12 Days of Xmas #4: Das Boot 

A film about being trapped in a small space with people slowly chipping away at your nerves with no way out as everyone loses their mind? It's a perfect Christmas movie!

One of my favourite bits from Peep Show is when Mark is making Sophie watch Das Boot, who isn't really paying attention and talking about other things. At what looks like at least the halfway point of the film, she turns to him asks "Oh! Are they on a submarine?"

This Movie, Mini Series, Directors cut is a masterpiece. Watched it then, and have hunted down all versions of it. Everyone I have recommended Das Boot to has enjoyed it. For me, the best version is in German with subtitles.

A little known fact is that when HMS Beagle set sail on its second survey voyage, in 1831, the primary purpose of the expedition was to observe the retrograde motion of Hiptang. Science was never the same again. I love how sickly the crew look in Das Boot; especially Erwin Leder, playing Johann, the engineer. He looks like some saint from a painting by Bruegel. Jürgen Prochnow is mesmerizing as ever.

you instantly know its a german film when the actors actually talk like german people and not hitler caricatures

As a child we were in the Bavarian film studios in Munich where we could enter the u-boot prop and walk through the life sized model. Really impressive. As a souvenir I got a badge shaped like the sawfish logo. Since then I watched the movie and the six part tv series (more focus on the men and their personality) countless times and re-watch it every year. Unfortunately the tv series has worse video and much worse audio quality than the director's cut. Hopefully there will be a high quality remaster of the series.

The original model of the submarine is still in Germany in the Bavaria Film Studios. As a Kid i went on a tour of the studio and you could also go inside the submarine. It's really quite cramped in the thing, but everything is totally real and made of metal and you can even turn all the valves and levers. The tour guide also warned us and said that you shouldn't swing through the narrow airlocks because you can easily hit your head on the metal frame of the narrow doors. Of course, as a youngster, I didn't listen and ended up with a bruise on my forehead.

The mini-series on the BBC was essential viewing back in the day. Me and my Dad (RIP) would be glued to this on a Sunday Evening. Utterly compelling.

Also worth mentioning is the score, easily the single most recognizable and iconic of any German movie. It got covered by an early German techno band around 1990 which made it even more popular.

War movies from the perspective of “the baddies” without much political commentary or labelling has always been a favourite of mine, especially if they’re made by people who would have grown up thinking of them as such, it’s just so humanising and empathetic, ultimately the very concept is so anti-war in a not so explicit way that it’s almost a lost art

One of the best German movies

Fun fact. Spielberg borrowed the sub for Indiana Jones. The mini series is fantastic. Still one of the biggest shock endings I have seen. I tried the new TV show. Abandoned ship after 1 episode....

Dad Boot is the perfect film to try romance a friend who’s already in a relationship with the guy at work who hates you

DAS BOOT is not just any other war film. It is a psychological horror story and that is what separates it from the rest.

This is definitely my favorite series of yours. Happy holidays, everyone!

The book was one of my favourites. Terrifying descriptions of the sea.

Has one of the best cut transits in film history IMHO. The banquet waiter brings in a tin can (presumably with spam or such minsed meat), and immediately cuts to the submerged steel vessel.

One of my favourite ever films

BEST GODDAMN WAR MOVIE. I love it.

The flooding scene is still an amazing piece of practical effects

I never knew I needed a hip tang transition of the sun until I saw it..

The U boats were an absolute terror to Allied convoys. Sank many times their tonnage, probably killed many times the equivalent of their crews. But, yes, they were always expendable. Even moreso than in WW1 (when, arguably, the U boats came closer to crippling the UK), they were basically an afterthought. V(engeance)-weapons in other forms. Those directing the war in Berlin only ever thought of winning the war(s) on land, like Napoleon or Moltke the Elder. The Kriegsmarine, especially the U-boats, were the least dignified way to cripple the enemy, or to hold them off until the war could be properly won elsewhere. The only remotely plausible method available to the Navy given where the Third Reich started, but still. They inflicted enormous damage, but they never received anywhere near the support they needed to even attempt to win their part of the war. Because they started off as an afterthought. A distraction. When the war was in its 11th hour, Hitler (as he was preparing to commit suicide) ordered U Boat commander Admiral Karl Donitz to take over. Why? Well, Hitler had felt the Army had failed him (the Red Army was entering Berlin), the Luftwaffe had failed him (the Allied Air Forces had had free reign over Germany for a year). But the U Boat arm still had done pretty well, considering how little resources it had available to them.

One of the few movies in this series I've seen before the recommendation, it's just a perfect film. The theatrical feels truncated in places, but any of the three cuts is worth your time. The miniseries is the one the author was most pleased with, his criticisms were primarily aimed at the 2.5 hour theatrical version.

Hiptang: The bottle is like the outer shell of the U-boat in this movie: barely holding back disaster.

The endjng of Das Boot is such a gut punch, but it's even worse when you realise the film's set in 1943. There's still two years left of this shit that the characters have to suffer through, and the chances any of them make it through it all are slim at best.

One of the best movies ever made.

the last veteran of the uboot just recently passed away, very sad but he got very old

About a year ago, I finally saw Das Boot. No lamps lit, dark, by myself. On acid. It was very tense. Love this movie.

Boot rhymes more with mode than with loot

Another great film. Loved it for 30 years. Thumbs up.

Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere in the comments but bit of trivia... The camera gimbal used for the interior shots was so loud that *every* element of the audio, including the dialogue, had to be added in post.

You can't go more anti-war than this movie without getting preachy.

Thank you for that opening joke.

I would ask where I can get some hiptang, but leftover grease in a spaghetti sauce jars always seem readily available to divert from the trash. I really like your movie reviews. I was a bit worried to tell you that for fear it would go to your head, but after seeing a jar of hiptang, I am confident in telling you good job without fear of ruining your content. Good job.

Nuanced and insightful as always Georg, these Christmas videos are always something I look forward to.

did you know that das boot has two sequels? they only exist in written form thou, since das boot was a book first

Thanks for the video. I enjoyed it.

An amazing film.

What an amazing film. Great recommendation

Opening notes remind me Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

My dad's obsession with the submarine game SILENT HUNTER 2 (which came about from his love of Das Boot) ruined his marriage to my mother.

To give some perspective on why the veterans in the film are resigned to death or madness, by the end of the war 80% of the men in the U-boat service had been killed. I'm fairly certain that's the highest casualty rate of any arm of the Wehrmacht

Today I feel Hip Tang tastes like BBQ sea cucumber with cabbage.

Great video.

Omg!😱 Hiptang can survive Sun's extreme heat!☀️

It's interesting to see all the jokes about footwear that came from us mispronouncing this movie's title. I hadn't thought about it until Stephen Fry pointed it out, and I assumed it was about people marching in the army rather than a film about the navy

So cosy

I still think Das Boot is the greatest anti-war war-film of all time.

For tomorrow, Is it Africa addio? I hope so. Very interesting film.

"Das Boot" is pronounced like "Dahs Boat." There are no boots involved anywhere. I also went into the mock-up of the boat's interior a the Bavaria studios near Munich. Cramped is an understatement!

Amazing film/mini-series. The soundtrack is outstanding too. If you like 1980s electro music then you should seek it out, its a classic. I bought it years ago on CD, still have it somewhere...

I heard dive yesterday and i hoped it would be Flash Gordon oh well this is almost as good of a movie.

I hear hip tang is the reason for the gigantic hole in the sun

Arguably the best war film ever. It’s a superb film.

My guess for tomorrow is the TV commercial ‘Fuji chrome colours are calling you’. I could be wrong.

After you teased with " D I V E ! " I was disappointed it wasn't Flash Gordon, but Das Boot is the best WW2 film.

Das boot! Das boot! Das boot!

NOT YET KAMERADEN

Hey man have you heard of the sequel, Das Glove?

Quick get in here it's HIPTANG IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.

And there I was hoping for flash Gordon

In space, nobody can hear you *Drink Hiptang*

Fucking masterpiece!

DASboot? das BOUGHT.

I'm sure it's been said before, but if you're ever short of a buck, I'd buy Hiptang, whatever it is. Thanks for the content

I've rewatched it just a couple weeks ago after only seeing it when I was young and couldn't remember much. That ending is a gut punch. And I want to say that there really was only one nazi on board, you know who.

A demonstration that every few millennia, us germans CAN make good films, "das Boot", "der Untergang", a bit sad that they all need to play in WW2 in order to be that...

Yesterday was color in Africa.

I made a comment about Das boot on your Zulu video. You'll be hearing from my team of imaginary lawyers

This was the first (and scariest) submarine movie I saw (English dub sucked)...very claustrophobic

It is important to know, that Lothar Buchheim, the actual author of the book the movie is based on (himself a veteran submariner), did not like that movie. At all. He thought it glorified war and the uboot activities, both of which he wanted to very much denounce. I’m not sure which movie he was watching, because that movie never made me want to join a war in or outside a sub.

0:12 Yesterday I was early on this channel. Today, it's too late.

My guess is The Colour Purple.

What's this movie all aboot ?

The title of this movie is "Das Boot" and not "Däs Buht".

How I wish English speaking people would realise that 'Das Boat' comes infinitely closer to the correct pronunciation compared to pronouncing it like the footwear :) I know Germans are kinda infamous for their boots but this is really about a boat ;) sorry, it's just something that seems to happen every time this film comes up

I wonder why English native speakers keep pronouncing the movie "das boot" - it's spelled that way, yes, but it's not about a British car trunk nor about footwear 😅 it's about a "boat", which is pronounced pretty much the same in German as in English (I'm German btw)

MAybe the only real anti-war movie I've ever seen. War is never a glory or exciting here.

Damn it, it's called "Das Boot" - not "Das Boot"...

Dahss boht btw

Also one of the best soundtracks, by Klaus Doldinger. If you don't speak German, just pronounce it as "duss boat" in English and you'll be close enough ;)

Hiptang in regression...an omen of great import. Hopefully some wise people are on it.

.

So disappointed to hear Georg mangle the pronunciation of _Boot._

The dub is pretty bad. They need to redo it.

You could not have sounded more English with that pronunciation of Das xD You gotta push that A waaay back and throat it.

You pronounce the 'oot' in 'Boot' as you do 'oat' in 'moat'

If you pronounce "Boot" like "boat" and not like "boot", you're closer to the correct pronounciation.

As a student of German I cringe every time you pronounce "Boot" like it's the English "boot". It's more like "boat" only without the diphthong. It seems odd that people don't just call the movie "The Boat" in English; that's what it means and there'd be less confusion all around trying to say the name correctly. I'm pretty sure no one thought renaming "Die unendliche Geschichte" to "The Neverending Story" was a bad idea.

Zelensky seem to be reenacting Der Untergang, another German masterpiece.