Das Boot

[Omega]

I just finished watching it for the first time. What an amazing film. I think it's going to stick with me for a long time.

This describes it perfectly IMO:

Das Boot is not just a great war film: it's a great film period. Maybe it is true that epic themes make the greatest novels and films. Here is a movie that explores heroism, duty, patriotism, hope, fear and the futility of war--all grand themes--explored in the confined, and collapsing, spaces of a German u-boat.

I saw this film when I was a freshman in college during a weekend that I later dubbed my "depressing movie festival." (The Wall and Apocalypse Now were the other weekend "entries.") Of these films, it was Das Boot that haunted me--when I laid down at night, I saw Jurgen Proctow's pained blue eyes. When I woke in the morning, I felt as if I were escaping through the hatch of the submarine. I could not shake the images, and now some fifteen years later, I still remember how completely meaningless the movie made everything seem, and the nihilistic message stayed with me for a long, long time. How few films are there which affect the viewers on this level. To say this film is "powerful" seems so weak a description.

Part of the "power" of the film comes, I think, from a certain restraint in the direction. So often, films which aspire to move the audience quickly fall into melodrama, over-acting, and overblown images. Too much. These often succeed in the immediate response (usually crying) but fail to impact the viewer on anything more than a surface level. Here, it is the small moments which fill the screen. Everywhere, all around is War, but for these men as we witness them, war does not begin with a capital "W". It is reality, not a grand concept. The director lets the story shock and horrify the audience, not by forcing it, but by letting the story just tell itself. Drama, tension and resolution occur naturally in Das Boot, which contributes to the very real impact of the film.

Story is a 10, direction is a 10, acting is a 10 and the cinematography is a 10. One of the all-time greatest films.

If you haven't yet seen it yet, do it ASAP. Good lord I am at a loss for words at the moment...


Can anyone here relate to me?

[Red Tampon]

Yeah my dad made me watch it when I was in highschool. Great movie.

[Havok]

Watched it the other day.

(Yeah, I bumped an old topic, so what? :P)

Definitely in my list of 10 greatest films, probably #1 at the moment.

P.S. He really did have peircing blue eyes, he was a brilliant actor, especially when they're in Gibraltar and he looks deranged.

[Omega]

Which version did you see, Havok (regular or extended, the latter being just under 5 hours)?

[Havok]

The one that lasted around 3 hours. Can't remember. All I know is it started around 10/11 and ended around 2AM. Ended with him leaning on the rope-thing watching the ship sink.

[Omega]

Gotcha. I watched the same one.

[Havok]

"They're nothing but young children full of hot air."

I'll remember those eyes for the rest of my life. It's in my joint top three with Saving Private Ryan and the Green Mile.

[EvInReaLife]

I think i might have to rent this...

[Italian Jew]

lol

crazy kids and not seeing this movie...zomg...its a classic

[Omega]

lol

crazy kids and not seeing this movie...zomg...its a classic

tbh it's a movie you have to see before you die. Actually, it'd be best to see it when you're in your deathbed, the message of the movie will be most clear then.