Rating: 
Summary: Das Good Flick!
Review: This is the movie that U-571 wanted to be but couldn't even come close to equalling. One of the best ever with a DVD to truly frame its greatness. You've gotta get it. Nothing like stereo sound to emphasize the sound of an exploding depth charge. Especially contrasted with a moment of such intense silence that you can hear Jurgen Prochnow sweatting! The DVD is the director's cut which adds a full hour of footage that it is impossible concieving where it must have been cut. The move is far more intense at its full length and with the extra footage you get to learn more about the youthful vigor of the crewmembers as well as the Captain's disdain for the Nazi heirarchy. My only complaint is that you have to flip the DVD over halfway through the feature but the option of listening to the movie in English, or German, with English, French, or German subtitles as well as all the other extras more than makes up for it. I prefer the original German with the subtitles off so I can't understand a thing. SCHNELL, SCHNELL!
Rating:
Summary: A strong candidate for the best war movie ever
Review: Das Boot is a taut, realistic drama, exemplified by a careful plot that maintains and releases tension incrementally so that we are riveted to the screen, and the two and a half hours the film runs seems like half an hour. Director Wolfgang Petersen (lately the director of The Perfect Storm (2000)) persuades us to identify with the German sailors crammed into their Unterseeboot as the depth charges blast all around them. Strange, take away the spoken German and this could be an American submarine dodging those depth charges. In fact there is no German insignia on the U-boat, and you have to look hard to find a swastika anywhere in the movie. Clearly Petersen wanted to disassociate himself and his movie from the Nazis, who had ruined his Germany, and seek a more universal identification for his crew. The somewhat eerie effect on the American viewer is not only to make us see the human waste of war, but to lead us to realize that yes, it was horrible for the Germans.Great movies surprise you. Something creative happens and your eyes widen and your attention is arrested. For me it begins here when the U-boat's captain, played with superb subtlety and characteristic charm by Jürgen Prochnow, talks against "our masters in Berlin" as his men steal nervous glances at one another. You know they're thinking, "The captain is talking treason." But suddenly we, the audience, realize that he knows he's going to die (probably going to die, I should say, since we are told in a blurb following the opening credits that of 40,000 Germans sailors sent out in U-boats, 30,000 did not return); and so he feels free to speak his mind. And then to put an exclamation point on it, he tells the young journalist on board to write it up for the propaganda minister and then, as an ironic stab at the "Hitler Youth" officer, he orders "It's a long way to Tipperary" to be played on the Victrola, while they all sing along in glorious English! One of the amazing things about this movie is how the U-boat and the destroyers seem to take on emotionally-charged characteristics. When the destroyer appears in the periscope out of the fog and the spray, it seem like a monster about to descend. And the way the depth charges are flung at the U-boat made me feel how much the Allies hated them and wanted to destroy them like vermin. I felt sorry for the German sailors cowering in their little boat, being hated so much, because Petersen made us see that those men were no different than you and I. This is not only one of the greatest war movies ever made, it compares favorably with the classic anti-war drama (also seen from a German POV), Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) directed by Lewis Milestone. I suspect that Petersen was influenced by that movie and by some American films about World War II, in particular Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Robert Wise's excellent submarine drama set in the Pacific starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good and very dramatic movie!
Review: This movie is 209 minutes, but don't let that scare you. This movie is very good and has a great ending it totally surprised me. The acting is top notch and the sound and picture on the DVD are excellent. It is impressive to see how they did some of the effects in this movie considering the movie was mode in 1982! The movie does become quite tense at points with the crew trying desperately trying to fix the submarine. I only knew one of the actors from the movie. The movie is dubbed in English and when you put on the subtitles they really don't match what the people are saying? The director has made movies like, "In the Line of Fire" and "Air Force One", which are both great movies and have a lot more action than this movie. Even though this movie doesn't have that much action it has a great storyline. Get in a comfortable chair and sit back and relax and enjoy this movie.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest war movies of all time
Review: The anti-war movie genre has a number of must-sees. Das Boot is one of them. Watching the directors cut for hours on end, watching the crew's struggles and ultimately the ending is a perfect war movie experience. Das Boot is a war in microcosm, the hype at the beginning, the struggle in the middle, and the futility throughout. What a great show.
Rating:
Summary: You are all wrong
Review: Indeed, all these people with their raving reviews are all wrong. "Das Boot" is not a war movie, it is an anti war-movie. It is about real people trying to overcome the cataclysmic events that were larger than themselves. It shows how the hardships of war can bring the best of a person to the surface, and also the worst. The actors are real, you can see the fear in their eyes and you know: "this is how it must have been". No Holywood drama with a crew in crisp uniforms but filth, odors, half rotten food, lice, grease, noise. The only other anti-war movie of such caliber is also German and dates from 1959: "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) from Bernard Wicki. A detail of teenagers is assigned to uselessly defending a useless bridge during the last days of WW2. They start of as heroes and gradually reality dawns until all but one die in a battle with a US tank-unit which they defeat (a true story). If thatone ever comes out on cassette or DVD: buy it and put it next to "Das Boot".
Rating:
Summary: U da Boot
Review: This is a great nail biting thriller that I recomend to anyone that is interested in WW2. What it does is give you in the face action that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. I couldnt beleive some of the things they go through. The ending cought me completely by suprise. You really need to see this. Beleive me it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A Tremendous Achievement!
Review: "Das Boot" has stood the test of time to become not only the greatest submarine movie ever made, but also one of the greatest war movies ever made. At the outset, the viewer must understand that he/she is NOT watching an American movie. If you were, it would probably star George Clooney or Kevin Coster attempting to speak with a German accent, which would be a real tragedy in itself. It would also have a blatantly annoying soundtrack, lot of shots of the women back home worrying about their men, and loads of bad dialogue. "Das Boot" fortunately contains none of the above. What is does contain is a great story with top-notch production values, acting, and direction. The story begins with the captain (expertly played by Jurgen Prochnow) and his crew celebrating the night before they will set out to sea in a German U-boat. These men, little more than boys, have no idea what they are about to experience. The captain does know, and you can see that realization on his face and in his character throughout the film. A young, idealistic correspondent obtains permission to travel with the crew and document their journey. The film really belongs to him as we see how he reacts as the realization gradually comes to him of exactly what he has stumbled into. Director Petersen has done an outstanding job of showing us what it was like to serve on a WWII U-boat. You can almost get lost in the film, imagining the close quarters, the sounds, even the smells of being in a sub. Some viewers have commented that so much of the film is "boring." Again, audiences watching nothing but Hollywood films feel that an explosion has to occur every five minutes for the movie to be exciting. This movie is exciting, but the excitement builds from the tension that runs throughout the entire film. Sure, there's down time, but even at three and a half hours, there are no wasted shots. The ending??? Wow! See it for yourself! All aspects of the DVD are also wonderful. I would have liked to have seen more of the making of the film, but what's there is very good. I recommend watching the film in the original German with English subtitles. Even if you're opposed to it, at least try it for the first 20 minutes. More people should see this film. It's worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: THE STANDARD
Review: This is it. The movie that ALL other Submarine movies will be compared to for MANY years to come. It is that good. Let me remind you though that this was a book first, then made into a movie. However, this is one of the FEW movies that does FULL justice to the book--it follows the book almost EXACTLY plotwise. When I first saw the movie trailer for this movie, of course it showed all the depth charge explosions and action, but this movie has so much more than that. The dialogue is excellent, the characters are believable and the filming is top-notch. After watching Air Force One, I couldn't believe that it was the same guy who did Das Boot. In this movie, you'll get to see what it was REALLY like aboard a submarine. Cramped with food, only one bathroom, having to RUN when an alarm is sounded, dishes and whatnot flying everywhere during a 5 hour depth-charging, SICKLY pale faces (the actors weren't allowed to be exposed to light during the filming!), etc. Although this movie is mostly serious, it has its comical moments. But ESPECIALLY impressive is the ending. It is true to the book, for one thing. That last shot before the credits will always stay in my memory. . . . In many ways, this movie is the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN of the submarine movies. In fact, I'd say that, as a war movie, Das Boot is BETTER than Saving Private Ryan overall. The music is wonderfully done and really sets the mood. Also, about 90 percent of the movie takes place on the boat, giving the viewer a sometimes claustrophobic feeling. When they're out on the Atlantic, the actors are getting DRENCHED with cold water. Not the still, calm waters that other dumb sub movies would have you believe in. Some other good scenes involve two submarines in close proximity to each other, a destroyer and submarine encounter, and, of course, the unforgetable ending. BUY this movie as soon as you can--you won't find a better one.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent film
Review: My orignal viewing of das Boot was in a high school German class. I then had the opportunity to see it on the big screen during it's rerelease. I feel that this is one of the finest war films ever made depicting the enemy as the victims. I definitely recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Still too short
Review: This is, I guess as close as one can get to the real thing! For every "Das Boot" lover there is only the original 6 hour version that captures the atmosphere on the U-Boot like nothing else. Unfortunately that version is only available in German VHS. For those who don't like to dedicate themselves to a six hour movie (or don't speak German) but still are hungry for more "Boot" than the movie release gave them, this is the way to go.
|
