Das Boot (1981) Reaction/Commentary
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2024
- Hey All! This one was an absolute epic. What's weird is that this movie is still enjoyable besides a large swath of the film involving nothing happening on the u-boat (at least in the director's cut I watched). The ending came out of nowhere, and after first feeling shock, I then came to understand the point of the movie and why it had to end that way.
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The real chief engineer of U96 died last year at an age of 107. He was the last surviving german WWII U-Boat veteran.
Not bad!
RIP for that Veteran. I love you boats and admire those that crew them.
@@Randall82760 You do not hounor a german WWII soldier. You never now, many soldiers of the Wehrmacht were involved in war crimes. Some of course did not like what they had to do, but praising a veteran like in youre comment sounds a bit wrong. "I love you boats" These boats attacked non millitary british ships as part of their mission, they had to do bad thinks.
@@philipschulze2.070jedes kämpfende Land in beiden Weltkriegen war an Kriegsverbrechen beteiligt.
A chief engineer who refuses to go down until he's 107 - That's impressive. Ruhe In Frienden
This film shows that there is nothing heroic about war. It's all about death, loss, violence and pain. There is nothing good. That is the fundamental message of this masterpiece. Peace.
You forgot FEAR and PANIC and TERROR ... and for this reason it is and will be a masterpiece of cinema for all time. The tight conditions of the submarine makes it nearly impossible to "show bad stuff from a distance to lessen the impact", which is the weakness of many other big war movies.
Bullshit ... 🤦🏿♀️
@@huskytully3887 please elaborate. What exactly is BS?
@@Muck006 ... and BOREDOM! it's one of the few war movies that really shows this underrated aspect for many soldiers: it's so boring for huge portions during the service, it almost drives them insane.
@@montanus777 This is war as soldier; boredom.... followed by short periods of fear, terror, pain and horror....
In my opinion, the best war film ever made. I visited a U-Boat that is now a museum in Kiel. Germany. It is incredibly small and that's coming from an ex tank crewman!.
@melbeasly9762 One other movie that is right up there with this one is german director Joseph Vilsmaier's 1993 "Stalingrad".
The boat in Kiel is more or less the same type as in the movie. It survived the war and was in service in Norway for some years
Laboe.
Some of the scenes for Das Boot were actually shot in Laboe near Kiel in the museum boat U995.
Of the 40.000 men serving as submariners in WW2 on the german side, 30.000 did not return...
My grandpa was on a U-Boat, while just 17 yrs old. His boat was sunk and he was rescued by a German crew.
After that, he was engaged to a a supply vessel for the German U-Boat fleet and was sunk again, but rescued another time, but this time by the British.
He was lucky after all and made some lifelong friends in England during his captivity.
He hated war and was quite open about his being anti-fascist during the rest of his life!
I'll never forget him.
please help people understand their are no winners in war, their are far to many losses (people died or mangled physically and/or mentally which can be worse than death).
i lived in a little place in Essex UK and there were this little squad that lived near each other and all connected with the war there was Otto a German pilot or air crew shot down and held as a POW fell in love with the place married an English girl lol then Annie Paul who was in the Dutch Resistance lol then we called him "Old" Dave Thomas British Army i'm not sure what he was in but he was welsh and a wizard mechanic then old Phil from Barbados who also served in the British Army lol honestly it was funny but lovely they all used to get on and have a drink with each other in the local pub.
The supply vessels were called milchcows.Oversized subs that had fuel.
@@kevinronske9894 While these existed (officially called the Type XIV submarine) only ten of them were ever built. Most supply ships simply were surface ships. Many used to be civilian cargo ships which had been drafted.
My grandfather was a cook on a submarine. He didn't make it.
Lieutenant Werner is more or less Lothar-Günther Buchheim, the author of the novel Das Boot, which the movie is based on.
He was a war correspondent aboard ships and U-boats during WW II, including the U-96.
As a retired vet myself, i understand why they showed compassion towards the survivors of a doomed ship. Once their machines are destroyed, they are no longer combatants but survivors that are entitled to an opportunity to surrender. The Geneva Convention makes concessions for situations like that.
And they thought the crew had already been saved when they fired the last torpedo.
In addition, there's no room and food enough for POWs in such a small sub.
True, however german submariens had been ordered NOT to take POWs, first there was no food and second. There was the "Laconia order" Named after the RMS Laconia. The ship was accidently sunk by a german submarine and the german Captain was like "What the hell, take the lifeboads in tow and we bring the boys back home, that means POW for us, but the survivors are safe" So they did, they towed the lifeboads and painted the submarine with a big red cross. After that, the Captain called the US Navy on an international rescue chanel saying "This is U156, we come with survivors, we need help, many lifeboads in tow" ...However, in one of the most outrages war crimes, the US Navy was like "Thats a stupid trick, sink them" Without warning, there was no help, there were Bombers. They opend fire and U156 was forced to dive and abandon the few remaining survivors. After that, german commander in chief, Admiral Dönitz gave the "Laconia order" saying, no submarine is allowed to help.
@@TiisiphoneIt's more than that. In the beginning of the war U-Boats did take survivors on board, however there where several instances where the british sailors tried to take over the U-boats afterwards. This lead to High Command giving orders to no longer take survivors on board.
@@HH-hd7nd Makes sense. Now that you mention it, I think it's briefly explained in the book (I read it years ago).
Jürgen Prochnow was 40 years old at the time of filming. The real captain after which he was modelled was around 30 years old when he was commanding the u-boat and he was called "Der Alte" (the old guy) by the crew. For me this hard to imagine. When I was 30, I barely had my shit together so to speak.
The Captain of a warship is always called "the old man" regardless of his age, it's à naval tradition in France, Germany, USA, UK and probably other countries.
Well, he usually WAS the oldest man on the boat, and the most experienced. Aside from that, it should be noted that by rank, the captain is a "Kapitänleutnant" which in the Royal Navy or the US Navy would be a Lieutenant. Aside from that, keep in mind the information at the beginning of the movie - your chances to get old as a submariner weren't particularly high.
similar how ace pilot Gregory "Pappy" Boyington received his nickname. his wing called him gramps (grand pa) because he was 31 when he took command of the squad. (later changed it to pappy)
My German physics professor in high school was only 21 years old (!) when he became chief engineer (LI) on a submarine in 1944.
He had watched the film when it came out and found it quite realistic. When we naively asked him if the action scenes weren't a bit exaggerated, he replied that it had been much worse in reality than the film depicted.
@@ohauss a lieutenant does not command a submarine
the lowest rank of commander is Major / Lieutenant Commander
the next lieutenant colonel / Commander
the highest rank is Colonel / Captain
the group or zone commander is usually the Commodore
* remove all furniture and carpets from your viewing room.
* hang up blackout curtains.
* remove all lighting, replace with a single dim red bulb.
* wear wool and cords. Do not change them for three weeks.
* scatter rusty metal parts around the room.
* hang German dried sausages everywhere.
* run a tube from car exhaust into room. Fill room with CO gas to taste.
* puke in one corner. Do not clean it up.
* relieve yourself in a bucket. Do not empty it.
* throw 30-40l of water around the room. Let it go stagnant.
* sleep no more than four hours a night on a cheap, broken camp bed.
* no showers.
* eat only 1 meal a day, stale bread and those sausages you hung up only.
* drink only 100ml of water a day.
* get a friend to throw firecrackers at you at random intervals. Throw yourself into the walls when they do.
* repeat for three weeks.
Congratulations. You have a sense of what it was like to live on a U-boat.
You are now ready to watch "Das Boot"
Most of it has nothing to do with living in a u-boat, were did you that BS with only 100ml of water and only one meal of stale bread and dry sausage per day?
@@wolf310iihe got it from official reports that say the water purification equipment broke after depth charges....
read a book...
@@fonkyman BS, he made all that up.
And its you who schould read a book.
Even if the water purification and the kitchen is destroyed beyond repair, they still have enough fresh water for 2 liters per man and day for 2-3 weeks.
Also not in movie nor on the real U-96 on its 7th patrol was the rationed to 100ml per day
@@wolf310ii lol so you didnt read OFFICIAL REPORTS and im the dumbass
You know they were out for more than 2 or 3 weeks right ?
And surely you must understand there were more boats than the one in this movie right ?
I guess thise guys who wrote those reports were bored and just made it up
And i never said anything about100ml.. just that equipment broke which leg to rationing of water suply...
But stay ignorant :)
@@fonkyman Yeah sure, i wrote 100ml per day is BS and you answered he had it from official reports.
I call out your BS and now you never knew about the 100ml.
You know u-boats returned to harbour when something importand broke and couldnt repaired on sea?
Maybe read some offical reports, often they even returned after1-2 days for repairs and they didnt start a patrol (wich was usually 3-5 weeks) with a broken destilling unit.
Maybe read the technical documentation, the Typ VII started the patrol with 3,8m³ fresh water in 3 seperate tanks.
Among other things, the captain also played Duke Leto Atreides in the old Dune movie.
One of the few sensible casting decisions in that one.
and a james bond villain... like every good german actor :D
@@ollihro82 Jürgen Prochnow wasn't in any Bond movie. Do you mean Gottfried John, who played a russian general in Goldeneye?
you're right ..I was thinking about beverly hills cop ^^ @@CaptCondor
@@ollihro82 As most german actors, Prochnow was a villain in quiet a few Hollywood movies :P. Judge Dredd also comes to mind.
Which is sad, because when you see movies in which he is not the villain, you can see what a good actor with a lot fo warmth he can be
You know you are watching a good WWII movie if you start rooting for a german crew to survive.
I have always rooted for the Germans in movies since I was a kid back in the 80's. Simply because every hollywood movie I have seen portrays ordinary German soldiers as evil and having no value and dehumanised.
As a german myself i might be biased but i share your view.
I get why US movies portrait germans the way they do. It's easy (and lazy) writing and that's what most of the target audience expects to see.
It's everything but a truthful depiction of reality. Sure, germans did bad things but so did the other nations as well. It's war. Bad things happen in war.
The only US movie which comes to mind which shows "the enemy" in a human way is Letters from Iwo Jima. Surely there are others so let me know 🙂
Other great movies which i can recommend for a reaction (both german films like Das Boot) are Stalingrad (1993) and Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004)
@@jdoe77 I agree, those are among my favourite war movies. Not a German myself though.
I simply can't stand movies with "heroes" and one side that is the good one.
War is really something that should be avoided and where diplomacy fails. It's horrible with warmongering propaganda.
The director was among the American audience in a theater when the film was released.
At the start, showing how many personnel never got home, they cheered. That made the director a little worried.
At the end though, they gave the film a standing ovation. This is a hell of a film.
U-boats had usually 3-5 Hydrophon/Radiooperators.
The Typ VII U-Boat had stored oxygen and CO2 scrubber for 72 hours, if they were used up, they had air for around 6-8 hours befor the CO2 concentration became dangerous.
Vigo was in neutral Spain, the resupply had to be done as quick and quiet as possible, and they had to be out of harbour befor sunrise, because the UK would make a fuss about it and also send a destroyer to wait for the u-boat.
Unlike the US Navy, for the Kriegsmarine the goal was to sink ships, not to kill as much sailors as possible.
On larger convoys the Brits had small empty freighters with extra quarters and medical staff to pick up survivors, on smaller convoys one of the escort had the duty to pick them up.
Thats why the captain of the u-boat is upset that there are still people on the burning ship.
one reason he didn't mind them being drunk on shore is that the uboat arm suffered a 75% casualty rate
The end of the movie never happened, the attack was added for dramatic effect. U-boot U-96 and her crew made it. The movie is based on the novel written by the war correspondant we see in the movie. The Captain survived the war and was a technical advisor to movie director Wolfgang Petersen.
Older officers like the Captain and Thomsen are from the "old guard" who were in the military before the N@zis came to power. Many of them were closet anti-n@zis.
In Europe, women sleeping with the enemy had to go through "the walk of shame" at the end of the war, they heads were shaven and they were paraded through the city's streets, naked and with swastikas painted on their bodies. The crowd threw rotten vegetables and stones at them.
The movie's pace is purposefully slow because this is what sub warefare was all about: very few action and a lot of waiting.
One of my favorite war movies for sure!
The ending was already part of the novel. Lothar Günther Buchheim was a very vocal critic of how Dönitz and High Command send out wave after wave of Uboats - sacrificing them for very little gain - after the war was over. That's why, when Buchheim wrote the novel, he put that ending in as part of is very strong anti-war message.
Hey Mike, I just wanted to say thank you for watching this. The directors cut is definitely the way to go with this movie. This is not only one the best submarine movie ever made, but just one of the best movies ever made.
The German sub was not a submarine in the technical sense, but a U-boat. When travelling underwater it used electrical power, drawn from batteries giving it a limited range. It had to spend most of the time on the surface where it was propelled by two diesel engines which also charged the battery.
Exactly! I read that "Das Boot" was based on the Type VII C submarine. (U 96)
But that was true for practically all WW2 submarines. They were technically submersibles.
Unterseeboot is just the german word for submarine. There is no difference in meaning.
I would argue that the miniserie rather than the movie it's been shorten down to is much better.
@@RazzerKFG Yepp, the mini-series is even better, but at well over five hours it is a bit much to take in. At times it stretches to better show the mind-boggling boredom the crews were exposed to, but it takes it a tiny bit too far in some cases. Like somebody said: "Warfare is 90% insane boredom with 10% abject terror."
Fits perfectly for any submarine crews in WW2.
Some real WW2 submarine veterans watched this movie in the theaters when it came out, but some had to leave because it was so realistic (similar to American veterans in Saving Private Ryan) . But they ended up thanking the director for finally telling their story.
Btw, they were not trying to attack the port. They wanted to break through Gibraltar to get into the Mediterranean and get a new home port in Italy. At the time Rommel was attacking in North Africa and they needed U-Boats in the Mediterranean to protect Rommel's supply lines. This was really happening and UBoats actually managed to break through, but it wasn't easy. It also weakened the presence in the Atlantic because Germany didn't have enough boats to begin with.
Even ex submariners who saw this on TV had PTSD more so on the scene when the depth chargers was blowing up around them.
The party scene at the beginning : People who served on U Boats realized they were pretty much dead..thats why in the moments they had they went completely bananas living every moment to the max. Also the guy who plays Lt Werner is Herbert Grönemeyer...one of the greatest German music stars of all time...look him up..he fills 100k ppl stadiums
What not many people outside of Germany know: This film is an adaptation of the book with the same name. The author, Lothar-Günther Buchheim, based it on his own experiences as a propaganda officer being guest on several ships. The captain (only ever called "Kaleu", short for his rank) is actually modelled after the captain of the Wehrmacht, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (who actually managed to survive the war, and later from 1969 to 1974 commanded Germany's first and only nuclear ship, the "Otto Hahn"). Das Boot is the first book of a trilogy about the Kaleu and Buchheim. The other two are called Die Festung (The Fortress) and Der Abschied (The Farewell).
It is "Kaleun", short for Kapitän Leutnant, which was his rank. Sorry for being picky here. ;)
@@Suriel08 In the modern German navy they are addressed as "Herr Kaleu"
@@LeutnantJoker In WW2 it was Kaleun. Personally I like it better, Kaleu sounds like something from Karneval. ;)
Der Dienstgrad eines „ Marine Hauptmann“ ist immer ein Kapitänleutnant! Abgekürzt: Kaleu.
I think it's just a movie about the realities of war. No matter which side you're on, the governments have thrown you into the most horrific situation and you are fighting for your and your comrades survival. Also it being a german film and german guilt that they have, they wouldn't make a film where it's at all a glorious ending for them. Great review dude! Enjoyable!
"All quite on the Western Front" is not about WW2, but About WW1. The original book is from 1928. The first movie adaptation was from 1930, and was banned in Nazi-Germany, after they already forced the movie to be censored after its release.
EDIT: Even if the Director's Cut is a great version, I still prefer the television Version with a running time over 300 minutes, divided into three or six (depending on the airing) smaller segments. That was the first version I ever saw, when I was about 13 years old.
EDIT2: Yes, you watched the Director's Cut, with about 200 minutes running time. The Theatrical cut has about 140 minutes runtime.
One of my favorite movies of all time. I was chuckling when Mike was lamenting that the movie wasn't showing much action. Once it gets going it never lets up!
Which was definitely purposefully and intentionally done. There's an unsourced quote:"Warfare is 90% insanity-inducing boredom with 10% abject terror."
My uncle was about 20 in 1943 working on a mine search vessel and he told me the U-Bootleute didnt even fear the Gestapo. When you have gone through that shoot, what shall you be afraid of?!
It's a strange thing for me, as a U.S. Submariner, but I feel brotherhood for the German submariners. Seeing them killed at the end is devastating.
Hey brother, are you part Thai?
That's right@@mikewatchesstuff
@timothypanngam2249 Same! I have never known another US veteran that was also Thai. I think we're a rare breed
34:28 The guy really broke a few bones.
There are simply too few reactions to this great movie.
More German warmovies
Stalingrad (1993)
Downfall (2004)
Bridge (2008)
A great series is Generation war
Btw. Bridge from 2008 was a remake of the original from 1959, which might have been the first german anti-war movie after WWII
The bridge remake is an absolute disaster
But the B/W original is a masterpiece, would definitely recommend
The original Bridge movie was much, much better than the remake.
Also "Im Westen nichts neues", there's an old version and a newer one. I'm one of the few that prefer the old one.
@@Bareegoactually there are 3 adaptations now. The first one is from 1930, then there is the one from 1979 and the latest from 2022.
I first watched this as a 6 part Mini-series on the BBC in the early 80's. Incredibly gripping tv then & has more than stood the test of time.
Me too.
Cleared up a bit of a puzzle, as I thought that there must be another film of the same name that people talked about a great deal that I hadn't seen. It's the same just with more of the footage.
When I first saw this movie as a teenager I was kind of upset and disappointed by how it ended. Took me some years to realize that yes, it *had* to end that way, to drive the point home. It's since become one of my all time favorites and I truly believe it's one of the best movies ever made, full stop. It's a shame that it has fallen a bit off the radar, so to speak.
As for the Kaleun's compassion: Originally, U-Boat warfare was conducted in a way that the U-Boat surfaced, stopped the ship and allowed the crew to radio for pickup and evacuate before sinking the ship as per the old prize rules. Of course this was stopped when the convoy system was introduced, surfacing in front of a convoy would've just resulted in every gun in the convoy immediately bracketing the sub.
There were occasions where survivors were actually picked up by U-Boats and saved, but that practice was stopped by Dönitz' orders after the Laconia incident, when U-156 and U-507 were bombed and forced to dive while carrying survivors. That's the reason the Kaleun orders the ship to reverse and pull back.
In case a ship was sunk in a convoy, there were "mercy ships" with the single purpose of recovering survivors after the attack was resolved. In case these ships weren't present, it usually was the escorts' (Destroyers and Frigates) duty to pick up survivors after the situation was deemed safe. After six hours of quiet, the sight of survivors on that burning tanker clearly showed that the convoy abandoned the vessel and its crew - that's why the Kaleun gets angry.
There's also a scene in the extra-long TV miniseries cut (6+ hours) where the Kaleun admonishes the crew while celebrating sinking the freighters, reminding them that they weren't just sinking ships, they were killing fellow sailors and abandoning the survivors to the mercy of the sea.
Quite probably because of his backstory being in the merchant navy before the war - he's telling Leutnant Werner about him sailing on a four-master with "cargo holds as huge as a church" when they shared a quiet moment on the conning tower. He clearly felt a sense of kinship to his fellow sailors, even if they were crewing enemy vessels.
That sense of kinship was carried by the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe both, who had a certain sense of being more "elite" than the regular infantry, up to the point where they operated their own POW camps for naval and air crew, where those POWs were treated comparatively better than their infantry counterparts (for example, the POW camp in "The Great Escape" is a Luftwaffe camp).
I've championed Das Boot for YEARS. It's one of the best war movies ever IMHO. There are multiple versions of Das Boot. You're watching the 3hrs 17mins (ish) Directors Cut. There's also a miniseries cut of that same thing, which turns the running length to about 6hrs, spread over 3 movies. It's just a 6hr version of THIS. It doesn't feel padded either. It's just more of the doom. There's also a recent (2019) TV series on Atlantic, which is also incredible. It's a tie in to this movie. It looks like it was filmed at the same time, with the same equipment and same cast, yet it's set around the occupied naval base at La Rochelle. There's lots of film noir style French Resistance subplots. Any "good" war movie makes you watch it and think "I'm glad that's not ME". The soundscape in Das Boot is TERRIFYING. Oh yeah, Hail Johann. MVP.
The remake TV series is pretty bad and surely doesnt looks like the same cast.
Its purely fictional and full of inaccuracys and plotholes
The 2019 TV series has nothing to do with the original movie, they just did the modern media thing of using an already popular thing to boost sales of their new stuff.
i can only think of one other film that stands next to this in giving you the feel of life on board and thats Master and Commander :The Far Side of the World
As far as I know: Only definitely sunk (and confirmed sunk) ships were counting to the list of successful sunk ships by that U-boat. So they sank it right then and there instead of saving the torpedo and sailing away while that tanker was still damaged on the surface.
Exactly. Even a badly damaged ship can be salvaged, as long as it is swimming. Only when it sinks it is gone forever.
(Side note about the compassion for the survivors: They were out for the material [the ship], not for the people on it.)
During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 during Buchheim‘s 1941 patrol and one of Germany's top U-boat "tonnage aces" during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen's goals was to guide the audience through "a journey to the edge of the mind" showing "what war is all about."
In that scene starting at 47:00 min, they have sink the ship because the huge fire is acting as a beacon for the enemy to know where to look for you. They were assuming there were other ships in the area to come and rescue all the men, that's why they stayed down for 6 hrs. Also, the compassion...because they can only hope for rescue as well, though in a sub it's unlikely. They feel compassion, because it could be them! There is a different code at sea, if you have a ship, you rescue even enemy sailors, and drop them off for prison camps at the nearest port. Of course in subs, they can't take survivors, no room, no medical care, no food....no spare resources to spare.
The crazy thing about war is, both sides have all these crews who think they're only doing what they have to do. And yet there's no alternative when the "wrong side" doesn't relent.
what is worse, most people don't want to be there, but often defecting means death. They even know most on the other side feel the same, but they are stuck in the situation, if you are 1 on 1, who shoots first will probably life.
@@autohmae another example of why free speech is so important and may never be limited. hence the protests during vietnam, and the vets speaking about how they didn't want that war and to bring the ppl home. meanwhile here in germany, you now are guilty of "trying to delegitimize the state if you publicly doubt that our govs way of handling climate change is the best way" not a crime, but you get put on a watch list for it....when germany was a free democratic nation, questioning and criticizing the government was a right and kinda duty, regarding our history. now we are full speed ahead on becoming the socialist east german republic again.
@@thecursed01 people in the US often talk about their rights to fight to go against the government, but I've not seen anything which suggests this actually has any effect in reality. Take Jan. 6, they are a laughing stock.
what a comprehensive and great reaction. also, as a german, these subtitles are among the most accurate i saw for this movie. Just a great video, you won a sub.
Finally. A reaction to "Das Boot".
There is a severe lack of reactions to this movie.
As someone who's watched "Das Boot" numerous times and loved it from the first time I saw it at age ~14 when the 6 hour mini-series version was aired on Norwegian television in the late 1980s, I must admit I take some delight in reaction-videos where the one reacting think they're safe just because they made it safely home to port...
43:00 A greater depth means that the explosion of the depth charge barrels will be compressed by the same pressure that acts on the submarine hull. This means that unless it is a direct hit, it is not likely to kill them at that depth, whereas if they stayed on periscope depth (11-15 meters), even an explosion 16 meters away could seriously damage the hull.
Plus there is a slight chance that the destroyer is an older version with older version of depth charges that can´t even reach that deep.
I've seen this film at least a dozen times and it's interesting watching you see it for the first time. You get it pretty well.
one of the best movies ever made.
also - one of the greatest (if not the greatest) movie sound track ever made.
Thanks for reacting to the german version of das Boot,i think thats one of the best movies ever made,👍 from Austria
This is why Das Boot is a Masterpiece!! probably one of the best war movie, with another older german movie "Die Bruck' (The bridge) and saving private Ryan
This movie got big arround the World, specialy in Hollywood. They were impressed by the acting of Jürgen Prochnow. He went to the US and stayed. He became a US citicen in 2004. He played in movies like 'Dune', 'Beverly Hills Cop II', 'Judge Dredd', 'Body of Evidence', 'The Englisch Patient'.
Wing Commander too
Let's Not forget Air Force One 😉
@@dasspielmobil6161 And Da Vinci Code.
"Lieutenant Werner" is Herbert Grönemeyer - he actually did not make a careeer as an actor after this film, but as a pretty famous singer in Germany in the 90s and on and off again later (search for him on youtube, e.g. the recording "Bochum"). Many of the rest of the crew became well known actors in german television, some in international Films (like Jürgen Prochnow, the Captain). Since the film is a bit older, some of the actors died already, e.g. Klaus Wennemann (the chief) of lung cancer.
"You guys have had a lot of luck."
1 minute later.....
40:24 ASDIC was already a thing when the WW2 started. It was the allied answer to the question of "how can we locate the submarine if it doesnt make any sound?", and they came up with an idea to make it make a sound, by bouncing an ultrasonic wave from its hull, and then locating where that bounce happened.
I had a neighbor who served on a boat like that. When the series was on TV he started having flashbacks. He was completely drunk and shouted so loudly that the entire neighborhood could hear it. He was a friendly guy and he always greeted everyone he knew with “Alle Mann an Deck,” a Marine command to inspect the entire crew. He died in the nineties.
Just some more inside info: The soccer team they were rooting for was Schalke, which is a district of Gelsenkirchen, which is in the Ruhr industrial region of Germany. You'd think that most Navy soldiers would be recruited from the northern, coastal areas of Germany. Not so for submarines. They recruited people mainly from the industrial areas of the Ruhr and some from Schlesien, because they needed people experienced in metal working and mechanics, so they'd have the necessary skills to keep these boats operating and repair them.
That's why many of them have German accents from those regions and rooted for that soccer team.
Little fun fact. When they filmed this movie in 1980 Schalke lost a Game 0:6...The "record" before that was a 1:5....
during the war, Schalke never lost to such a score.
in the movie (and the novel) the crew comes from all over 'great-germany' - even incl. bavaria and austria (like johann or the young guy with crabs).
Just because you grew up in the "Ruhrpott" doesnt makes you a good or experienced mechanic or metal worker and growing up northern Germany doesnt make you a good sailor.
To become experienced you have to work in that field and most soldiers were drafted right after school, they hadnt time to become experienced.
An u-boat isnt a factory or car shop and operating a u-boat has nothing to do with metal working.
That many came from the Ruhrpott is just because it was an densly populated area, and voluntaring for the navy was a way not to go to the infantry
In Fact, this is just a short version of a much longer TV-Mini-Series. 😉
Actually the mini series is an extended version of the film - Petersen has overseen the creation of several different versions. The first to be released was the 149-minute theatrical cut.
As the film received partial financing by West German television broadcasters WDR and the SDR, more footage was shot than was shown in the theatrical version. A version of six 50-minute episodes was transmitted on BBC2 in the United Kingdom in October 1984 and again during the 1999 Christmas season.
most of the actors became famous in german tv and cinema except Lt. Werner. Herbert Grönemeyer, the actors real name, became a famous singer.
Something about the "boat". One day, the swimming pontong was missing. Steven Spielberg borrowed it for raiders of the lost ark.
And the music of Herbert Grönemeyer is awesome!
The problem of going to deep isn't the hull integrity in the first place, but the ability to get up again.
In these submarines you need air pressure to press out the water in the ballast tanks. to do that the pressure has to be higher than the water pressure. You need enough air to do that. Air is compressible and there is a limit of how much compressed air is available. So there is a limit you can't co beyond. And this is the critical depth for an Uboat in WWII. You go deeper and you sink until you implode or hit the ground.
The safe depth is where the boat has enough air left after a long dive. The critical depth is where you can go twice without refreshing your air tanks. The danger zone is the depth you can go once and stay for a short time.
Well explained.
Another thing that's kind of a plot point, but never really explained...
The diesel engines are started by using compressed air to crank them. So you get this kind of scenario where they have to guesstimate how much air they are going to commit to blowing the tanks, versus how much they need to start the diesels.
This movie was filmed entirely with practical special effects using an advanced custom made hand-held Arriflex camera with proto-Steadicam technology. It took two years to make, and was finally cut from over 330,000 metres of exposed film. With a budget of 32 million Deutsche Marks, it was the second most expensive German film the world had ever seen (beaten only by Metropolis) and remains one of the most expensive today.
I was 14 years old when i seen this Movie for the first time. 1981. The best Movie about WW2 ever.
a great movie this one is. personally i like it how it shows not all the axis soldiers were mindless murderers. just people who were put under arms like anyone else in the world.
War Crimes where made by every Army, thats a fact. But it´s always the same thing, in every war, the loosers are always remembered as the Bad ones.
I was really shocked when I watched this movie as a teenager in 1981. In contrast to US movies, war is shown to be nothing else than ugly, brutal, and inhumane.
By the way, I would recommend the longer TV version (5h), because the cinema version rushes things here and there.
This is my favorite movie. I lived in Saint-Nazaire, where the 7th flotilla was based. U-96 was stationned there. I was a child, and we played in the submarine base. Svastikas and generators still everywhere. My high school was 120 meters from the U-boat pens. We dug up a 500 pound bombs digging for a music studio creating under a wine celar. And a 250 pound bomb right after. It was one of the only building that escape the destruction because those two bombs didn't go off.
There is a sort of Bomb shelter airlock, for equilibrating the tide. Now there is a museum with a french Narwhal class submarine based on the type XXI. At the time we drunk beers directly beside it. Every time I visited it I was at home. "Do you need the audio description guide ?" F**k that, I know all of it.
It's very strange to look at was wasn't completely leveled by the bombings, and sobering knowing what already knew at the time happened.
By the way there is much more footage. My version is something like 5H30, and I think there is an even longer cut, maybe 6H.
One of the best Warfilms and Submarine Films ever
This is one of my all-time favourites.
If you're thirsty for more one day, give the mini series version of this a try. Not much more combat, but lots of extra subtext and character stuff.
For example, after the Lieutenant gets the oilrag in the face and runs off, they all have a good laugh about it. The "angry" Chief Bosun included. Just to underline what an outsider he is at the beginning.
Bullying the christian crewman. The Chief Engineer's wife's sickness etc.
You get to know the crew a lot better.
There's a lot of superstitions and naval traditions that sailors hold on to especially when it comes to rescuing other sailors being adift etc.
This film is an absolute masterpiece and my personal favorite film.
Unfortunately, it came away empty-handed at the 1983 Academy Awards, although it was nominated in six categories (including Best Director and Best Cinematography).
These awards went to a "small, insignificant" film called *Gandhi* (eight Oscars).
btw: *SailorVince* has also reacted to *Das Boot,* in which he examines how realistic the movie is. The title of his video:
*Real navigation officer reacts to Das Boot*
The lesson I got from this film is this: in a war, it doesn't matter how strong, brave or smart you are. If you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, you won't make it home.
This has some of the most memorable comic relief of any action drama. Guy mumbling about tying his butt hairs to someone's nose hairs. lol
The lack of understanding of the machinist loosing it comes from that not much research had been made to bring a foundation for understanding. PTSD, loosing nerve, etc was just evidence of weakness. That went for all countries.
I believe that those bays shown are the actual German Submarine Pens at La Pallice, not far from La Rochelle. They were used because the La Rochelle pens had too much "new " building around them, but both sets are still in surprisingly good condition because of how well they were built.
Stalingrad from 1993 is also a great german movie
Ive seen this movie over 100 times. best ever war movie.
19:01 "We saw their bathroom, but where did they shower?". Answer: in the bathroom or the ocean. Welcome to a WW2 sub! :D
The original cut of it as a tv serial is the best version.
I too was never drunk while in uniform but then again my platoon and i were 98% of the time behind enemy lines in combat, no time for Alcohol, having fought during the Angolan war in 1986, also i am of German origin and one of my great uncles served on U-boats and was one of those that never came home his boat was sunk in the north Atlantic in 1944. Both Grandfathers came back luckily one only in 1949 after having been in a Russian gulag the other was a fighter pilot fighting on all fronts other than the Eastern front.
I liked your reactions and insights very much! The special effects were ahead of its time especially for a film made in Germany. The boat was reconstructed on land 1:1, I was in it in the 90´s and it felt very claustrophobic, with many hard edges you can bump into. Buchheim the autor of the book said the behavior in real life was more disciplined than described in the movie. Greetings from Germany!
About the compassion for the sinking crew. How can you not be ?
The thing all naval commanders have in common is, that they are literally sitting in the same boat. You want to get rid of the ship, not the people. During WWII that damn austrian fella made the most horrific naval order that has never been given by any german leader before and that is to NOT save survivors of sunken ships.
The enemy knew that and that is why the commander was so upset they did no evacuate them.
the navy has a training room where the crew must stop catastrophic flooding. it's referred to as the *"Save the SS Buttercup"* room not unlike the *Kobiyashi Maru* scenario in star trek
Fun fact: The original submarine set of the movie still exists and you can take part in a scripted "submarine"-LARP that playes on the set. It´s an "alternate history"-LARp, so it doesn´t take place during Nazi Germany.
This movie is one of the best anti warmovies out there. No heroism, no propaganda, no happy ending...just suffering and dread with small moments of joy which will vanish in an instant. The book is also something I would suggest to give a shot. Also there is a 6 hours cut of the movie that was made for TV which expands the story a lot
For a Number 3 of movies from the german perspective I would suggest "Stalingrad" from 1993
i think its like with fighter pilots they talk about downing aircraft not killing the pilot, so its probably easier to just think of the ship and not the people on board
Yeah on top of that torpedos are one of the few weapons that dont directly kill a person, you would have to be really lucky with your shot and hit the engine room to even have a chance of killing a person directly and even then its not that rare for the crew to survive it. But his anger was more directed at the other ships who didnt help the people on board despite having hours to do so.
That blonde guy watching them is a famous german singer ( at least famous in Germany) Herbert Grönemeyer
Great reaction to a great film. Thank you. Das Boot is an experience not entertainment. That's what makes it so great. All the best.
I would rate this movie over Saving Private Ryan anytime. Besides the story they ran at a very small budget in comparison and all is done with such a great efficiency, the camera work was so great, the effects stood their time with being over 40 years old. They filmed at an original site in France and oh boy the French locals didn't like that. The actors were poured in water for hours at times. Unfortunately many nuances, double meanings and much of the characters get lost in translation.
You have a point when it comes to general pacing of movies in the last 40 years.
However in this one, the director's cut that came out in '90 added an hour of non-action scenes. It was in order to make us understand just how mind numbingly boring the sub life is in between the fights.
This is one of the best war films , that in the end shows the true horror of war .No one wins a war , they only leave survivors .
Stalingrad ( 1993 ) is a another great german anti war movie.
Question for Mike: Do you REALLY want to know what the Resistance did to those women? And their children? Do you really?
And for the crabs: I got them once... totally worth it. My wife wasn't too happy though 😄
I was lucky enough to visit the u-boat bunker in La Pallice when I was a child.
The end is not quite realistic: The huge concrete building on the starboard side of the open lock was the lock bunker: when getting into the harbour basin, the boats were in this bunker to protect them against air raids. The tide has an amplitude of five to six meters, there, which means getting through the lock could take quite some time, so that this was a very vulnerable situation.
The main bunker has a concrete roof 6 m thick, and there are several huge pieces missing where some large bombs had hit it. It is so large that no one ever bothered to demolish it after the war.
The bunker has been used by the French navy since the war ended. We visited in the 80s, with my parents and my uncle and his family, and some friends: six adults, six children, and strolled into the open doors of what was very much an active French naval base. A slightly annoyed French officer stopped us eventually when we were already 50 m into the bunker. He was then nice enough to show us the bay where the last scenes had been filmed. That's almost 40 years ago, and I still remember it quite clearly.
Erwin Leder, the chief engineer Johann, should have been atleast nominated for an Oscar.
In the 1993 version of three Musketeers he is also the pesant in the Dungeon who gets killed by Richeleau "In the name of the lord" in the begining of the film
Hydrophones 'passive sonar' as shown here is the main sonar used on modern submarines, active sonar originally called asdic used by one of the British destroyers, while fitted to all modern submarines is rarely used as while it will give a precise position of your enemy, it also exposes your own position.
I was a submariner in the U.S. Navy in the 1980's. I was stricken by many similarities as well as differences. Modern attack submarines are a bit roomier, but only a bit. Also, WW2's diesel submarines were not able to stay submerged as long as nuclear subs. They were pretty quiet though, since they ran on batteries when they were submerged. Submarine crews have always shared a closeness and a wicked sense of humor. Because of the small size of the crew, the relationship between officers and enlisted men is also closer and looser than in the surface navy.
Hey, nice reaction, the original was a german TV series with 6 episodes with a total runtime of 309 minutes.
The best movie version as a film is for sure the directors cut.
well for some other German world war 2 movies "Cross of Iron" (1977) "Stalingrad" (1993) & "Generation War" (2013 TV mini series)
"Die Brücke" (The Bridge) 1959.
@@AP-RSI that is a good 1 too
Ain't Cross of Iron an American movie?
@@Foxrich99 Considered a German film, it was also shot in Germany, the UK and Yugoslavia. It just had a lot of American actors in it at the time. I think it was probably more of a co-production between Germany and the USA at the time, but if you look, it's called a German film. I don't quite understand that either.
In my opinion, the novel is also better for this, as there is too much emphasis on action in the movie.
@@Foxrich99 american made but it covers 1943 german troops in Russia
"What's the punishment if the Partisans find out she's pregnant?"
Because the father was a German soldier, the French resistance would kill her for being a "collaberator" - and most likely kill the baby as well.
When they fired at the tanker the second time: the captain presumed that the crew would have been evacuated, since the ship was burning. The U-boat doesn't have room for prisoners, thus the captain backed away from the survivors.
The reason for going ahead and sinking it is two-fold: 1. To prevent "friendly" ships from colliding with it while its adrift, and 2. To help to conceal their wherabouts.
Another "fun fact": during Hitler's reign, during any formal get togethers on German soil, the first toast was supposed to be to Hitler. If not on German soil, this was not a requirement.
Oh, the reason for the great camera work: the Steady Cam rig was invented for this film.
the uboat pens in france are still standing
Yes, it was filmed in La Rochelle, a french coastal town.
As a German, having a masters degree in history, being a filmmaker myself and also being a huge fan of this movie, I have to say that your reaction is probably the best well rounded and on the spot analysis of the military, historical and cinematic aspects, I have seen! You should take a look at the making of footage as well. It is crazy, the actors almost drowned while shooting. Cheers, Marc
You should definitely check out The Enemy Below. Awesome movie!!
Das Boot is an absolutely stunning piece of work. Maybe the best war film ever made. It’s great to see someone with military knowledge and experience share their reaction to it. Bravo, sir.
Lone destroyers were usually out on submarine patrols. Unlike in the Pacific, where the Japanese actually used their navy to engage the Americans, the Germans mainly used submarines to harass allied shipping.
Last time I saw this movie was when my dad was still alive. He passed in 1993, so it's been a long time for me. Was interesting seeing this one again (even if it was through your channel). Still a good movie
If you're intetested in german focused war movies watch Stalingrad!
After that you'll feel no interess in joining any army.
look for the 6 hour version, it has more character shots and doesnt feel so rushed.
to your point about this being a Director's Cut: it is
you watched a cut-down version of a TV miniseries produced for German television
the director, Wolfgang Petersen later edited this version to be shown in cinemas both domestic and abroad which is why this movie version is the only version most non-German people are aware of
Remember, for mariners sea is their ultimate enemy. That is unwritten rule. They might fight aganist each other but all remember that. So, leaving those men is kinda aganist that rule. When under attack convoy ships had strict orders to to not stop to rescue them as it would make them siting ducks for torpedoes etc. Escorts too. Sometimes there were rescue, hospital ships to gather them , if not... Tough luck. Being merchant mariner there was not a safe job too. And sub had no space for more men. Sometimes they took oficers as POW, but raely. Anyway wad is hell.
34:16 This scene was filmed in a huge water basin. The actor was thrown from the command tower and broke two ribs when he hit the railing.
The interior of a Type VII submarine was recreated for filming. Because the actors were more or less locked in this 1:1 replica for several weeks, the pimples, bumps, and pale skin color ended up being real.
No, they were not locked in this replica, they very only not allowed to go in the sun. The pimples and dirt were makeup