Das Boot
Paul Elliott

Review by Paul Elliott Pro

Das Boot 1981

★★★★★

Watched 02 Oct 2020

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 to watch the movie without obtaining a heightened feeling of empathy for the men on board, and the onscreen action takes turns between anxious moments of silence and desperate junctures of enemy engagements, all of which are lustrously captured by the zipping cinematography of Jost Vacano. 

Over and above being a tremendous thriller, it brings about thoughtful proclamations on the nature of humanity along with transparently relinquishing an anti-Nazi attitude as it illustrates the adventurous draftees engaged in working for a cause to which they are not unmitigatedly dedicated. 

It's an extraordinary expedition, and the entire production is dominated by some fabulous acting to accompany the equally excellent writing. The direction also ensures that the viewer is obliged to acquire the knowledge of which crew member labours or rests in each partitioned portion of the ship; articulating into an emotional attestation on the depravity and senselessness of war.

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