In Enemy Hands (2004)

Director:

Tony Giglio

Writers:

John E. Deaver (screenplay)
John E. Deaver (story)

Release Date:

19 February 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | War | Action

Tagline:

Courage, trust and honor. In a time when ordinary men had no choice but to become extraordinary heroes.

Plot:

At the height of Hitler's infamous U-boat war, the crew of the U.S.S. Swordfish were heading home after months at sea...

Plot Keywords:

U Boat | Prisoner Of War | WWII | Split Screen | Admiral

Cast

Til Schweiger	...	U 429: Kapitän Jonas Herdt
Thomas Kretschmann	...	U 429: 1st Watch Officer Ludwig Cremer
Connor Donne	...	U 429: Lt. Bauer (as Conner Donne)
Matt Lindquist	...	U 429: Friedrich
Andy Gatjen	...	U 429: Christophe
Rene Heger	...	Quartermaster Klause
Alex Prusmack	...	U 429: Andreas
Sascha Rosemann	...	U 429: Lars
Justin Thomson	...	U 429 - Wilhem (as Justin Thompson)
Sven-Ole Thorsen	...	U 429: Hans
Scott Caan	...	U.S.S. Swordfish: Lt. Cmdr. Randall Sullivan
Clark Gregg	...	U.S.S. Swordfish: Executive Officer Teddy Goodman
A.J. Buckley	...	U.S.S. Swordfish: Medical Officer
William H. Macy	...	U.S.S. Swordfish: Chief of Boat Nathan Travers
Jeremy Sisto	...	U.S.S. Swordfish: Jason Abers

Also Known As:

U-Boat (Europe: English title) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and language.

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-11 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | USA:R | Australia:M | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Artisan Entertainment

Trivia:

The real USS Swordfish was lost with all hands in the waters around Okinawa. The real U-429 was transferred to the Italian Navy (where it was dubbed the S 4), then served as a training boat for the German Navy following Italy's surrender.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The German submarine that tries to sink the heroes at the end of the movie, U-1221, was nowhere near the northwest Atlantic by the time the movie takes place. It was still in training, most likely in the Baltic Sea. Likewise, the fate of the other German sub, U-821, which sunk USS Swordfish, wasn't to perish in combat by that time - it wasn't even ready to sail, and was sunk some ten months (by aircraft in the Bay of Biscay) after the action in the movie.

Good craftsmanship

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.