Das Boot

Have you heard of the film Das Boot (The Boat, 1981)? It is a German film directed by Wolfgang Petersen portraying a story about 42 war recruits in a German Submarine during WWII. It is also one of the few well-known German films which makes it to the IMDb Top 250 Films. No doubt, it is really a must-see film.

I was extremely reluctant to watch the film in the first place although I’ve read and heard everywhere that it is a superb film. The reason is simple, I don’t like war films. I haven’t even watched Saving Private Ryan. It took me a few rounds just to finish watching Pearl Harbor and that’s also because of some gorgeous hunks in the film .

Anyway, after much persuasion from Thorsten, because I sort of made him watch Brokeback Mountain with me, I gave in, bracing myself for ‘another’ boring world war German film, which always have a hint of Hitler in it.

After about 3hrs, my negative conceptions earlier have completely vanished! It was no doubt a 3 gripping hours of entertainment. It was really funny how for the first half an hour through the film, I could feel a little claustrophobic myself!

Almost 90% of the setting is inside a submarine and the feeling of living in a constant confined and small space was well delivered. It was almost suffocating. I could really sense the desperation, the mental and physical torture of the submarine crew living in such a condition, not to mention their sheer terror so realistically etched on their faces when attacked by an enemy.

The film no doubt has successfully portrayed how meaningless and senseless war can be. It is excellent the way the film ironically ends. Well, I’m not gonna be a spoiler here. If you can, go watch it in the Director’s Cut version and of course it is dubbed in English as well .