Film: Das Boot
Release date: 21st December 1998
Certificate: 15
Running time: 200 mins
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge
Genre: Action/Drama/History/War
Studio: Sony
Format: DVD
Country: West Germany
Das Boot begins with a startling statistic: “40,000 German sailors served on U-boats during World War II. 30,000 never returned.” Only seconds in you have some idea of what you’re in for, a film that is representing 30,000 dead sailors is not going to be light entertainment; family fun it is not. Lauded as one of the best world cinema films ever made, The Director's Cut DVD edition adds further intensity to the running time. At 200 minutes long it may cause some to assume it somewhat tedious, but it is a solid 200 minutes of filmmaking at its best.
Based on the 1973 bestselling novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, Das Boot charts the survival of the crew of a Nazi German U-Boat during 1941. It was a time when the British freights were winning the battle of the seas and causing mass damage amongst the German U-boats, a fact ignored by the Fuhrer with constant propaganda encouragement aimed at younger men looking to join the war effort. And this is where the film begins.
A colossal booze up is taking place amongst the new recruits, young men deluded into thinking they will be joining the glamorous lifestyle aboard the U-boat submarines where the smell of clean cut heroism is afloat and victory not far from hand. This is quickly dampened by the captain of Das Boot’s central crew and Thomsen, another of the crew’s captains. Both men inflict their cynicism upon the party, Thomsen smartly dicing his speech with anti-Nazi comments. It becomes clear both men have fought in this war prior and know the true face of it. It is a forbearer for what this drunken yet bright eyed young crew are to become…
Once the narrative takes us aboard the U-boat, the story of these men and their survival takes us under its slow boiling wing. The camera that was minutes ago sweeping around a French club with sailors stumbling from table to table, is suddenly caged in this metal tube which is filled to the brim with said men. It makes for a brilliant juxtaposition, completely justifying the opening scene of the film, showing the contrast between the two worlds. As the U-boat continues its journey we are treated to a mixture of adrenaline fuelled action sequences with the dropping of depth charges, to the simplistic everyday life of the mess hall, with a sailor sat in his bed picking his nose. Moments of boredom are somehow worked into something fascinating, Wolfgang Peterson switching from film making ploys of documentary-like camera work to suddenly altering to action film manoeuvres during the attack of the British freights.
To keep the realism levels as high as possible, Wolfgang Peterson actually had the U-boat recreated with no removable walls - the cast and crew shut away in the life-like replica for a year’s worth of shooting. It shows wonderfully - the actors fatigue growing with their beards, their pallor paling as the film continues. It is a fact that could have also brought out the stellar performance from Jürgen Prochnow playing the captain - a performance of weariness and lost hopes yet with the weight of the entire ship’s crew hanging behind his tired eyes.
With the lengthy run time, the heightened realism, and the documentary-like filming, the alignment between the audience and the characters is brought to a level not many films have ever achieved. We feel their panic, we sense their boredom, and we grimace during their pain. It is a powerhouse of emotion, a fact that would not easily be accepted when linked to a film that follows a band of Nazis. But the brilliance of Das Boot is that it does not focus upon this point - prejudices and stereotypes are put aside, and the Nazis being the main hate figure of our modern era is not a focal point of the narrative. It simply devolves into a human story of survival and bitter experience amongst men trapped within the war effort, a story that is brutally climaxed in an unexpected finale.
Das Boot is ‘the’ tough man film - a masterpiece of cinema brimming with incredibly tense nail biting moments with men being pushed to the brink of their sanity during the unthinkable times of war. It is rightly is celebrated as one of the best world cinema films of all time. JCH
