DAS BOOT (1981)
DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Petersen
CAST: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge, Klaus Wennemann, Bernd Tauber, Erwin Leder
REVIEW: One of the most honest and unromanticized portrayals of war ever filmed, Das Boot (The Boat in English), has only adequate special effects and few and far between action sequences, but overcomes any limitations with its uniformly authentic performances from a cast of excellent German actors, the brilliant direction by Wolfgang Petersen, and the haunting, sometimes stirring but more often melancholy soundtrack by Klaus Doldinger. The most expensive German production of its time, most of Das Boot's $15 million budget was spent on constructing a full-sized seagoing submarine, and a full-size model for exterior shots. The original constructors were used; it was their first assignment since WWII. Three scale models were built for special effects work. The first, a 35 foot remote controlled model, could sail in high seas and dive; the other two, 18 feet and 8 feet in length, were used for underwater shots. Scale models of tankers, destroyers and other ships were also built to complete the armada. To help his actors convey the conditions found on a real U-boat, Petersen insisted on filming within the actual confines of the ship (scarcely wider than a man's outstretched arms), rather than removing the model's outer wall, greatly enhancing the audience's ability to understand the claustrophobia the crew felt in their long voyages beneath the waves. The full-size model used in the film can be seen at Bavaria Film Studios in Munich.
Das Boot begins with the information that the Battle of the Atlantic is turning against the Germans, and then the sobering fact that 30,000 of 40,000 German submariners were killed during the war. We then meet young, fresh-faced Lt. Werner (Grönemeyer), who accompanies an experienced U-Boat Captain (Prochnow) to a party in occupied France. The U-Boat captains and crewmen have one last wild night before heading back out to sea. During the chaotic party, drunken Captain Thomsen (Otto Sander) is led offstage after making an irreverent comment about Hitler, although Prochnow's nameless Captain quietly agrees. During this sequence- one of the only in the movie to take place on land- we become acquainted with the crew: the experienced, weary, but dedicated Captain, naive and eager Werner, hoping to bring back a heroic story for the Propaganda Ministry, 'The Chief' (Wennemann) worried about his sickly wife back home, the cheerful 2nd Lieutenant (Semmelrogge), and the stiff 1st Lieutenant (Bengsch), the only apparent 'Nazi' onboard. Relaxed after their night of revelry, the crew boards their U-Boat and optimistically set sail. Though it may not be immediately apparent, their experience is told from the point of view of the war correspondent, Werner. He is a largely silent figure, sitting back and observing his crewmates. Things go well at first, although the Captain quickly grows weary of the 1st Lieutenant's rigid support of the Nazi Party, and admits his displeasure to Werner about the young age of his crewmen, commenting once that he feels like he is on a "children's crusade". With the exception of the 1st Lieutenant, no one onboard expresses much in the way of political beliefs, and no swastika is clearly displayed onscreen. Petersen obviously intended for the audience to simply view them as men sent to war, regardless of which side they fought for. There is nothing glamorous or exciting about war here; an interminable amount of time goes by before any significant action takes place, and the audience may begin to fidget as much as the crew onscreen. Das Boot gives perhaps the most accurate portrayal of warfare; long periods of mind-numbing boredom, punctuated by moments of nerve-wracking battle. The crew is craving action, and are thrilled when they finally get to attack a British convoy, but from that point on they enter into a world of cat-and-mouse attack and counterattack, unable to see the depth charges drifting down from above, left with no choice but to place their lives in the hands of their skilled, but not flawless Captain.
The real glue holding Das Boot together is Jürgen Prochnow, the wily, brave, and compassionate commander who keeps his cool in the most desperate of situations. Grönemeyer also develops into a familiar, though lower-key presence who is rapidly aged along with the rest of the crew during his ordeal. Along the way, Das Boot is enhanced by some excellent scenes; the palpable excitement of the men when they sight their first British ship, an insect crawling across the picture of Admiral Dönitz, and an underwater shot of a British destroyer passing directly overhead. Perhaps the most famous scene comes after the initial attack, when the Captain makes the troubling decision to leave British survivors behind. We can see that this decision agonizes them; it is against the instinct of every sailor to let others die, but they are under strict orders from Dönitz not to pick up survivors. There is a long, drawn-out sequence near the end of the film, when they are laying powerless on the ocean floor, where the fear and tension of the crew reaches straight through the tv set and reaches the audience. You feel what they feel. Das Boot is not an action movie, nor is it a happy one. But if you want to see WWII from the "other side", or just warfare in general without any Hollywood gloss or romanticism, you're likely to go away feeling satisfied, if not uplifted.
RATING
