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To this reviewer the definitive submarine movie will always be wolfgang petersen's brilliant made for german TV, Das Boot aka The boat
With what seems to be close to a bi-decadely tradition, another submarine movie torpedoed its way to the big screen in 2000 with U-571.

It's the early 1940's and the German's have developed a seemingly uncrackable code with their Enigma machine...the Brits and the yanks want it baaaad.

Though the British having already captured a few of these enigma devices (a point the is blatently disgregarded until the blurb moments before the closing credits) the US Navy catches wind of another U-boat which is stranded in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and so decide to get one of their submarines out there to get them another decoder. 
Currently on shore leave Lt Cmdr  [Captain] Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) and his crew, consisting of Lt Andrew Tyler (Matt McConaughey), Cheif Klaugh (Harvey Keitel), Lt Pete Emmett (Jon Bon Jovi), crewmen Wentz and Trigger (Jack Noseworthy) and (Tom Guiry), are called back to duty with only the senior members in the know about the planned assult on the german u-boat. 
On board to head this attack is Naval intellegences officers Lt Hurch (Jake Webber), and Marine Major Koonan (David Keith...what a cool actor). 

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

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VIDEO
Roadshow have delivered yet another nice overall polished DVD.
Like it's UK cousin, our DVD is also Anamophic Widescreen, though UNLIKE it's UK cousin OURS is presented in it's correct aspect ratio of 2:35:1 (not 1.85:1).  

Generally speaking it's a very nice transfer, though it does have a few rough spots here and there.  Detail level is quite high and there's only a hint of image smearing showing through now and then.
The eye ball during the opening credit sequence showed juuuust a slight hint of artifacting, and Some shots have the presence of too much edge enhancement making the picture look unnatural [during these moments only], instead of a nice smooth filmic apprearance one had grown to love on the finest of DVDs. 
Though quite well under control for the most part, there was the odd bit of aliasing that came though.

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I was most pleased to see the LACK of colour bleeding, especially during the opening sequence on the U-571.  With the submarine on red alert the interior was flooded with heavy red lighting and it held up beautifully and showed no signs of leaking (pun intended :). 

One thing to note about the look of U-571 is the deliberate push of green, giving it a slight off colour balance thoughout (perhaps a touch cepia looking).  It does appear as though the level of contrast is down a fraction which would emphasise the green (by adding some greyness to the overall image), and exterior shots lack the crispness of "real" outdoor scenes, especially when they're on the ocean top... keeping Glare to a minimum on most outdoor shots, which seemed rather out of place given the situation.
I do put this down as a minor problem as the level of contast is consistent thoughout and won't drive you nuts being as most of the film takes place within the submarines interiors.

Running close to 2 hours and being loaded with extras this movie has been spread over 2 layers of an RSDL DVD.  The layer change occurs during chapter 18 at the 73 minute mark and is quite well placed between the scenes.

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AUDIO
aaaaah. now here's a killer 5.1 audio mix.  Saldy, we're missing the wonderful DTS mix found on Universal's USA DVD release, but at the same time, the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix isn't too far behind in the kickassyourneighboursarecallingthecopsrightnow department.  
Having listened to both the DTS5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on the USA release And the two Dolby mixes (DD5.1 and DD2.0) on the region 4 PAL version ALL hold up incredibly well and are shining examples of the capabablities of the respective formats/codecs.
In fact i was hard pressed to find ANY difference between the region 1 and region 4 Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes..both are equally as good, even with the region 4 PAL speedup.

The region 1 DTS mix does reveal that little extra detail and has better channel separation, but you're not talking the difference between chalk and cheese here. (certainly no way near the DTS improvements over Dolby digital on DVDs like region 4 Gladiator, or region 1 Saving Private Ryan).
The region 4 DD5.1 mix is very high on detail with amazing dynamics with the utmost of clarity, even during the quieter passages of which everything can be heard.  Bass extention is incredibly deep and goes full range in EVERY channel.  (chapter 21 is the place to try this out :)
There was one tiny glitch in the audio mix.  A light crackle from the right side surround channel which i actually took note of during my initial viewing, but alas, i lost the piece of paper with the time index..but i know it's there somewhere!! :)
Having the Pioneer 717 i was a little disappointed to see a slight audio sync delay, but thankfully it's not too far out to be a major nuisance
(playing this on the marantz DV17 showed no audio problems what so ever, well once i realised there was a stupid friggin' remote button that took it OUT of that bloody 2 channel magic-airy-fairy-fake surround mode and BACK into true 5.1 surround...what a pain in the ass that is!! :)
Included on the region 4 version is a most impressive Dolby Digital 2.0 surround mix, which required a 5 db increase on my system. 

Having heard the improvements between the Dolby digital and DTS mixes, it's be great to see Roadshow release a DTS version of U-571 to the Aussie market (Columiba did it with Gladiator..so c'mon guys!! :)

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EXTRAS
Continuing with their not-so-plain-jane menus, we are given full animation, with 5.1 sound.
If you can be bothered wading thru those annoying warning messages (which are again skippable...yay!!..smart move fellas), you'll be pleased to hear and see a pre-main menu torpedo attack seqence..is quite cool.  There is also a filmic moment in 5.1 between menu selections.  Scene Selects are video and audio based as well. 

- Director Jonathan(Breakdown)Mostow lends his voice to a very information rich Commentary track. One that it's a little low key, so some may find it a bit dull (Cass helloooo :). 

- 2 Trailers are included.   one a "teaser" trailer which to my surprise was 16x9 AND with a very nice Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, the other theatrical trailer is 16x9 with a 2.0 mix

- Spotlight on location. a 14 minute featurette with cast and crew interviews.  16x9/2.0 surround sound

- Making Of.... the usual sorta short featurette making of with 16x9/2.0 sound

- Breaking the Code   there are 4 parts to this extra, which are a terrific addition to the film in getting to know the real nitty gritty of what went on with the war and the dreaded enigma decoder
   - Capture of the 505 : news type reel footage runs about 3 minutes is black and white in 16x9 with 2.0 sound. 
   - Capture of 110 : 10 minute piece with director mostow interviewing Lt Cmdr David Balme (from the royal navy in 1941)
   - A Submariner Remembers : Vice Admiral Partick Hannifin chatting away.  runs about 8 minutes
   - Enigma  : a 7 minute featurette all about the enimga decoder

- Cast and Crew Bios : Thorough detail as always from Roadshow, though they let out one very important piece info from Matthew McConaughey's Bio..that being my sister going to school with Matt while she was an exchange student over in Longview Texas.....seriously..and doesn't she let everyone know about that!!  damn i just did the same thing..curses :)

Other Notiable mentions of this DVD are
- Animated Menus with 5.1 audio
- Scene Selects with Video motion and selectable audio bits of highlighted chapter
- subtitles for the hearing impaired
- DVD Rom Features (some good info on submarine types)
- Dolby Digital Canyon Trailer

U-571 is a pretty good film (even if a few important facts have been pushed aside to focus the story on the USA mission), and Roadshow have pretty much delivered the goods with this DVD.  (you'll wanna buy this one!)

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver/Decoder: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
     Fronts: Quadral Phonolgue Gold Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Rears: B&W 602
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Reviewed 3rd January 2000

* U-571 jpeg files for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files. Any reproduction of these files in whole or part has to be given authorisation from Village Roadshow.