U-571 and the Call of Duty

Joseph got me this movie for Christmas a couple of years ago. One of the things that impressed me in watching and re-watching it has to do with a pivotal scene near the end of the movie where a young crewman is ordered to swim in the bilge to shut off a leaking air valve which is endangering the whole crew.

As you will recall, young Lt. Tyler (portrayed by Matthew McConaughey) has been turned down for a promotion to skipper his own boat because his senior officer is unsure the younger officer can make life or death decisions on behalf of his subordinates when it is crunch time.

As the story develops, he is thrown into the position of skipper in the heat of battle when his own skipper is killed during their mission. In the ensuing attempt to get the boat and crew to safety, Tyler finds himself facing the demons that the older skipper warned him of. The situation with the leaky valve is one of the make-or-break decisions that "gel" him as the commander. After a failed attempt to find the valve, the young seaman complains to Lt. Tyler that he "can't do it." Tyler responds that he has to do it, that the lives of the entire crew depend on him doing what was ordered. I very well remember Tyler's order for the seaman to get back in the bilge and "do your job." The seaman obeys and his courage ends up saving the crew, though it cost him his own life in the process, drowning in the sub's bilge.

Duty has lost favor in our "do what floats your boat" world. Christians bend over backward to stress that we obey Jesus "because we love him... because we want to, not because we have to." I have heard duty talked down as a proper motivation for a follower of Jesus. In Jesus' world, love involves duty. It does not exclude it. Perhaps it is because of the absence of duty that today's "love" is so shallow.