Das Boot - The Director's Cut

As a young German officer, Lothar-Gûnther Buchheim was assigned to join a U-boat patrol in the Atlantic and write a morale-boosting account of its mission. This experience provided the basis for his 1973 novel, Das Boot, which inspired this film. Buchheim also wrote a trilogy of non-fiction books about the Battle of the Atlantic, the first of which is available in English translation ( U-Boat War [1986]).In its day, Das Boot was one of the most expensive films ever produced. Most of the money went into the sets. Especially noteworthy is the set for the U-boat's interior, which was carefully constructed to replicate all the equipment of a real submarine, and mounted on a gimbal that could impart movements to simulate waves, dives, and depth charges. The set was engineered so that water could rush in and fire could break out in its confines. The camera man was forced to work in very restricted spaces and dash through the set filming the actors with his special gyro-stabilized camera. As portrayed in Das Boot, sailors were a diverse lot, but in crises they set their varying personalities and political philosophies aside and assume their assigned roles. They take some satisfaction from sinking ships, but this is tempered by discomfort or remorse over the merchant seamen they killed. U-boat existence was dispiriting, with long periods of boredom alternating with sheer terror as crewmen fought against an unseen enemy for their very lives. Casting is excellent, especially compelling is Jurgen Prochnow as the steely-eyed captain. Herbert Grönemeyer as the young correspondent Werner [i.e., Buchheim], and Klaus Wennermann as the Chief Engineer give strong performances. Hubertus Bengsch and Martin Semmelrogge give credibility to the First and Second Watch Officers, respectively--two very different characters. The sound effects, enhanced in the most recent versions, make you feel you are actually on the boat.Several versions of Das Boot have been released. The 150-minute theater version (1981), the 209-minute Director's Cut version (1997), and the 293-minute version, Das Boot - The Original Uncut Version (2004), from which a six-episode television series was derived. The 293-minute version provides more information about individual crew members and everyday life on the ship. The 209-minute version gives insights into the officers' personalities (but neglects the other crewmen). The 150-minute theater version concentrates on action scenes. The nature of your interests may determine which version you prefer. The Director's Cut version offers the original German audio as well as dubbed English and Spanish, with subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French. Extras include a feature about the making of the film, and voice-over commentary by the director and others.In one of the peripherals (The Making of Das Boot), star Jurgen Prochnow asserts, "The whole thing happened. That's a true story--exactly like it was." That is not entirely true. The U-96 actually sailed from St. Nazaire, not La Rochelle. If the U-96's crew were optimistic in setting out at the beginning of the film (October 1941), it was not due to their inexperience, but because the U-96 had already survived six patrols, and a patrol was not yet the semi-suicidal venture it was later to become. British anti-submarine measures had become much more effective by late 1941, but the U-boats responded by moving their operations away from the most heavily patrolled seas. Sinkings by U-boats did not peak until November 1942. The decisive turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic actually came in May 1943, when over 40 U-boats were lost (compared with 4 lost in November 1941). In real life, U-96's periscope would have been raised to a level at which the captain's view was not obscured by waves; and almost every encounter with British anti-submarine vessels would have featured the pinging of the asdic apparatus they used to locate submerged U-boats. In the film, messages are decoded with a four-rotor Enigma machine; but the German navy actually continued using three-rotor machines until February 1942.But all this is small-minded nitpicking. Das Boot is not intended to be a reenactment of a particular patrol; it is, rather, a microcosm of the whole U-boat war. Yet, in many ways, the film closely follows the U-96's seventh patrol (Oct. 27, 1941-Dec. 6, 1941). The U-96 was an actual ship; and it really had for its emblem the laughing sawfish that appears on the conning tower of the movie vessel. The harbor scenes were shot in World War II era German submarine bunkers. Bread and fresh produce customarily were tucked into every available space when a U-boat was provisioned. Bucheim really did take thousands of photographs while on board. The unscheduled encounter with another U-boat (U-572) actually did take place--Buchheim's photo of the event is reproduced on the cover of Time-Life's The Battle of the Atlantic (1977). And many U-boats were ordered to the Mediterranean (by Hitler himself) to protect ships carrying supplies to German forces in Africa.Viewers might assume that, in diving to depths of 150 meters and below, U-boats were senselessly courting disaster. In fact, there were reasons for doing so. During the first two years of the war, the British did not realize the depths to which U-boats could dive. Thus, U-boats could dive well below the depths at which depth charges were set to explode. It was only after they captured U-570 in the summer of 1941 that the British discovered their mistake and set their depth charges to explode at deeper depths. Apart from this factor, the increased water pressure at greater depths confined the explosive impact of depth charges. In other words, at greater depths, depth charges had to explode closer to a U-boat in order to be effective. Needless to say, the greater the depth to which a U-boat dived, the more difficult it became for anti-submarine vessels to locate it precisely (asdic was not infallible), and to set their depth charges to explode in sufficient proximity to damage the U-boat.It appears that the film's principal characters were based to some extent on their real-life equivalents. "Leutnant Werner" represents Buchheim himself, a young man who found U-boat life much more harrowing than he imagined. The captain is based on Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, one of the top U-boat "aces," who had joined the navy in the pre-Nazi years and may have been among the navy officers who were not imbued with Nazism. The pro-Nazi First Watch Officer was clearly patterned on Gerhard Groth, who was born in Mexico. The film portrays the Second Watch Officer, who evidently represents Werner Hermann, as a rather irreverent and mischievous person--and Hermann's cadet class was remembered for its pranks. Judging by photographs, Bengsch (cast as Groth) and Semmelrogge (cast as Herman) may have been selected for their physical resemblance to the characters they portrayed. The Chief Engineer was probably based on Friedrich-Wilhelm Grade. Apparently, all of these men survived the war.From a German perspective, only 10 U-boats were more successful than the U-96. After 11 patrols, it became a training vessel, and it survived until it was destroyed by American bombs in March 1945. In the course of the war, not a single crew member died in combat on the U-96. In real life, U-96 was a lucky boat.

I'll say it again. This is the best submarine movie that will ever be made.It's not because of the setting, its unique perspective or even its staggering amount of technical accuracy.It takes this title because of the atmosphere it constructs.No other submarine movie builds the feeling of a damp, smelly and claustrophobic machine like this movie does. This is a pure understatement.This movie is so well shot, so well detailed, so well paced and so complete of an experience that you will immerse yourself in the environment. You are there. You aren't distracted by dozens of familiar actors faces. If you don't speak German, the correct language of the crew being spoken will add another layer of immersion instead of having to grit your teeth against hokey accents.Often films leave you feeling that outside of the periphery of the camera lens, there's a studio. This movie, like so few other films give you a sense that the rest of the Second World War is happening even where the camera isn't pointed.This movie, unlike any other submarine movie has an almost obsessive level of technical accuracy. Nothing looks like a set. This is the interior of a Type VIIc U-boat. Nothing looks out of place, nothing looks fake. Bulkheads look cold, heavy and coated in both grime and moisture. Dials and lightbulbs seem to be full of condensation. The air doesn't look to be filled with movie smoke. It looks thick with the smell of grease, sweat, oil, paint, diesel fuel. The blankets and clothes look constantly damp. The actors, pasty and filthy like real sailors kept out the the sun for months at a time.This movie was created in an era before CGI. As such it relies heavily on well detailed and painstakingly created miniatures to recreate the presence of ships long scrapped or sunk. They have held up against the test of time and still look convincing to this day. You'd be hard pressed to tell the 36 foot miniature model of the boat from the two 18 foot models used in the making of the film.Now the meat and potatoes. The crew. A first time viewer of the movie will be acutely aware that these Kriegsmarine sailors are the enemy. They are the bad guys. These are the guys everybody's grandfather punched in the face on Omaha Beach, right? Who can blame anyone for thinking this at first. When we first meet the crew, they're clean shaven, wearing their dress uniforms and tearing up occupied France on leave in drunken celebration. But, as the film progresses, you almost lose track of the time period. Of the larger war. What were once a sea of young, idealistic faces eager for action are now sprouting unkempt beards. The service uniforms become slowly replaced with the more comfortable civilian attire from deeper in the sea bags. Neckties give way to what look like scarves and hats made by family members. You don't get backstory (in the Directors Cut that is) on any of the characters. Each is introduced with little or no explanation. You only get to glean a few details here and there as the day to day conversations and duties aboard the boat are depicted in unrelenting detail.The end result is that like the main character, Werner, you meet the crew and learn the life aboard this submarine through his eyes, and by the end of the movie each face in the crew is now a familiar one. Nobody in this movie is truly an "extra". I must have watched this movie over 30 times in my life and each viewing, I notice a new detail in the background. A sailor trying not to fall out of his bunk in a raging storm can be seen clutching what looks like a scratch built model of the submarine itself fashioned from food cans, was the latest thing I noticed. You watch these guys suffer the monotony of the day to day routine while fruitlessly hunting for convoys in good weather, then accompany them through the hellish experience of a depth charge attack, then another. You follow good men to the breaking point, and watch others distinguish themselves as a member of the team. Nobody looks clueless in the background. Everybody is busy. Be it monitoring the dials and gauges of their post, or checking the batteries in emergency lamps prior to action. Nobody is "arbitrarily turning knobs trying to make it look like they are doing something" right down to the officer inputting data called down from the bridge into the perfectly recreated TVhRe. S3 Torpedo Data Computer accurately inputting the estimated range to the target, before adjusting the maximum torpedo run distance (in hectometers...) and responding with having a "firing solution" as the error lamp can be seen turning off. It is...a wholly immersive experience.You find yourself forgetting who they fight for, or why. You get absorbed in the comraderie, the teamwork and the sheer effort they put into repairing the sub. This isn't U-571 where you tighten the nut on a conn rod cap and say "okay chief give her a go", this is the chief of the boat and two other guys tangled up under one of the diesels literally pulling main bearing caps off to change the main bearings up to their knees in oily seawater. They look like they know what they are doing. You feel like you are watching the real guys do the real thing. I cannot express how utterly reverent this movie is to the history it portrays.If you haven't seen this yet, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and turn the lights off, get comfortable and watch this movie with HEADPHONES on. You hear water rushing past the hull. You hear the electic motors change speed. The subtle music cues often lost in dialogue can be heard in full. The depth charge explosions are ear splitting. The silence being rent by the sound of a bursting bolt is heart-stopping.Sit down, buckle up and enjoy. This is the best submarine movie that will ever be made.

Das Boot is a classic movie. While it is a bit more cerebral than most movies with a wartime theme, this movie is far from boring. The basic plot is simple but there is a complexity to characters that make this a masterpiece. Shown from the perspective of the hunter becoming the hunted and the removal of all illusions of the glory of war, this is a morality play of perfect proportions. While the story is good, the characters make this movie. The run time is long but worth every minute if the viewer is invested. The special effects are on par for the era that the movie was made and more than adequate for the plot to progress. The themes of the movie are strong and ever present. The director shows the needless waste and horrific cost of war. The sense of duty to one’s country and shipmates, sometimes in conflict, is put on full display. The will to survive coupled with the good and evil in humans. There is an anti-war theme but it’s not over the top. In fact, the director strikes the best balance between duty and individualism I’ve ever seen. There are a lot of interwoven themes in this movie.Das Boot is not for casual movie viewers nor is it likely to appeal to younger generations. The movie is somber but not totally dark. If you’re looking for light entertainment and glib thin plot lines, this is not the movie for you. If you’re looking for complex themes and characters in a movie that will make you think a little, this is for you.

If I could give this movie more stars, I would. Long, but never got boring for me.