![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And then they endure a long and thorough counterattack, during which destroyers criss-cross the area, dropping depth charges. We share the experience of the hunt they drift below the surface, waiting for the explosions that signal hits. The centerpiece of the film is an attack on an Allied convoy the U-boat torpedoes three ships. The addition of this character is useful, because it gives the captain a reason to explain things that might otherwise go unsaid. Played by Herbert Groenemeyer, he probably represents Lothar-Gunther Buchheim, whose novel was based on these wartime events. He is not a Nazi, and the movie makes that clear in an early scene where he ridicules Goering and other leaders for their "brilliant strategy.'' For this mission (an assignment to torpedo Allied shipping in the North Atlantic), a journalist has been assigned to join the crew. Experienced, steady, he's capable of shouting "I demand proper reports!'' even as the boat seems to be breaking up. The boat's captain ( Jurgen Prochnow) is the rock the others depend on. There are long sequences here-especially when the boat is sinking out of control-when we feel trapped in the same time and space as the desperate crew. There is a brief opening sequence in which the boat puts out to sea from a French base, and a refueling sequence near the end, but all the other scenes are shot inside the cramped sub, or on the bridge.Īnd it's not shot in tidy setups, either the cinematographer, Jost Vacano, hurtles his camera through the boat from one end to the other, plunging through cramped openings, hurdling obstacles on the deck, ducking under hammocks and swinging light fixtures. Although we become familiar with several of the characters, it is not their story, really, but the story of a single U-boat mission, from beginning to end. The film is like a documentary in its impact. This 1997 release of Wolfgang Petersen's director's cut, is not a minor readjustment but a substantially longer film, running 210 minutes. “Das Boot” launched Petersen as a filmmaker in Hollywood, where he became one of the top makers of cataclysmic action adventures in films spanning war (2004′s “Troy,” with Brad Pitt), pandemic (the 1995 ebolavirus-inspired “Outbreak”) and other ocean-set disasters (2000′s “The Perfect Storm” and 2006′s “Poseidon,” a remake of “The Poseidon Adventure,” about the capsizing of an ocean liner).īut Petersen’s first foray in American moviemaking was child fantasy: the enchanting 1984 film “The NeverEnding Story.” Adapted from Michael Ende’s novel, “The NeverEnding Story” was about a magical book that transports its young reader into the world of Fantasia, where a dark force known as the Nothing rampages.When "Das Boot'' was first released in the United States, it ran 145 minutes and won huge audiences and no less than six Oscar nominations-unheard of for a foreign film. We all lived for American movies, and by the time I was 11 I’d decided I wanted to be a filmmaker.” “We kids were looking for more glamorous dreams than rebuilding a destroyed country though, so we were really ready for it when American pop culture came to Germany. “In school they never talked about the time of Hitler - they just blocked it out of their minds and concentrated on rebuilding Germany,” Petersen told The Los Angeles Times in 1993. Brandon Maxwell goes back to basics on Valentine's Day ![]()
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