Runtime: 209 minutes
Directed by: Wolfgang
Petersen
Starring: Jurgen Prochnow,
Herbert Gronemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Bernd Tauber
From: Several German
companies
NOTE: The version I viewed last night was the 3 ½ hour Director's Cut.
There are various epic length motion pictures that I haven't gotten to yet due to my preference in wanting to watch those films in one night (if not in one go without any breaks) and that isn't always possible each night. However, last night I was able to check out this classic and it was a rewarding journey which did not seem to be 209 minutes long.
The setting is a German World War II submarine (a U-boat, in other words) and the mostly young, neophyte crew that operates it. The opening scene is the gang getting extremely drunk at a “cathouse” the night before they ship off. They are all in good spirits, but boy does the mood change once they are stuck in those tight quarters and alongside the tedium of waiting for combat to happen, once it does it is amazingly stressful as they have to hope no enemy spots them as depth charges are a real SOB.
This film both captures the claustrophobic feel of the titular boot being crammed with dozens of soldiers (in part this is done via a handheld Arriflex camera that can easily maneuver around those tight quarters and zoom around the set, as it does occasionally) and the stress of having to be motionless in the vessel & pray they are not spotted and attacked. But there is time spent on knowing these lads better, and all are different personalities. Some are proper and by the book, while others are crude, and a few have significant others waiting back home.
The finale packs quite a punch and this goes alongside all the other classics that have an anti-war message by humanizing the participants and demonstrating how futile battle is as it results in many promising lives being snuffed way too soon. People should not be dissuaded by Das Boot's length... if they enjoy the genre, the movie really should be viewed by them.
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