U-571
This one is just in the can [6-1-99] but it's probably Jake's longest shooting film. They started in January 1999 and were scheduled to go through May 1999. It's a WWII thriller where a group of Americans try to steal an enigma coding device from the Germans. Unclear which side Jake is on. However, he probably is one of the Americans. He plays a Lt. Hirsch.
4-21-00 It starts out a little slow but does build to a rather intense ending. As mentioned in the initial blurb, Jake's character is Lt. Hirsch. [What is with Jake and his mono-named characters? In Meet Joe Black, his character was just 'Drew'. Heck, the cook has a first and last name in this movie!] His hair was brownish blonde, just the way I like it. He's still fit and trim and looked eternally youthful. The main character is Matthew McConaughey's Lt Tyler. Harvey Keitel's 'Chief' interracts with Tyler a lot and Jon Bon Jovi plays Pete Emmit - Tyler's best friend. He doesn't do that much. One of the stiffest characters, who doesn't last very long, was Bill Paxton's Captain. To me, Tyler and Hirsch are the two characters who actually come a long ways by the end of the movie.
Tyler starts out a little po'd and maybe a little too chummy with the sailors under him. He has just learned that his Captain has axed his request to become Captain himself. Turns out that the Captain doesn't think that Tyler has what it takes to be a Captain. By the end, Tyler does learn what it takes to be a true commander.
Hirsch starts out quietly confident. It's never explained in the movie, and maybe military people would know, but Jake's character, while an officer, is not a soldier. The book explains that his character was a Naval Reserve Officer attached to Intelligence. He knows he has a very important mission to carry out and is confident in the knowledge he carries.
Hirsh does get butterflies when they are going over in two rafts to the German sub. He fidgets with his hand weapon and he freezes when he's supposed to respond to the German sailors asking questions. He does snap out of it though.
I'm not a German expert but I thought he sounded good. He spoke it as if it were a second language - smooth, no hestitation. He also is so cute. You can really see the cleft in his chin. I thought it a little odd that even though he wasn't a sailor, that he was allowed to have his bangs long. It wasn't obvious until he got all wet. It was almost split in the middle but he had slicked back so it looked short and neat.
An amusing scene was to see Hirsch and Major Coonan [David Keith] looking a little tense as the sub springs leaks here and there as they go down. They seem to be asking each other silently - will we make it out of port? Another amusing part was at a small dining table where Hirsch and Coonan seem non-plussed on how to eat since the dishes keep sliding as the sub lists back and forth.
It almost looks as if some of the actors lost weight during the movie. They look one way at the beginning and while all the action goes on, it looks like they're a teensy bit skinnier. I'm thinking of our Jake and McConaughey.
I don't know how they all didn't look like green frogs in the rafts. Those rafts were really moving like they were segmented, that's how bad the waves were. Jake didn't look too good in the odd hat that the German soldiers wore.
In any event, a small group is left on the German sub while German prisoners are taken over the US sub, which then gets torpedo'd by a German ship. The small US crew has to take cover in the German sub and dive to protect themselves. Since everything is in German, Hirsch and Wentz get split up to assist other crew members read the controls.
Hirsch has obviously never had to do such physical work but he helps out in whatever way that he can.
Tyler, once they realize that the Captain is dead, takes over command and has to be chastized by the Chief for saying three wrong words - I don't know. He is torn up over the death of a couple sailors and of those on the US sub but he slowly realizes that if they are to have a chance, he has to stow it and command.
Everybody gets buffeted around in the small interior of the sub when it gets hit by bombs being dropped by the German ship. Hirsch has to help out with leaking valves and more translation of written identification on the parts of the sub.
Hirsch's understanding of the importance of his mission, as well as the information he carries as part of his attachment to military intelligence leads to a gut-check scene for him when he must explain to Tyler that if a rather last ditch effort Tyler devises doesn't work, Tyler will have to make sure that none of them live.
The capping point for Tyler is deciding which of the young sailors must go down in the bilge to help turn off a leaking valve so that the last torpedo can be shot off. That sailor ends up dying.
The capping point for Hirsch is when Emmitt says he is picking up Morse code. Hirsch listens and then gets a rather angry look on his face and takes off. The others watch and Wentz finally tells them that it's saying - I am U-571 - destroy me. Turns out, it's a German prisoner that Tyler, for some inexplicable reason, allowed to live, even after that prisoner sabotauged the sub and killed a sailor. Well, Hirsch takes care of him. When he returns to the main area, he has a splatter of blood on his cheek. He's learned to become a soldier the hard way.
Needless to say, the handful of sailors do make it and are in one of the rafts and rescued when a US plane spots them. The end credits do pay homage to British ships and on US ship that captured Enigma devices during WWII.
I personally thought that Jake looked gorgeous soaking wet, smudged with soot, his hair disheveled. I thought he looked better then McConaughey. But then, I'm biased.
5-7-00: Yes, I'm a nut I saw it a second time and I must say that I enjoyed it better the second time. Bill Paxton didn't seem that stiff but McConaughey's make-up in the beginning was too much. However, I was able to see when JBV got decapitated and I noticed that Hirsch was on the edge of the sub handing items to Coonan, who was the only one in the raft. He got blasted by the bits of the S-33 when it got blown up. Hirsch looked frightened in a corner of the sub when they were trying to figure out how to operate the sub. Tyler had to order him to help Tank read the stuff in the engine room. And I noticed when Tyler ordered Hirsch to help Rabbit in the torpedo room. Hirsch was also the one who was paired with Rabbit in loading Mazzola into the tube. I also noticed that Jake was the tallest one of the lot. It must have been difficult for him to run around the sub. Oh, and continuity problems, early on, he's got soot on his face. That's fine. Then, all of a sudden - whoosh, all gone. Also, everyone else got dinged from being banged around. But Jake? Not a scratch.
Link to review of U-571 Shock! Someone actually noticed Jake's performance and how good it was. Finally.