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Review by Marc Ashdown |
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DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Scene selection and subtitles.
THE AMERICANS gave us their view of how World War II was won in the shape
of last summer's blockbusting U-571, and now it's the turn of the Brits to
set the record straight.
While Hollywood would have us all believe a crack team of chisel-jawed marines safeguarded the free world with their high-sea heroics, in truth, the key to cracking the German Enigma coding machine was buried deep within a hut 60 miles north of London.
Not as exciting, gung-ho or action-packed as its US counterpart, Enigma is quintessentially English and very slowly and politely corrects the US delusions with a steadily-paced potboiler which unravels with as many twists, turns and bluffs as its title would suggest. Which is admirable and serves as an apt-reminder of the almost insulting artistic liberty mainstream films like U-571 take these days; but also, poses the question of why do they do it in the first place.
Having truth on one's side by no means makes a good film and sadly, while an honourable attempt to hail the bra