I'm jealous because this is probably the best sub film ever made. And I'm jealous that no American studio had the wherewithal to create such a human look at the undersea warriors and the lives they led.
The shots are inspired. I don't know what it is, but there's something both commercial and artistically palpable about foreign feature films that beat American gloss hands down. "Das Boot" is no different. It differs in one regard from American films about the second World War, no demons are presented. There's a lot of demonization regarding "the enemy" in a lot of films depicting military conflict. There is no such effort here. Partly because we're looking at the second world war from the German viewpoint. But we're not seeing Nazi German soldiers fight for the "Fatherland". We're seeing people like you and me ordered to fight for a cause they're not all that sure about, but are duty bound to execute it to the best of their ability.
There's no waving of flags in this film. None, other than that of the human spirit. The men involved are there to survive as they carry out their orders. The horrors of what the Nationalistic Socialist regime are doing to labeled undesirables in their home land is not on their minds. They either don't know or are focused on other matters.
We see the lives of submariners. They happen to be German, but they are submariners none the less. The dangers of fire, pressure, power outages, smoke, gas, flooding, are all palpable in this film. So much that you're there sweating it out with them. You feel for them as they make a run for the sea or for home. They too feel for their victims. They steel their hearts, but you know they're more than uneasy about the task at hand, much less the "cause" for which they fight.
The cinematography on board the sub is excellent. You feel the the non- spacious confines of their world of steel, valves, pipes and gauges. And when things go bad, you're there with them.
Now, on the negative side, and I'm sorry to turn a somewhat serious and sombre review slightly comical, but there's one exterior SFX shot that bugs the hell out of me :-) It's a POV shot from the German U-boats bridge looking at another U-boat. The footage used for the background plate is recycled over and over again. To me this states that whoever was in charge didn't have the budget to get in contact with us here in California to sex up the visuals for that sequence. In terms of the drama it's functional, and the visuals don't collide too badly with that same drama. Yet there it is.
The one draw-back is that it's awfully long. So much that you actually need to flip the DVD to see the rest of the film. In this regards it is a bit of a labor to watch.
I don't care who you are, if you must see a submarine film, then see this one.
Definitely not to be missed.
Enjoy!
The shots are inspired. I don't know what it is, but there's something both commercial and artistically palpable about foreign feature films that beat American gloss hands down. "Das Boot" is no different. It differs in one regard from American films about the second World War, no demons are presented. There's a lot of demonization regarding "the enemy" in a lot of films depicting military conflict. There is no such effort here. Partly because we're looking at the second world war from the German viewpoint. But we're not seeing Nazi German soldiers fight for the "Fatherland". We're seeing people like you and me ordered to fight for a cause they're not all that sure about, but are duty bound to execute it to the best of their ability.
There's no waving of flags in this film. None, other than that of the human spirit. The men involved are there to survive as they carry out their orders. The horrors of what the Nationalistic Socialist regime are doing to labeled undesirables in their home land is not on their minds. They either don't know or are focused on other matters.
We see the lives of submariners. They happen to be German, but they are submariners none the less. The dangers of fire, pressure, power outages, smoke, gas, flooding, are all palpable in this film. So much that you're there sweating it out with them. You feel for them as they make a run for the sea or for home. They too feel for their victims. They steel their hearts, but you know they're more than uneasy about the task at hand, much less the "cause" for which they fight.
The cinematography on board the sub is excellent. You feel the the non- spacious confines of their world of steel, valves, pipes and gauges. And when things go bad, you're there with them.
Now, on the negative side, and I'm sorry to turn a somewhat serious and sombre review slightly comical, but there's one exterior SFX shot that bugs the hell out of me :-) It's a POV shot from the German U-boats bridge looking at another U-boat. The footage used for the background plate is recycled over and over again. To me this states that whoever was in charge didn't have the budget to get in contact with us here in California to sex up the visuals for that sequence. In terms of the drama it's functional, and the visuals don't collide too badly with that same drama. Yet there it is.
The one draw-back is that it's awfully long. So much that you actually need to flip the DVD to see the rest of the film. In this regards it is a bit of a labor to watch.
I don't care who you are, if you must see a submarine film, then see this one.
Definitely not to be missed.
Enjoy!