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 made (no small feat considering how crowded that category is).

Wolfgang Peterson plots Das Boot out to feel like a blockbuster - big explosions, manly men doing manly things, and a bombastic score. In other words, he did not squander his budget; the sets might be limited in space, but never in detail. And the action scenes seems to go on forever - not a detriment, as I luckily went into this blind, and literally found myself wringing my hands in tension. As I had discussed briefly with SchederzMoviez, I was hoping to find the theatrical cut and then seek out the director's cut afterwards, should I so desire. Well, I could only turn up the DC, and I can only imagine what was lost in the 40 minute difference; even here, the action far outweighed the characterization, time-wise (even if the characterization was written well enough to carry through). No, Das Boot never dragged, never dulled, never made me check my watch. It's frankly quite amazing that it is able to sustain tension and interest and says as much about the script as it does about the job each actor did in bringing his respective crew member to life.

I can find no issues with Das Boot strong enough to detract from my esteem of it, aside from an emotionally manipulative ending. Even that fits, for what the film is - an epic war movie designed to elicit emotions of disgust; not for any of the normal, patriotic men fighting on either side, or even the inciters, but for the consequences of hatred and fear, and how deep their impact strikes men and women living everyday lives like you and me. Das Boot is 12,548 seconds of blockbuster entertainment that felt like a fraction of its runtime. Not only is it an essential war film, it is an essential human drama, and, despite the daunting run time and language barrier, is amazingly accessible - Captain, Chief, Werner, et al. ceased being German about an hour in, and were simply human for the remainder.