There have been many good films examining the useless and barbaric reality of war. For Cannon Fodder 101 I recommend Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket, as well as The Thin Red Line, Gallipoli, the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, as well as the epic television series by Ken Burns on the American Civil War and the BBC series on The Great War. Add Dr Strangelove for some light relief.
Having just seen Das Boot in 2001 on DVD, I'm very pleased to add it to the list. What makes this a very good film is: * The depiction of warfare as composing of long periods of boredom and anxiety followed by short bursts of terrifying action. The Thin Red Line presented similar imagery. * Its reluctance to show people as heroes. The U-boat crew were well disciplined professionals rather than the individualist risk takers who are so boringly strutted out by Hollywood studios (refer Saving Private Ryan). * Evocation of the claustrophobic world of the submarine which those "up periscope" movies of my youth never captured. [I once started to tour a sub. in Sydney Harbour and just couldn't handle the claustrophobic conditions]. * Attention to the fact that war is a time of rapid technological change. The U-boat war was being lost because the British has developed technologies to better track and destroy them.
The film worked well with senses. I felt I could almost smell the stench of men living in such close proximity; could appreciate the slow asphyxiation of men stalled on the bottom of the sea; the cold wetness of the North Atlantic; the amplification of sound under water; and the limitation of vision from a submarine; the pressure of water on metal at untested depths.
It was also good to see Germans as Germans, rather than Nazis.
That said I found the ending disappointing (I saw the Director's cut). The final two events stretched credulity. However I understand the book is based on true events. Perhaps this is a case of truth being stranger than fiction.
I read somewhere that 75% of the U-boat men never returned. This movie shows why.
Having just seen Das Boot in 2001 on DVD, I'm very pleased to add it to the list. What makes this a very good film is: * The depiction of warfare as composing of long periods of boredom and anxiety followed by short bursts of terrifying action. The Thin Red Line presented similar imagery. * Its reluctance to show people as heroes. The U-boat crew were well disciplined professionals rather than the individualist risk takers who are so boringly strutted out by Hollywood studios (refer Saving Private Ryan). * Evocation of the claustrophobic world of the submarine which those "up periscope" movies of my youth never captured. [I once started to tour a sub. in Sydney Harbour and just couldn't handle the claustrophobic conditions]. * Attention to the fact that war is a time of rapid technological change. The U-boat war was being lost because the British has developed technologies to better track and destroy them.
The film worked well with senses. I felt I could almost smell the stench of men living in such close proximity; could appreciate the slow asphyxiation of men stalled on the bottom of the sea; the cold wetness of the North Atlantic; the amplification of sound under water; and the limitation of vision from a submarine; the pressure of water on metal at untested depths.
It was also good to see Germans as Germans, rather than Nazis.
That said I found the ending disappointing (I saw the Director's cut). The final two events stretched credulity. However I understand the book is based on true events. Perhaps this is a case of truth being stranger than fiction.
I read somewhere that 75% of the U-boat men never returned. This movie shows why.