PTAbro's World Tour Stop 6: West Germany
It's one thing to fill a 90 minute film with relentless action, interesting and sympathetic characters, and a relatively fresh perspective on WWII, but to stretch that to 3.5 hours? And contain that action to little more than three small rooms? It's an amazing feat that Das Boot pulls off, and is justifiably labeled as not only one of the best German films ever made, but one of the best war films ever…
One of the most gut-wrenching and claustrophobic experiences you will ever encounter! Everything about it was so real, so genuine, so authentic! With each sonar ping I felt terror grip my heart like a vise squeezing it tighter and tighter! The psychological tension was so overwhelming at times it was almost unbearable!
I've seen quite a few submarine films in my day and Das Boot is quite frankly the best of the best!
Its realistic portrayal of the men made…
Das Boot is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen and stars Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. Set in WWII, the story follows a German submarine U-96 and its crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol during the Battle of the Atlantic.
This weeks Film Club pick, brought to us by the ever brilliant Michael, was Das Boot. A German war “masterpiece” I was yet to see. However, sadly the theatrical…
One of the greatest films ever made, Das Boot is a sheer masterpiece of unrelenting terror that makes impeccable use of its claustrophobic atmosphere, nerve-wracking tension & nail-biting suspense to cement its spot amongst the finest examples of its genre and is arguably the very pinnacle of German cinema.
Set during World War II, the story concerns the crew of a German U-boat as they head out to the sea to seek & destroy Allied ships. The plot covers their initial excitement…
"Das Boot" isn't your prototypical World War II film. It's an endurance test. The three and a half hour runtime is a purposefully gruelling experience. Every clang, every piston that churns, every bolt that springs free from the intense pressure of the cold depths of Davey Jones' locker eats away at your nerves. This isn't a film where valiant soldiers go about their merry way on some gallant quest to defeat their enemy. This is a film about survival. It's…
Up there with Frankenheimer's The Train as one of the great movies about the ground-level wartime mechanics of history; the labor and procedure of steamy oil-covered machinery, the sweat and blood of professionals that make it run, etc. The claustrophobic photography by Jost Vacano (Paul Verhoeven's DP who also shot his WWII drama Soldier of Orange a few years earlier) is some of the best you'll ever see in this kind of movie. The borderline documentary attention to detail on…
Cinematic Time Capsule
1981 Marathon - Film #99
”We can only take so much pressure before the boat’s crushed.”
Phenomenal Filmmaking!
No CGI, No Steadicam, and not a single luxury! But Wolfgang Petersen was still able to create what is easily one of the best and most intense submarine movies of all-time.
Every moan, creak and ping will have you on the edge of your seat as this film works it’s magic and leaves you feeling more claustrophobic than Andre…
Transmitting its anti-war message in impressively poignant fashion throughout its generous runtime, Wolfgang Peterson‘s submarine drama Das Boot conveys an intensely claustrophobic world on-board a German U-boat occupied by a principally unprepared crew as it sets about a hazardous patrol during the battle of the Atlantic during 1941.
We get to learn a great deal about the personnel as we go through experiences with the crew on U-96 during the films three and a half hour runtime; consequently, it's impossible…
No wonder the Germans lost the war. Too much beard tugging and defeatism.
I literally just spent 150 mins championing for a bunch of Nazis... Now I'm just waiting for Rod Serling to tell me I walk into the Twilight Zone.
Jokes aside, I can see why people rave this film. There's a constant sense of doom and tension that impregnate this movie. Something both the acting and the direction captures in such a splendid way. The score also helps accentuate all these feelings with its balance of epic orchestra that starts very…
"How long is Das Boot, exactly?"
I'm not sure where Mark got his copy because I'm not aware of a four and a half hour long version. There's a five hour version, but that's not the one I watched, which was the three and a half hour version they have on Mubi currently.
It's one of those films where there are about half a million dozen different versions knocking about and where nobody can agree on what the best version…
Everything I wanted to say, I've already said when I reviewed Das Boot (1985). I can call it a rewatch since it is the shorter version of what I watched last month. Even though it is shorter in length, the sea is still as vast and scary as I remember it.
Starts with an enthusiastic group following war orders and ends up being a mere tale of survival. Thus, begins an endless cycle of tension and struggle. Cigarettes, laughter, stories…