U-429 - Senza via di fuga

This movie slipped by in the U.S. theaters, with DVD release only, so I found out about it from a U-Boat movie recruit friend. With William H. Macy, Til Schweiger, and Thomas Kretschmann (the latter now well known for his role in "The Pianist" there is no excuse for no release.

The details are well documented in other reviews. I have seen many such films, in German and English. After watching half in English, I purchased a copy in German (well-dubbed). I tend to find such films more convincing (easier to suspend disbelief), although the down side there is seeing American actors speaking perfect German. Well, perhaps there will come a copy someday with appropriate subtitles.

Of course, the film that really shows U-Boat conditions is the film Das Boot. I do not know the budget of this film, but the cramped quarters, filth, and unseemly conditions were not part of the budget.

However, the decision of the Kaleun (Kapitän-Leutnant) Schweiger to take on American prisoners (against Oberkommando des Kriegsmarines orders), deal with the inevitable conflict--American soldiers and sailors were well-indoctrinated to hate Germans--after the certain death of his daughter to Allied bombing is more than touching.

Kretschmann's performance is especially noteworthy. Although he once wanted an American Hollywood acting career, and has most frequently been cast as a German military man, all of these performances have been quite different, a testimony to some real acting skill. He has it in spades. Til Schweiger is, as I have read, a "matinee idol"--he does not have to act.

To war film afficionados, most highly recommended, to those who wish to see some great German actors, also highly recommended, and finally, to fans of William H. Macy, a guaranteed pleasure. There is enough WW2 period ambiance to keep this film in suspense.

In my opinion there are only a couple of submarine movies that are more than just worth a watch. One of them is "The Hunt for Red October", which was situated in the cold war and the other one is "Das Boot", situated in the Second World War. The last one of the two will always be my favorite, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to see more movies about submarines in WWII. That's how I once saw "U-571", which I really didn't like (read my review if you want to know why) and that's also the reason why I got this one in my hands.

"In Enemy Hands" tells the story of the crew of the U.S.S. Swordfish. They are heading home after being months at sea, but they never make it to land. They are taken aboard the German U-boat 429 as prisoners of war. Because one of them was sick, now both crews are infected and many of them die. The only way to survive is to co-operate and so they join their German colleagues in the daily routine and handling of the U-boat...

In my opinion there are two ways to watch this movie: either you judge it by it's historical accuracy, either you see it as a fictional story. If I do the first, than I can only conclude that this is a very disappointing movie. Why? Well for starters: The German U-boats had their orders never not to take prisoners of war, they left everybody to die at the ocean. That may sound very cruel, but it's very understandable if you think about the fact that these extra people had to be fed and that they would breath the little air that was so needed by the original crew. So if you start with that idea, you know that the entire movie can't be real. And even when it could have happened, than it's very doubtful that the Germans would have allowed the Americans to help them steering their boat...

So let's see it as a fictional story then. In that case I must say it isn't the worst movie ever. At first it is a bit slow, but when the action starts and they have to fight for their lives together, this becomes an interesting movie. The acting isn't bad and what I really appreciated is the fact that the Germans really spoke German and not English with some fake German accent. Overall this is an entertaining movie that is worth a watch, but it just isn't the best example of submarine movies. I give it a 6.5/10

Every movie doesn't have to be academy award material. In fact many if not most movies try to be entertaining with interesting ideas. This is one of those movies. A WWII submarine backdrop that forces an alliances between two fighting sides for mutual survival. Ya, sub experts can pick apart some of the tech and tactics but that's not the point of the movie. It's like going to a stage play and picking apart the stage props as not being realistic. It's not the stage but the story that is interesting in this movie. As the world faces global warming, expensive energy, nuclear issues we all can take a lessen that working together to solve our problems would be far more productive than trying to kill each other (the under lying story of this movie).

The acting's is matched by the mediocre writing at first I thought the movie hadn't been completed, rather unpolished and crudely acted. The commander of the U.S. submarine may have damaged his back while "throwing his chest out" in lieu of acting. Almost every scene is nothing more than a cliche' of all other underwater adventures, after painfully reading and rereading the reviews which seem to be apologies exceeded by previous entries. Why all the fuss and excuses, venturing a guess there is none? Could I find the patience or desire to finish this story having read and watched similar, perhaps the more youthful critics will have the endurance to tolerate these flaws no doubt they may have "hero's" and be more forgiving.

I just rented this film (on DVD) because I liked the cast. In the case of William H Macy, I just trust his choice in scripts. Whatever he chooses to play, should I choose to watch. We seem to have the same taste somehow. So I hoped it would work again with this film.

I'm not interested in submarines, I'm not eager to watch films set in any war, I'm not even particularly fond of Til Schweiger, our German heartthrob, although Thomas Kretschmann is definitely an interesting actor. One to watch, believe me. But still this film fascinated me. So trusting Macy's choice worked once again.

The story had a couple of twists which I always like, dialogue in two languages (one third German, two thirds English) which is even better, and quite well developed (main) characters. All this makes a good film, not brilliant, but good. Good craftsmanship. I liked the German actors's "natural" accents, thankfully they were not forced to have worse accents than they normally have. And I liked in particular that at least in the leading roles it were Germans the filmmakers hired and not some Swedes, Americans or Britons replacing them like in other films like Ronin (Swede= Stellan Skarsgard) or Die Hard (Briton= Alan Rickman).

So, I think I can recommend this film, even to people outside the probable target group of young men. This film is not so much about war and fighting, but about the possibility of enemies working together and even becoming friends if you get the chance to get to know each other better and realizing, we are all humans after all.

8 out of 10.