One of the true highlights of 1980s cinema and still a majestic piece of filmmaking, Das Boot is an odyssey of survival, desperation and human tragedy. If you only know Das Boot from the slashed 90 minute version, or even the 200 min Directors Cut, then the full mini-series experience will leave you awestruck.
Films made about WWII from the German perspective are few and far between and ones that remain in the memory after the credits have rolled are a rare treat indeed. Wo... more >
Films made about WWII from the German perspective are few and far between and ones that remain in the memory after the credits have rolled are a rare treat indeed. Wolfgang Peterson became an overnight sensation and the toast of European cinema with this claustrophobic portrayal of life aboard U-96, one of the submarines stalking the Allied shipping convoys in the cruel sea of the North Atlantic in 1941. Taken from the gripping novel of the same name by Lothar G. Buchheim the story is an intrepid and gruelling tale of life aboard a U-boat from the perspective of a journalist sent by the Nazi hierarchy to report on the heroic exploits of the Reich’s ‘Grey Wolves’.
One of the true highlights of 1980s cinema and still a majestic piece of filmmaking, Das Boot is an odyssey of survival, desperation and human tragedy, all tinged with grim male humour (sweat, crabs and ‘hairy’steak) boredom, and hum-drum daily life only fractured by bursts of intense excitement when the Allied convoys come into view. The clean-cut crew set off from the French port of La Rochelle in boisterous and carefree high spirits to slowly degenerate into bearded, bedraggled seadogs that chase freighters, dodge depth charges and each other. Das Boot is a truly authentic vision of one of the most terrifying confined spaces imaginable. The atmosphere is smothering, cloying and relentless.
Petersen’s camera zooms up and down the submarine through hatches and corridors to incredible effect. The rolling ocean, the churn of the propeller and the ping of the radar punctuate the film with consummate dread. Add to this the stirring musical score by Klaus Doldinger and the entire soundtrack is an aural delight. Jurgen Prochnow has never bettered his role as the inscrutable Kapitan, the cynical, embittered leader of the ship, he prowls around the boat keeping men and minds together, a father-figure barking orders and glowering at anyone not pulling their weight. The entire supporting cast are also without fault and the ensemble acting is impeccable, especially the spectral Gollum-like Erwin Leder as the ship’s haunted engineer Johann.
If you only know Das Boot from the slashed, and basically criminal 90 minute version, or even the 200 min Directors Cut, then the full mini-series experience will leave you awestruck, thoroughly engrossed and glued to the screen. Originally broadcast as six 50 minute episodes, this full version of nearly five hours is compulsive viewing, far more satisfying, and the ultimate fate of the crew is rendered all the more crushing by the longer time spent in their company.
Nominated for six Oscars in 1982, Wolfgang Peterson and Das Boot lost out, with the gongs awarded to Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi and Costa-Gavras’s Missing in the Directorial and Screenplay awards respectively. A sad oversight, (as the Oscars track record often testifies) as Das Boot has aged far better than both movies. Not only is it one of the greatest portraits of war, it is possibly the finest WWII movie ever made. Certainly, alongside Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron (1977) it is a key study of the human condition, relationships under stress and the futility of combat. Das Boot is one of Europe’s finest genre cinema offerings from the last 25 years. Essential.
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