During World War
II, a German submarine, U-boat 96, is on a mission in the Atlantic to
stop Allied supply ships. U-96 is headed by a seasoned captain (Jürgen
Prochnow) but crewed by fresh-faced sailors. The mission they are on
turns the boys into men and does not necessarily make heroes out of
any of them.
CRITIQUE
I was expecting
a war movie, and a long one at that (the original uncut version clocks
in just shy of five hours), when I popped Das Boot into my DVD
player. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Das Boot is
not a war movie per se; it is a movie that derives its terror, energy,
and emotions from the human condition rather than politics, bombs, and
rounds of ammo, as most war movies do. In fact, in the entire film we
only see U-96 shoot off one torpedo. The beautiful shots of the boat
both cutting through the ocean and diving into the ocean’s depths show
us that the submarine is outfitted with numerous guns on its deck, but
we never see them used because director Wolfgang Peterson (The
Perfect Storm, Troy)
takes us inside the ship’s hull where the true drama awaits.
As the audience,
we mature with the crew of U-96. The first foray into the Atlantic
depicts the mild inconveniences of life on a submarine. Men share
beds, one sleeps until his shift starts and then another man comes and
sleeps in “his stink” when his shift ends as a crewmember puts it to
Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer). With limited space, men must
constantly stand up at the dinner table when others that must pass
through the tiny quarters interrupt their meals. That’s a pain in the
butt I thought, I had no idea how bad it would get.
The camera is
extremely effective, men run and dive through the close quarters,
ducking and dodging amongst obstructions inside the submarine, I can’t
imagine how many times the cameraman knocked himself unconscious while
following, however each time the men ran, the camera was right behind,
weaving with them, capturing each light, pipe and piece of machinery
as it rushes past our peripheries. During particularly choppy seas,
the boat chucks and churns, especially when depth charges are ignited,
and again we roll with the blows as if we are in the boat with the
crew. It is truly an engrossing experience and captures, as closely as
I can imagine, what it must have been like on a submarine.
Peterson
subjects the crew and the audience to a bit of the real world when the
U-96 has a rendezvous with a ship off the coast of Spain. The reality
that the men of the submarine have been living in becomes painfully
clear when we are reminded of what life is like back in the land of
natural lighting, with open air and food that is not rotten or
spoiled. However, the reprieve does not last long as the crew must go
back to their ship for another more harrowing mission.
Beyond being a
film about the human condition, Peterson has also made a film with
multiple layers. On one level it is a war movie, there are explosions,
and encounters with the enemy, on another level it is a story of men
who are taken to the edge of sanity and somehow dig within themselves
to find hope, while on a whole other level the submarine becomes a
metaphor for a womb, the men entering the womb as fetuses surrounded
by water, with just enough nutrients to survive (as in the placenta)
to come out, signaled by the boats eventual re-emergence from the
depths, as mature individuals.
There are more
levels to the film than what I’ve mentioned here and I recommend that
you check it out; it will be highly worth your while.
THE
VIDEO
Das Boot: The
Original Uncut Version
is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image is clear with
no blemishes, a great transfer.
THE AUDIO
Das Boot: The
Original Uncut Version
is presented in Dolby Surround 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1 in both
German and English. The sound is amazing, probably one of the best
usages of my surround sound system ever. The floor rumbled and at one
point scared my sleeping dog off the couch. This is an all-important
feature particularly on this DVD as much of the excitement of the film
stems from what we hear and not necessarily what we see.
THE
EXTRAS
Making of
Featurette: This is an
interesting featurette, it shows the set used for filming, which is
actually built so that it can move and rotate which is why the scenes
in the submarine look so realistic. The featurette manages to answer
many of the questions I had while watching the film and left me
satisfied. It includes interviews with Peterson and Jürgen Prochnow.
Overall the feature is not very long, but that also means that it
isn’t long and drawn out as some other featurettes tend to be.
Other than the
making-of featurette and some Wolfgang Peterson trailers there is not
much in the way of extras. They didn’t even keep the director’s
commentary from the original Director’s Cut DVD.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I highly
recommend Das Boot: The Original Uncut Version. It will be a
great addition to your DVD collection, both as a landmark film, and a
spiffy way to show off your sound system to friends. There is a reason
that this film stands out, and unlike some classics, it is obvious
why.
