the form of Herbert Lom, and Robert Ryan
assumed the role in MGM's "Captain Nemo and the Underwater
City" of 1969.
Atomic Submarine (1959)
A sci-fi thriller that brought submarines into the modern age,
with Arthur Franz as the captain who faces the dangers of a bug-eyed
alien monster that stalks the crew of his boat. Strictly a B-movie
with plenty of good actors: Bob Steele, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey
and comic relief Sid Melton, directed by serial specialist Spencer
Gordon Bennet.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
As one of Irwin Allen's disaster-at-sea movies, this is a colorful
if nonsensical feature with plenty of acceptable special effects
for their time, and a fine cast headed by Walter Pidgeon as Admiral
Nelson (commander of an atomic sub), Peter Lorre and Joan Fontaine.
But it is less important as a feature than it is as the springboard
to Allen's career as a producer of schlock sci-fi TV series.
"Voyage" came to the small screen in 1964 with Richard
Basehart as Admiral Nelson and ran for many seasons, using the
same sets that had been introduced in the feature film, over
and over again. Each episode introduced a monster of some variety
(obviously a man in a rubber suit), and in one of the better
episodes, costar David Hedison was swallowed by a whale. Still,
it was a schlocky show, poorly written, yet it remained on the
air four seasons for its imaginative production values. The success
of "Voyage" would lead to other Allen sci-fi shows:
"Lost in Space," "The Time Tunnel" and "Land
of the Giants." Allen was a volatile, not-always-friendly
dictatorial producer-director who is infamous for getting punched
in the nose by Harlan Ellison after saying something that offended
the writer's sensibilities. Allen threw a few verbal punches
at me and then tossed me out of his office at 20th-Century Fox
one day back in 1967, but that is another story, for another
time and place. Bon voyage . . .
© 2000 by John Stanley
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