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Das Boot
DVD Review by Yanman |
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The story of war as seen from inside
a German U-boat, Das boot, is masterfully directed by Wolfgang Peterson (In the line of
fire, Air Force One). The story opens in France 1941, with the party to end all
parties. If you were an 18-21 year old boy off to war, how hard would you party?
Especially if you had any idea that out of the 40,000 men that served on German U-boats
during World War Two only 10,000 returned. That's the kind of party they have, but from
then on the movie is all business, the business of war. As the ship sets sail you begin to realize just how young this crew is. The Captain (only thirty yet the oldest on board), comments to the reporter assigned to document the voyage, "Don't take too many pictures of the "boys". At least until they have grown beards, and begin to look like men". We follow our crew around the ocean, through their conflicts and battles for control of the Atlantic (which at this point in the war the Germans are most decidedly loosing.). This film provides you with an insight into life on a war time sub during the 1940's. The food started to rot, they had to share their bunk (while they were on duty it was occupied), the air got stale, and after long periods at sea it seemed hard NOT to go crazy. After numerous cat and mouse games of chasing, and then being chased, the crew finally sinks some British ships. Then they have to learn how to deal with watching men die. After months of battling at sea, repairing a badly damaged ship against all odds, and fighting through hostile archenemy waters, the rag tag band returns home. Now tested by war, the "boys" with troubled faces adorned with full beards, don't just appear to be men, but are men. Men returning home to . . . I make it a rule to never give away the endings so you'll just have to watch. This is a very very very long movie, the directors cut of Das Boot is 209 minutes long. That's over 60 minutes longer than the theatrical release. As with most long movies, it drags a bit, but also does a good job of building characters that you can believe in. Filmed entirely in German and then dubbed in English, I began to expect Godzilla to appear, because of the mismatched dialogue to picture. The visuals were good, yet very dark as you might expect from a movie filmed in a sub and/or at sea. You'll want to make sure that your viewing room is either completely dark or backlit only, to get the best viewing of this one. The audio on Das Boot is beyond compare. I need to change the rating scale for this one, it gets a special 5 plus stars! If you have a Dolby Digital system, full range surrounds and a sub that's ready to rock this is the flick for you. You hear ever creak of the ship, every depth charge from the enemy, and as the waves crash over the bow of the ship you will be compelled to run and get your raingear. On this disk, a two-sided "flipper", the sides are mislabeled (at least on the disk I had). This caused some degree of confusion when I put on side A and found myself mid movie. At least the menus are labeled, so if you do put the wrong side in a quick trip to the menu will verify what side you are on. The only extras provided are a short making of / behind the scenes and the full-length director's commentary. Considering they added 60 minutes of deleted or re-shot scenes. And that with this the movie runs 3 hours 29 min. long. I can see why there were not a lot of other extras. If you like war movies and you want to really hear the bass in your system, put on your life vest and get on Das Boot!
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Das Boot The audio on Das Boot is beyond compare
Staring: Jürgen Prochnow Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen Running time: 209 Min Bonus Materials
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