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"During WWII, Germany's objective" - while a World War ONE, Austro-Hungarian submarine enters harbor on a wonderfull, colored reel.... If you run out of movies, you might make an "After Hours" from Georg von Trapp's book, "To the last salute" - if you like Das Bot, you will love it. Bottoms up!
If you get the chance and you haven't already done it, you should do a review of Gladiator. It was a damn fine film and I think it has a LOT of messages we desperately need today.
Just to show how powerful the story was, when it was released in France, the audience cheered when the opening titles stated that 30,000 of the 40,000 German submariners never made it home. By the end of the film, they rose to their feet and applauded it for the masterpiece this is. I rewatched it the other day, and 3 and a half hours flew by, not a shred of boredom. Just a phenomenal film
@@TheSchaef47 Didn’t America just surrender to a racist fascist regime that locked everyone down, stole an election and is illegally continuing with an eviction moratorium against the Supreme Court?
@@AuchInAgil A masterpiece, am master piece is the piece a craftsman would produce to pass the examination to become a mster himself and be allowed to teach his craft to others.
Fun fact: The full scale submarine was lent to Steven Spielberg who was shooting "Raiders of the Lost Ark" at the same time. The submarine Indy climbs on and the submarine base where he steals the Nazi uniform are the same as in "Das Boot".
I´m not sure if it´s still there, but you can actually enter the boat at Bavaria Filmstudios in Munich, which is a interesting experience to get a sense of the scale (especially when you imagine, to sit in this for months without any way out)
My old man was a war baby, born in '44 in London. When my English grandad came back from Germany and my old man was old enough to ask him how many Germans he'd killed in the war my grandad said "none I hope" My dad was a bit confused after hearing his mates in school bragging about how many Germans their dads had killed. So he asked "What do you mean?" to which my grandad replied "I hope I never killed anyone, they didn't want to be there any more than I did. I hope I never killed anybody." It's always good when a production shows war from the fighter's perspective, the real people who fought it regardless of pride, politics or pomp.
One of the best comments I ever read. Most respect to your grandfather -they were all just figures in a gruesome game. Personal note: One of my granddads was a civil seafarer(radio-operator) in these times, ( the other one a coal-deliverer, a job considered too hard for women, therefore not drafted) never returned from a cruise in 1944. War's shitty on both sides! Again, thanks for your comment.
German guy here: we talked to veterans in a school project back in 2004. The grandfather from a friend of mine served in north Africa under Rommel. He was captured by the British and held captive in an life stock train cart (I don't know if this is the right word, but I'll guess you guys know what I'm talking about). The Germans had cut off the supply of the British so the British guards and the German prisoners of war had nothing to eat. The Britisch soldiers gave some plane papers to the Germans and they used cole to shrivel some symbols on to it. The British hid nearby and the Germans loured some Africa food sellers near them, pretending that they had money, showing there pieces of paper. The Germans grabbed the poor African guys through the bars and held them captive so the British soldiers could take the food. Later they sheared it. The old man told me that there was no difference between the soldiers from both fronts. If it wasn't for the war they could have been friends.
@@moritzlaszlo3115 I've heard stories about Germans and the Allies during both wars coming together at Christmas to celebrate as humans in the middle of battles nobody wanted to be part of. They broke the rules for a day, became brothers, and then went back to fighting each other the following morning.
@@moritzlaszlo3115 - A moment of silence for those poor africans who got nothing to do this war but got their food stolen by the very colonists that made their life hell in the 1st place..
Juergen Prochnow is a legend. I still love his role in Beerfest where he pokes fun at his time on “Das Boot” “Sorry, I’m uncomfortable in these U Boats, Had a bad experience once”
To me, he didn’t have a “bad” experience, but a legendary one. He was the rock, and simultaneously the glue that held that boat together when things went bad. His character’s forgiveness of Johann showed his compassion, but you could see it pained him to go get the P38 as well. Only a solid actor could portray both a need to do one’s duty, with the pain of doing so flawlessly.
This movie is without any question THE best submarine movie ever made. And the Drinker is right, if you´re gonna watch it, you owe it to yourself to watch the whole damn thing.
@@MrGregroberts55 Tip my cap to you Sir. Never mind being a Submariner IRL, I was traumatised by simply experiencing the U-Boat simulation at a living history museum over here in England called Eden Camp. As soon as you wander in it's already a disorienting assault on the senses, but when the sonar starts to ping faster and faster and the "sub" is hit by a depth charge that's when all Hell breaks loose, including a wailing siren, flickering lights, screams of terror, men (very realistic dummies) drowning in compartments filled with water which are suddenly illuminated in red light, and the sound of the hull contorting and breaking apart as you sink to the ocean floor... I needed a strong cup of tea after that ten minutes, I'll tell you!!
Truly one of the most tense films I’ve seen. Fucking terrifying amount of pressure, communicating perfectly the danger presented between the enemy at the surface and the deadly environment around, which is yet the only hope for survival
Yeah this film creates such tension and suspense, that you really sympathize with the German sailors - just people, doing a tough job in awful conditions. I remember seeing this in 1981, at the end you feel like you've been on the journey with them, and you feel the Captain's anguish as he dies of shrapnel wounds as he watches the U boat sinking. Great film all around.
Fun fact: The way they got the cast to look so tired and haggered, like they hadn't seen the sun for months was because of exactly that - they were under strict conditions to not shave nor be out during the day time for the months the film was shot
Another fun fact is during the film when the boat is in rough water, you can see a hatch on deck flapping open, this was a mini submarine built for the film, unfortunately it was loaned to Hollywood to make the film U571 and they broke it. as told by Wolfgang Peterson himself.
@@spinaway U571 was made in 2000. Das Boot was made in 1981. The film that borrowed the submarine was "Raiders of the Lost Ark". :) Edit: Apologies. You were talking about the series - not the movie - which was made in 2018. Looks like both productions had their boat borrowed!
The whole set is the inner part of the real u-boot. It was put on a huge see-saw. In the attacks, they really swung that shit around like mad. Many actors got hurt, some had broken ribs. And the actors really look so sweaty and broken, because inside the closed set they had to put in hanging movie lamps so the cameras could shoot. Back then those got really hot, no LED lamps, so it was a sweat box and the actors soon were physically exhausted all the time from the heat. It all adds to the realism and the cast bringing their a-game. You can still visit the set in the German movie studio in Munich. I did so some 25 years ago. Really interesting stuff.
The whole set is just a movie set, extraordinarily designed and built to the last detail, but a movie set. It's at the Bavaria Atelier studios in Múnich, and a big attraction open to the public. Some parts (the Zentralle or control room, and the forward Torpedo room) were built twice in order to have those two specific sections of the boat mounted in the hydraulic platform you talked about.
@@W4ldgeist Well, the fact is that I´m a big fan of submarines and specially U-Boats (just look at my nickname and icon), Das Boot is my favorite war movie and I´ve watched it about 45 or 50 times in all the 3 versions: the theatrical one, the director´s cut, and the 5 hours mini-series. So obviously I know some details either from the movies and the making off that not everybody knows. But you was definitely right in some of the details of the filming you included in your comment: it was very very hard for the actors, that spent almost a whole week learning how to walk and run and move inside the set without breaking some body part (no worries about breaking something in the set, all of it was solid metal 😄)
There's an actual type VII U-Boot at the U-Boot crew memorial very near Kiel (Laboe), so they didn't need to imagine the layout or exterior. I've been on U 995 and can attest the sets are 100% accurate. For equipment taken out of U 995 for visitor safety reasons, there are plenty of photos of wartime U-Boot interiors and all the design drawings are freely available too. Hell, you could probably build one if you wanted.
I remember, when the series was first shown in german Television. It was an event. Weeks before broadcasting it was in every newspaper. The ratings were as high as they can go. Everybody saw it. We considered it to be the best piece of german entertainment ever. And in my opinion, it still is.
If we narrow the field to WW2 dramas, I'd say its only competition is Der Untergang, because the casting of Hitler there was...scarily good. Too good. You could've told me they'd used a time machine and brought the actual Hitler to act in the film, and I wouldn't of questioned it.
After growing up on a steady diet of 'Kellys' Heroes', 'The Dirty Dozen' and 'Where Eagles Dare', this was the first gritty, "war is hell" war movie a 12 year old me ever saw. Trust the germans to take all the fun out of war... films. This is a timeless classic.
@@NPC_-mf4dw Agree, they're still not happy about losing the war. Also check out Der Untergang (Downfall) a German-Polish movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler. This is the movie that spawned the Hitler losing his mind meme. Beyond the meme, this movie is well done and pulls no punches.
@John Syzlack Love The Drinker. Have seen every vid uploaded. I am still hoping we will get Happy Hour of Das Boot. Das Boot is one of the most realistic war movies and definitely most realistic submarine movie. Not much that has been made in last 10 years can get close to this movie when it comes to story, acting, directing and cinematography.
I've noticed that the drinkers attitude changes doing reviews on whether he's talking about a pop culture movie or a movie that has nothing to do with pop culture purely on the merits of the movie and not its impact on Pop culture. Anyone who feels that he got anything wrong should spend some time actually reading about submarine warfare during the second world war. And yes there were multiple instances where torpedoes were evaded because they were seen coming. This is a very somber and sobering movie and his presentation for something like this I believe was just perfect.
I watched this as a child 30 years ago. There are scenes i still remember very clearly - like the end at the shipyard, the time when they were stranded at the bottom of the sea and when the machinist had a mental breakdown. I was completely absorbed by the claustrophobic and intense world they lived in - It is an amazing masterpiece!
My favourite line of the movie is when they're stuck on the bottom & everything's all busted & the crew's trying to make all the repairs & everything before the oxygen runs out, and the captain is asked: "Can we ever make it back to the surface?" And the captain just looks at him and says, "Good question."
@@MrPGC137 That was awesome. And wasn't it Johann who saved the crew and got the boat to rise from the bottom after his mental breakdown? That's a character arc right there!
I remember leaving the movie theater after this movie and walking outside. Seeing the sun and sky after that movie felt like a balm on my psyche. The sense of claustrophobia during depth charge attacks is unforgettable. Hands down, the best submarine movie ever made.
'Das Boot' put Wolfgang Petersen on the world map. He went on to make memorable movies that were not about war, but of every genre available to a film maker, including fantasy "Never Ending Story", science-fiction, "Enemy Mine", political thriller "In the Line of Fire" and epic mythology, "Troy." Just about every film this remarkable director has made thorughout his long career is worth seeing.
This was one of the movies of my childhood. My Dad was a submariner, needless to say this was often on our box. Great movie and helped form all the nautical knowledge I have to this day 😆
Same here it's one of those movies my Dad and I can put on and enjoy at anytime. In many ways it makes me regret that I didn't go into the Navy and see if I could become a submariner like my father before me. So I settle for Navy history.
When the series was shown on the BBC back in the eighties, obviously you couldn't binge-watch it like nowadays. You lived with it in your head over an extended period of time, which really added to the impact. Week by week you got to know the crew and wonder if they would survive all while waiting to see the next episode. Needless to say, the ending was an emotional experience...
I felt exactly the same, mate! And at the same time. The most memorable scene for me was the cock examination scene, when the doctor told him that he was surprised that the army of crabs hadn't eaten his little cock off!
Yeah I remember those days ( showing my age here as well). It was so well done you got attached to the crew and just wanted to them to survive (even though they were the "bad guys"). Ending was really sad, just give those guys a break.
The scene when the chief engineer loses it and makes inhuman squeaks as he tries to climb the ladder to the coning tower. Wonderful acting and has stuck with me since I first watched it.
The most memorable scene for me is transiting the Straits of Gibraltar. When the captain screams "ALARM" still gives me chills every time I think about it.
It was the head machinist. But yeah, the moment where the commander puts the gun away afterwards and you realize, he was about to shoot him... that was so intense.
A great scene. That engineer was somewhat crazy from the beginning, he would spend all his time in the engine room listening to the cylinders, or the pistons, or whatever. Once he appeared on the tower, and they told him 'It's nice to have some fresh air, eh?' and he's like, 'No, it isn't', and went back immediately. And as you watch the depth charges scene, you feel the absolute terror of the situation, which made this kinda guy leave his beloved diesel engines and run for his life, at 200 meters beneath the surface.
This is an absolutely amazing series. The German's ( incredibly serious ) answer to all those gung ho American WW2 flicks ( Hey - I love those too ). My Dad sat me down to watch this when I was a kid. I'm still impressed that he reckoned I was mature enough to deal with such an impacting experience.
But like he said: don't bother with the directors cut. It does itselve a disservice. It flopped at the movies and right so. Try to really see the 6x45min somewhere. Here in Germany it's on Amazon.
I remember when this was out in theaters, and I remember it received great critical praise. But, until today I did not realize it was actually originally a miniseries.
As an old retired cold-war submariner, I can tell you that this series is at the top of the list for most of us as the most realistic, gritty, and honest of the submarine moves out there (before and since). Your comment, "submarine duty is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of panic" is spot-on. Thank you for reviewing this one. Green Board.
As a German speaker, I can't imagine seeing this movie in any other language. When I lived in Switzerland, my parents took me to the studio where they made the film in Bavaria. I was in the actual model where they made the film and as a kid, even I felt almost claustrophobic. Then they showed us the pool and the two models they used for the underwater shots. So every time I watch this movie (yeah, movie. Can't get the whole series in Australia), I have to think back that I was on this set. Can highly recommend this movie. Just alone for the music.
Music is spot-on, masterpiece by Doldinger, funnily he had only the main theme composed before seeing the cut and composed the pieces around the scenes... but yeah been there in the Bavaria Studios back in the late 80s or early 90s as a child and the Boat as well as riding on Fuchur was like the highlights... Cheers from Ireland to Down Under
One of the cooler elements to the filming is they shot it in sequence like it was a road movie, and kept the cast inside the warehouse where they filmed the whole time. Thus as time passes in the film they legitimately become pale dirty and unhealthy.
Something you don't hear much about is how bad the men smelled after after a patrol. I doubt the officers on the supply ship would have been able to be so nonchalant about it.
My favorite part of Das Boot is when they are stuck on the bottom, almost out of hope, and then they are able to repair it enough so that it rises back to the surface and the engines restart. You almost forget it's a war movie but rather a Poseidon Adventure type survival story.
And the soundtrack is simply wonderful! Never have Diesels sounded better!!! Und die Filmmusik ist einfach unübertroffen! Niemals klangen Diesel sooo gut!!!
This and "Cross of iron" along with the German production "stalingrad" from 1993, are the holy trinity, almost only, war films from the German viewpoint. There was talk of having Paul Verhoeven make Guy Sajer's "Forgotten soldier" based on the classic book but it came to nothing. There is a serious gap of films of this kind, for reasons that are probably obvious when you remember who runs hollywood, but there is a lot of drama inherent in films from this POV. Particularly gripping would be a well-made film (do they make those now?) based on the German night or day fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe. It was exactly like Battle of Britain, if that had lasted 4 years - where German pilots flew and fought until they were killed, and the story opportunities are seemingly obvious.
@@robertmaybeth3434 Was there ever a movie version of Die Bruecke (The Bridge), a slim book by Hans Helmut Kirst (as I recall). The book is superb, and I thought someone did a film version, which I never saw.
@@joannleichliter4308 If you search for "die Bruecke" on wikipedia you'll find the 1959 film. It also says it is based on the novel by Gregor Dorfmeister, under the pseudonym Manfred Gregor.
The first time I saw this movie was in our barracks at 29 Palms Ca. just before we were waiting to ship out for the first Gulf War. We were a reservist tank unit called up and one of the last ones to deploy. The Marine Corps still had the old M60 tanks and we were one of the first units going through accelerated training on the M1A1 Abrams, the Corps didn't have them yet and weren't scheduled to get them until March of '91, so now was as good a time as any to start getting their tankers trained up ahead of schedule.. So on Christmas Day '90 we had one day off and we watched this. Why, we don't know. Not the movie you want to watch going into combat, considering the claustrophobic experiences shared by sub crews and tankers.
Jost Vacano is one of my absolute favorite german Cinematographers. His colaborations with dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (Robocop & Total Recall) are also fantastic.
The sub actually was a 1:1 build and you could visit it back in the day in the film studios. I was lucky enough to walk through the sub. Btw, I also read the book twice, its a good read.
The same u-boat type (but a real one and the last of one) can be visited in the german town Laboe. You can walk through the entire thing. The only obvious difference is that in comparison to the movie boat the original boats were painted white on th inside to make better use of the lights inside.
The boat (as in the inside of it where most scenes were shot) is still on display at the Bavaria Studios in Munich today and you can still walk through it on a guided tour.
@@stable_confusion That old girl is the best thing that ever happened to them. And they keep paying their respects while making a buck or two on her past glory.
And I give you middle finger one. For this period of time alone, your so-called - nation cobbled together barely century earlier, should have been wiped form face of the planet, as you have been enthusiastically trying to do to others.
@@piotrd.4850 And other nations like the british empire, Japan, various middle east countries, the roman empire and others didn't want to destroy other lands or don't have skeletons in the closet? No, it's always Germany. Give me a break.
When I was in submarines in the RAN in the 80s we had a copy of the movie on each boat. Our submarines were very similar systems wise. We watched it regularly
Personal question, why would you wanna serve in a submarine? Its months in a closed container box, with every piece of equipment crammed including the crew, with the risk of dying in a deep grave.
@@Rohv I was young and failed pilot selection. It's another type of flying but with no windows. Also, our training was done in the UK so I got a free trip to Europe. It's pretty exciting. A lot of the time It's frightening and I'll never forget what we did. You are always one mistake away from disaster. Comraderie is next level. The saying is "once a submariner always a submariner "
Can I ask you Chris if you enjoyed your service time on subs, and if the food served to you at that time was good quality? I've been watching a number of US submarine 'chow' clips in which the meals served to submariners look pretty darn good, i.e, morale-boosting 'comfort' food. Just curious to ask, and thanks in advance.
My son is a former submariner and worked on the power plan on the *Los Angeles* class. I had been aboard the Uboot in Chicago and a few other US WWII submarines. Honestly, the US Navy's "Gato" class was less crowded than his submarine.
@@beeman2075I enjoyed it. The crew were close and professional but teased each other relentlessly. I was on oberons in the 80s. They are small diesel boats. The food was ok but I honestly can't remember much other than some unique issues. The officer's mess has a small pantry outside. That's where our coffee urn was. It was directly under the diesel tank test cocks. They leaked. All our coffees tasted of diesel. The beer was stored in the after torpedo tubes because we didn't use them. The torpedos that fitted were not the same size as the bigger torpedoes carried up forward. They had been removed from service. The tubes leaked hydraulic oil so the beer tasted of Hydraulic fluid. The galley was tiny and just forward of our mess. There were 2 cooks and they did a great job feeding 70 of us.
If you're gonna watch the movie instead of the series, I highly recommend the Director's Cut, with lots of added scenes that really show the psychological boredom and intellectual starvation of months at sea stuck in a cramped submarine. And while I would be terrified of being crushed like a can from depth charges, my greatest fear is the two toilets for 50 men.
You mean the two toilets where one was filled with supplies at the beginning of the trip, leaving only one toilet available for 50 men in the beginning? :-)
The Director's Cut is the one I'd recommend. The mini-series is a bit much for the average viewer, and is quite slow-paced. If you love the film version, you can always watch the mini-series later and appreciate the extra material.
In Munich you can visit the set of "Das Boot", walk inside the U-96 and look at all the details you can see in the movie. Also you get an impression of the confinement of a submarine. Really a great experience. Great movie, great soundtrack.
I was there as a child. I was always small for my age and still it was very claustrophobic. As an adult it must be much worse. By the way, if in munich, one might visit the "Deutsches Museum". There one can compare "das Boot" with a real german U-Boot from WWI. Those were even narrower. The one in the museum is cut open on the side, so you cannot go "inside", though.
I mentioned it here elsewhere, but it´s a really interesting experience to visit the boat (at Bavaria Filmstudios). You can get a real sense of space, especially imaging to live in this thing for weeks and months
They made a movie, a directors cut, a mini series, and i think an extra long movie, after the first movie was successful but the author was not happy with it.
Many times Germans of this Era are shown as ruthless, evil, almost comic book like Villains, when in reality most of them were just Soldiers. Today it's easy to say "I would have stood up to the Government" but is it really the case? Beeing seen as a Traitor in that time was very serious. See Hans and Sophie Scholl for example.
We will never really be able to completely comprehend what ordinary Germans lived through- the immense pressure, just in their day-to-day lives- especially those in government-appointed positions: _They_ went after teachers & even sports coaches - Elsbeth Emmerich (no idea if she’s related to Roland...) who was a school girl during the war, described something of the pressure people in such positions were put under, to join. I’ll quote from the book I got it from, **Reader’s Digest- Journeys into the Past- Life on the Home Front, Chapter; The Axis Powers: Behind Enemy Lines** _Her mother, a keen sportswoman, took up coaching young athletes during the early war years. Not long after, there was a knock at the door. ‘Enter a stranger. A strange man with a notebook & pencil, & a N*** pin in his lapel. He’d heard about my mother & her achievements. He’d assumed that she was a member of the Party, & only found out she was not when he checked his records.’ (Of course, anyone who referred to the Party meant the N- - - Party, there _*_was_*_ only one). ‘No doubt that was just an oversight, he went on, & would she join? He had his pencil at the ready but my mother froze over & said firmly “NO”. She did not want to become a member of the Party. He wanted to know her reasons, & she had reasons of her own. He didn’t understand. “You realise you cannot keep your position as coach to our young girls, unless you are a member of the Party?” My mum said surely coaching had nothing to do with politics, & that being a Party member would not make her a better coach. However, the man with the Party pin in his lapel knew better, & my mother had to give up a much-cherished job.’_ The scientist in ‘Captain America’ had it right: the first country the Nazis invaded was their own.
@@Freakinger81 No worries! I think I heard somewhere about the Resistance; for every big act of sabotage, there were a dozen little ones- from working slowly, to misplacing information/ machinery parts, or delaying information/ repairs - people probably protested in their own small ways- ways that wouldn’t get them killed, or bring negative attention to their families...
@@OcarinaSapphr- Funfact... the most organised resistance against Hitler... was in the Wehrmacht. Heck, the Head of the Abwehr (German intelligence), Wilhelm Canaris, was part of the Resistance and was executed in KZ Flossenbrück. Canaris overall had a rather interesting history, starting WWI as First Officer on the SMS Dresden, basically commanding the ship after its captain just shut down, playing a daring game of cat and mice against the RN and the Japanese. After the Dresden was sunk (it had been, on its own accord, interned in Chile, but the RN didn't care and didn't give a flying fuck about CHile's neutrality), he and the rest of the crew were interned in Chile... he snuck out, crossed South America on his own (crossing the Cordillera on horseback) and in the End returning to Germany. Then he was sent as spy to Spain.
There were some horrifically evil people in Germany back then (Dirlewanger, Mengele, Freisler, to name a few), but usually they were found somewhere cushy behind the front.
People say that because they've never been in that position. Historically, almost everyone obeys the mob, the guy with the gun, or the guy who decides who gets paid and who doesn't.
If we're doing Wolfgang Petersen films, then at some point you have to make a video about _Enemy Mine._ It's one that not many people seem to remember, but everyone I've shown it to so far has loved it.
- They build part of the interior on a giant seesaw, that was one bad weld away from crashing down spectacularly. - They had a 1:1 "seaworthy" U-boat model for exterior shots, which broke apart after one day of filming. The morning after they used it for the first time, Wolfgang Peterson got a call, because "his Uboat was floating around in pieces". A few hours earlier and those actory might have gone down with it during filming, because they were dressed in really heavy "sailorclothes". - One stuntman had to ride in a smaller U-boat model to steer it through rough seas. That dude thought he would drown, because it leaked and was closed off in a way, that he couldnt get out of quickly. - During the ending scene the guy who was responsible for all the explosions really had fun. It was like that dude in tropic thunder, who only lived to blow stuff up. Semmelrogge (one of the actors) was right in the middle of it and wanted to fucking murder him after he was able to hear and think again. Brillant movie! They just dont do them like this anymore...
@@robertmaybeth3434 I think i remember that from multiple sources. I saw most of those points in a documentation once, but it was in german. The documentation was called "Das Boot - Welterfolg aus der Tiefe" made by the german tv-station "arte". Here is a text about the documentation, but its not very thorough, there was much more in the documentation itself: www.nq-online.de/blogs/film-dreharbeiten-am-limit-40-jahre-das-boot_62_111993752-16.html The documentation itself seems unfortunately to not be available anymore... if anyone finds it again, please tell. p.s. here is another one, but its not about the problems during the filming. Still interesting imho: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MxnhXCP-uWs.html
I watched this for the first time while visiting family in Wyoming - the tv area was a dank, windowless, freezing basement room. Really added a little something-something to the experience. Love this film - absolute masterclass in tension.
What a great series, with impact on the viewers. One of the best ever made. Also a litttle bit of a "Production Hell" title, the water stream in a storm was strong enough for one of the cast to break his arm, and they werent allowed to shave or go outside, because submariners dont have a tan.
I recall watching it when I was a kid below 10, to this day I still remember those dreaded metallic noises when they went below the depth allowed and how they limped to the docks just to be sunk there.. it's a movie that stays with you for longer
The U-Boat menace in the Atlantic was one of the last fronts to finally turn in favor for the Allies. It's literally the one thing that reportedly kept Churchill awake at night. By the end, those who served on U-Boats suffered one of the highest loss rates in the war with roughly 70% lost IIRC. I wager the only unit that suffered a higher loss rate was the Japanese Kamikaze pilots.
@@damienmayne7205 Yeah, once coverage by air power of the Atlantic was achieved by Spring 1943, serving on a U-Boat was increasingly a dangerous task. Radar on planes and escort ships plus the widespread deployment of a naval mortar called the "Hedgehog" was a death sentence for the U-Boat crews but they fought on till the very end.
@@1977Yakko Yet, few of them were Nazis. Like the fallschirmjager, too. They were just brave Germans who were doing their part like any soldier/sailor/airman would in war. The only difference is they did it with such deadly professionalism it was terrifying.
You have to understand the chances of survival for Uboats varied during course of the war. At the end they could count themselfs lucky if they even got out on the atlantic.
Yesss.....as a submariner myself, this was required watching for all submarine sailors. We all feel the pain shown onscreen, especially during sub on sub battles..we dont see sub sailors from other countries as enemies, but as brothers. Whenever a sub is lost in the real world, our entire community mourns as if we served along side them.
The subs of WW2 had no meaningful way of fighting each other. Many models had a deck cannon but that was only useful for attacking surface vessels. There were no anti submarine torpedoes, and no anti submarine submarines. So they just shared the same shitty reality. Most submariners never came home.
@@comingviking you're right. Today's subs are submersible boats that can surface if needed, WW11 subs were surface ships that could submerge if needed....whole different type.of warfare. Australia still uses the WWII-esque type sub..in size and shape. OMg I don't know how they did it. That was one ofnthe smallest subs I'd ever been on, and I went down on a Skipjack class in Groton, and that was tiny compared to the floating city of Tridents I spent my years on.
@@collincutler4992 are you possibly referring to the HMAS Onslow? She's an Oberon class submarine currently docked at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney and was an early post war submarine, now a museum exhibit. Today we use the Collins-class diesel electric, based on the Swedish Gotland. With a snorkel, they too remain submerged until they need to surface, running a snorkel to charge batteries at periscope depth for a few minutes a day. The Gotland based classes are highly successful - the Swedish beat a US carrier group and the Aussies beat a US ASW TF during war games!
I watched it last month for the first time. And I was not a disappointed. As a German I can say the acting in this one is unbelievable good. This movie deserves all the praise and the high IMDB rating it got.
Drinker nails it again - this film is a masterpiece - I only saw the theatrical release - I didn't realize it was a series. The casting and acting, the sets, the cinematography, the story are all timeless. Still a classic, unique war film that I never get tired of.
Being german I grew up with this movie (or mini series) I visited the set at bavaria movie studios and I remember when "Das Boot" was on TV the streets were empty. Absolutely love the whole vibe of this thing, the terror, the authenticity and the whole cast. This is not only the best U-Boat movie, but also the best german Movie, at least after the war. I am german, and I think this was a very bold project in the first place, the topic as such is not exactly something that is easy to get money for. I also love "The Hunt for Red October" but for other reasons, if you only judge a U-boat movie by how authentic the life on board a U-boat was actually represented, I think "Das Boot" absolutely nails it. (OK, I only was on a U-Boat once, so I'm no expert) I guess the cast knew from the start that they are part of something big and they put everything they had into this movie, which shows in my opinion. I mean Grönemeyer is a musician, still he performs like he never done anything else than acting, and Prochnow ties it all together with a performance that is simply legendary.
One of the greatest seafaring series of all time. The angst and the tension run ramrod right through the entire narrative. At times it’s downright terrifying in intensity. One of the few pieces of filmic art that has stood the test of time. Bravo!
Absolutely amazing piece of entertainment. I was lucky to find it during my German language studies and after watching it all in one sitting, I felt like I was a crew member of that U-boat myself. I also like how it doesn't do the typical "Nazis are bad" spiel, which was overused even then. There was one guy on board who was a Nazi and atypically he didn't show himself a coward or traitor to his fellow soldiers, he did his job during the critical situation near the end and saved a life of a crewmember. I like when movies do show a human part of German army of that time, since first of all - not everyone in the army was a Nazi and also Nazis, and I know it might be hard pill to swallow, they were also humans. I find it very compelling when movies touch on that aspect, how do people live with such an ideology, how did they got there, etc.
You should give "Die Brücke" from 1959 or "Stalingrad" from 1993 a go, both are also some of the best War Movies and also from the german perspective. War just sucks.
@@henriklarssen1331 Oh ye "Stalingrad", a movie that will make you feel the chill of Russian winter even during the hottest of summers. Never heard of "Die Brücke" though, thanks for recommendation, I'll check it out.
Many people became members of the NSDAP out of opportunitism, not because they believed in the ideology. Same as those who became member of the Bolshevik Party in the USSR or who currently are members of the Chinese Communist Party. And it's not an unknown phenomenon in today's Western democracies as well, being a member of the ruling party will help your career.
For many people its easier to believe those nazi's were unhuman monsters than accept the fact that every normal human can do horrible things if the circumstances pushes them in that direction.
Das Boot is a classic in every sense of the word. In this genre, it never has (and I believe never will be) equaled in it's scope, depth and sincerity of presentation. This is also the film that introduced me to the excellent Jurgen Prochnow, who in my opinion was a great Leto Atreides in the 1984 film Dune.
This film and Lawrence of Arabia go up there as the two best ever war films; neither glorifies it, but rather tells the story of what it was really like, through the eyes of people we can relate to.
@@SacClass650 a few; it's pretty gritty and shows the mental toll war takes on people, even gifted leaders - it's no jingoistic film, and rather takes a huge peg out of the British Empire's self-proclaimed 'good guys' image.
I watched Lawrence of Arabia in full for the first time last year. Amazing movie, a true masterpiece. Older films are sometimes hit or miss for me because of how dated technical effects can look, but that movie does such an amazing job with the plot and characters that everything else falls away.
i am pretty much a recluse and shut in, but after watching the mini series in the dark and on a hot and humid day with bad air inside, that series actually makes me go out and take a walk around the park.
The feature length version that hit theatres is one of the iconic "must watch" submarine films of all time. I have seen it several times, in slightly different versions (in German, dubbed, theatrical cut...) and it never fails to affect me. I honestly didn't know it was a series...
Another interesting fact about Das Boot is the diverse cast. You get many different accents, some standard German, some Hamburgian dialect, some Vienna (Austria!) dialect, Berlin dialect and so on, greatly representing how diverse the Reich was back then. Also the scene where they torpedo the tanker and leave the British crew to die because they literally cannot take them on board is just horrible. I've watched the movie five times and I ALWAYS cry during that scene. It's just so terrible to watch.
...which gets to me everytime. That slo mo of our heroes going over, the fadeover to a beautiful french landscape today that remembers nothing of their plight, the most tender rendition of Blackadders theme imaginable... damn I'm getting dust im my eyes writing this right now.
I was in college when the "movie cut" of this came out and was showing in our theater. (Had an on campus public/student movie theater!! Those were the days!) Any way, I worked in the restaurant section of the Student Union. There was a father/son( Prof Emeritus/Professor) I knew who ate breakfast regularly. They went to see Das Boot. This is how his son found out his dad was an enlisted Submariner in the US NAVY in the Pacific during WWII. The Son was telling me about how much the movie just affected his Dad. Just like Das Boot, he was bombed, depth charged, surface battle, had two boats shot right out from under him. Lost a bunch friends and family. But he fought on. His Dad almost broke his arm when the first charges went off on the screen, kept saying we're fine, get out, hang on, and so on. They left the theater he said, and his Dad was soaked in sweat, just like several other older men that were there. The Son was a Marine in Vietnam for two tours and said he had never seen that "stare" like his Dad had, even with being in Vietnam. We both agreed that his Dad was right there in that Boat with those men, even with it being a movie. The family knew "Dad" was in the Navy during the War. That was it. He said his Dad asked his wife, (the son's Mom) to never tell them what service. She showed him his service ribbons, and he had several rows. Suddenly "Dad" wasn't just some retired Early American history professor! Submariners have a bond across the board, but Submariners from WWII, whether friend or foe, share a bond that only"they" will ever know.
This movie still influences german people to this day, even people who never saw it. For example, someone in command of a task is sometimes referred to with the word "Kaleu". That's what the captain of the U-boat is called from the crew, a short form of his rank, Kapitänleutnant.
Saw it when it was first broadcast on TV as (I think) a 5 part serial. Riveting, mind blowing telly, and thank God they did the sub-title version not the dubbed one. My mum, who lived through the War and regarded the film with considerable scepticism, said at the end "You almost feel sorry for them" which I think is the best accolade the makers could have hoped for. Our generation will never "get it", and my mum's will probably not understand how we can see both sides of a conflict that took so many of their generation, but Das Boot is a fine testament to the human side of war and the toll it takes on everyone. The scene where the captain says of his crew, "These lads, these wonderful lads..." is one of the most heart-rending in cinema history. I hope anyone who saw your video who hasn't seen Das Boot will rush out to watch it. They won't be disappointed.
I first watched it on Norwegian TV in German with Norwegian subtitles. Nether language I speak. And I lost nothing. I had no trouble fallowing the story. To this day it’s one of my top favourite films.
