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U-571 | 2000 | PG-13 | - 1.6.4

A botched assignment to commandeer a German U-Boat and steal its message decoder leaves a small American Navy crew aboard a damaged submarine in enemy waters. With Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, Jake Weber, Erik Palladino, Matthew Settle, David Keith, Thomas Kretschmann, Robin Askwith, Terrence 'T.C.' Carson, Derk Cheetwood, Will Estes, Tom Guiry, Jack Noseworthy and Dave Power. [1:55]

SEX/NUDITY 1 - A little mild sexual innuendo. We see some shirtless men.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - In an extended scene people exchange gunfire and many are shot (most fall to the ground or fall overboard with no bloody wounds visible, but some are shot at close range and we see some bloody holes on their shirts). Two men shoot each other in the chest and stomach (both have bloody mouths and bloody holes in their shirts) and one of them dies. Many civilians in a boat are gunned down (we don't see anyone shot, but we see shots fired at the boat); also, several people on another boat are shot at but not hit. It's implied that a man hits another with an object and kills him. Someone is pinned underwater and drowns; also a rescued man coughs up a lot of water but is otherwise fine. A man punches another, a man grabs another's shirt and pushes him against a wall, and a man kicks another until he's unconscious (the man has a bloody mouth). In two different scenes, a boat is bombed and destroyed in several large explosions; during one of the scenes we see a few bodies flying through the air and many people knocked down or thrown into the water. Several scenes during which lots of bombs explode underwater near a submarine, causing the ship to rock (sometimes violently) and men to fall into walls and on the deck (we see the men with bloody facial cuts after one bombing); a few times bombs hit a submarine, causing water leakage and a fire (one man is engulfed in flames, and when the fire is extinguished we see a couple of charred bodies lying on the floor). We see a ship explode underwater, and we see a ship's upper deck bombed. Some threatening with guns. We see a corpse with a bloody mouth, a corpse's bloody hand and some corpses floating in the water (including a man with a bloody head wound who later sinks and a man wrapped in a blanket who struggles to get free but eventually sinks).

LANGUAGE 4 - A couple of anatomical references (one is seen in a subtitle), many scatological references (one is seen in a subtitle), lots of mild obscenities and some insults.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - World War II, submarine and hand-to-hand combat, risking/sacrificing one's life for the war effort, proving one's capabilities, challenges, bravery.

MESSAGE - Never give up, even when the odds are against you. Believing in your capabilities (and everyone else's) is the key to success.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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