The end is near dear reader. I calculate, 16 film reviews! Before that, review number 15 is a film that splits audiences in a seismic way. So I heard once that the idiocy behind the re positioning of history called ‘The Bowling Green Massacre’,  began from a singular event. That event was 2000 film U-571. Ostensibly a film about the heroics of the Allied forces in the Second World War, it actually misrepresented history in a rather dubious way. The Hollywood version is that a team of U.S. soldiers, given a secret mission to sneak aboard a disabled German U-Boat, in order to steal an encryption device called Enigma, were the first to do so. These brave boys, played by Matthew McCaughney, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel and Jon Bon Jovi, were national heroes and save the Allies. This version ramps up the tension with a side swipe…The Nazi’s have a sting in their tale, more are on the way to answer the S.O.S.

The film does make a case for correcting the history then as now. The extras (all I believe have been before) deal with this matter, the commentary at great length. But it still makes for a bitter taste. The film seems to play fast and loose with the truth and misses an essential point, the war dead aren’t a commodity. They should be remembered. Not idolised or commodified. No matter how good the new restoration is, the commentary pleads its case, the film delivers with action, it falls because it does something so heinous, that todays world is almost a product of, that it cant be forgiven.

• Behind the Scenes
• Featurette: Construction of U-571
• Featurette: Capture of U-110
• Interview with Jonathan Mostow
• Interview with Matthew McConaughey
• Interview with Jon Bon Jovi
• Interview with Bill Paxton
• Audio Commentary with Director Jonathan Mostow