Review of Das Boot (1981) by David M — 13 Nov 2011

Being in a submarine does not look fun. Das Boot is one of the best movies about war you will ever see. Certainly the best sub movie ever. By a mile. It's not about war, no good movie is really about it's overt subject, it's a study of life aboard a German u-boat in WW2.

You need to watch the directors cut, all three and a half hours of it. It's possibly the most suspenseful film I've ever seen. Not because of a shaky cam to feign frenetic kinetic energy. Or snappy editing to manufacture tension. Every shot is slow and given a purpose. Even nail biting moments are drawn clean and clear.

You bear witness to every facet of life aboard a sub. The boredom, the fear, redundancy, discipline, and the claustrophobia. Oh the claustrophobia. The set was constructed as a sub. No removable fourth walls for camera angling. It's all up close and personal, long shots follow crew members squeezing through cramped doors and spaces, we walk the same route. The walls press in. You're always damp. You can smell the sweat and metal.

The men do their duty. They aren't nazis per se, they chafe at the boneheaded orders of their superiors. Orders that leave them stranded at almost 300 meters under the ocean. They are stalked by a destroyer dropping depth charges on them.

The pinging of sonar off the hull. The dull glow the red lights. Das Boot never gives into any cliche. No blow ups between characters. No heroics. No idiocy. No stereotyped characters. Everything is given it's respect and due. From a moment to every man on board.

The performances are natural and commanding. The direction is sure footed and confident. It never loses faith in it's story or the audience. It's inspiring.

The only letdown is knowing that Wolfgang Peterson went on to become a Hollywood for hire director who basically made middling action pictures for the next 15 years. Even making Perfect Storm and Poseidon to cheapen his success here. Not to mention crimson tide, hunt for red october, and k-19 all being cheap knockoffs of a film that transcended it's genre.