View Full Version : So I finaly got to see Das Boot.....
wetwarev7
11-15-05, 03:18 PM
I was finaly able to rent a copy of Das Boot, and it's great!
My first impression, because I didn't realize that it was a two sided disc and so I ended up watching the second half(they were getting DCed big time), was "OMG! that looks just like my sonar room!". I think I annoyed my wife a bit(who didn't want to see it, but got engrossed into it) because I kept telling her over and over how the sub in the movie and in SH3 matched so well. It really blew my mind...
Not to mention that when I realized I had missed the whole first half and started to watch it, I couldn't recognized anyone, cause they were all shaved!! :rotfl:
A couple of questions about it though, Shouldn't the depth charges take a bit longer to explode? It seems that even thought they were at 150+ depth, the DCs just pounced right on 'em.
Also, what is the deal with that one officer that they all picked on? The one that seemed to be clean shaven throughout the whole film? It seems they didn't like where he was from or something, but I could never really figure out exactly the conflict was.
Ive never seen the movie myself until just the other day.The remade version that is.
They were playing it on either Showtime or HBO or one of the big movie channels cant remember which one right off hand.
I thought it was a well done movie and kept me interested.It was a great movie in terms of realism which is something you dont see in movies about WW2 very often(Battle of the Bulge anyone..LOL).
Definately a must see movie for anyone interested in the German Uboats or submarines in general.
Das Boot! Das Boot! Das Boot! YAAAYYY!!!! :)
About the "clean&shaved" guy, they don´t like him ´coz he´s so anxious all the time and he admires Hitler and so on. He likes to be part in the war, the rest just want to survive.
^^ That´s how I think it is.
Yea, they didn't have alot of "time" for the First Officer. He was a dedicated Nazi...unlike the captain and the rest of the officers. He also mentioned at one dinner that he was from Mexico City and when someone remrked about what a long way away from home he was he relpied that it was natural for him to serve as he was a German. He then made the CRITICAL mistake of mentioning he was the (step) son of the owner of a plantation owner..."the bosses' son" and seemed to be very proud of that. Given that most Germans had recently survived a grueling depression just before the war started (6 million unemployed) he didn't exactly enamour himself with the other officers.
wetwarev7
11-15-05, 04:17 PM
Yea, they didn't have alot of "time" for the First Officer. He was a dedicated Nazi...unlike the captain and the rest of the officers. He also mentioned at one dinner that he was from Mexico City and when someone remrked about what a long way away from home he was he relpied that it was natural for him to serve as he was a German. He then made the CRITICAL mistake of mentioning he was the (step) son of the owner of a plantation owner..."the bosses' son" and seemed to be very proud of that. Given that most Germans had recently survived a grueling depression just before the war started (6 million unemployed) he didn't exactly enamour himself with the other officers.
Ah....so that's what that scene was about....what was the music that they had played right then, and how did it fit in?
I had noticed that in a couple of scenes, he was in the background reading to another crewmember, and it did sound a bit ....propagandish....
Shouldn't the depth charges take a bit longer to explode? It seems that even thought they were at 150+ depth, the DCs just pounced right on 'em.
Answer: Hollywood :)
wetwarev7
11-15-05, 04:42 PM
Shouldn't the depth charges take a bit longer to explode? It seems that even thought they were at 150+ depth, the DCs just pounced right on 'em.
Answer: Hollywood :)
I was thinking someone just pushed Num+ at the wrong moment.... :rotfl:
Kaptan Tommy
11-15-05, 04:43 PM
The one guy (who got the greasy rag in the face near the beginning) was there as an observer, to take pictures for the propaganda machine (I think).
The other slick faced little boy was the Nazi "make sure they're all thinking right" officer who NObody liked. The photog eventually sort of fit in if I remember right.
Then there's the novel "The Boat" by Buchheim, after which I think they made the movie. Both are great in my opinion. :up:
The one guy (who got the greasy rag in the face near the beginning) was there as an observer, to take pictures for the propaganda machine (I think).
The other slick faced little boy was the Nazi "make sure they're all thinking right" officer who NObody liked. The photog eventually sort of fit in if I remember right.
Then there's the novel "The Boat" by Buchheim, after which I think they made the movie. Both are great in my opinion. :up:
yes, they made the movie based on the Bucheim´s book, the photographer in the movie (Werner) is Bucheim.
Yea, they didn't have alot of "time" for the First Officer. He was a dedicated Nazi...unlike the captain and the rest of the officers. He also mentioned at one dinner that he was from Mexico City and when someone remrked about what a long way away from home he was he relpied that it was natural for him to serve as he was a German. He then made the CRITICAL mistake of mentioning he was the (step) son of the owner of a plantation owner..."the bosses' son" and seemed to be very proud of that. Given that most Germans had recently survived a grueling depression just before the war started (6 million unemployed) he didn't exactly enamour himself with the other officers.
Ah....so that's what that scene was about....what was the music that they had played right then, and how did it fit in?
I had noticed that in a couple of scenes, he was in the background reading to another crewmember, and it did sound a bit ....propagandish....
Not sure about the music. Do you mean the Tipparary song, when all the crew started to sing? If so, that is a British navy song. At a later meal (I think) the captain asks the First officer to put it on the grammaphone. That was to "rib" him as he would be the one to find and play it...being the upright Nazi he was it would bother him to do so.
Yea..I noticed the propaganda stuff too.
Sailor Steve
11-15-05, 07:57 PM
As to the depth charges, Hollywood is indeed the correct answer. They also all explode so close to the boat that any one of them would have sunk it immediately. They just HAD to get it on camera! Personally I would have preferred no underwater external shots at all, just their experiences inside, not knowing anything until it happened.
But again, that's the movies.
HEMISENT
11-15-05, 09:07 PM
Usually the book is much better and way more in depth than its movie version. Is that the case here? I've watched the movie countless times but never read the book.
Kaptan Tommy
11-15-05, 10:05 PM
I would say the book and the movie were great. It's been a while since I read the book, but since getting SH3 I may just re-read the book - for sentimental reasons - :cry:
Like Blackhawk Down... The movie was about as "right on" as I've ever seen a movie made from a book.
I think the book is better than the movie, though the movie is the best U-boat movie, I think the book goes more in depth and has ALOT more detail. Just got done reading Iron Coffin by john Mannock Good U-boat book too...... I like to read when traveling to patrol areas ;)
Usually the book is much better and way more in depth than its movie version. Is that the case here? I've watched the movie countless times but never read the book.
I'd say that the book would be more true to the personal experience of Bucheim but that the movie is a creature unto itself. Its like Apocalypse Now. Its based on the book "Heart of Darkness" but many of the details are changed (book was in Africa whereas the movie was in Vietnam etc...) but it still remained true to the spirit and the aura of the book. Movies cant possibly have all the detail of a book just because anything more than 4 hours (which is aboiut as long as Das Boot is) tends to lose its audience.
Both book and movie are excellent and each has particular qualities unto themselves. Id say the movie is as true to the book as is possible while still adding a new level of immersion. Thats hard to do.
As for the expedited DC attacks well thats also because of time compression. If they tried to model every moment of a U-boat patrol accurately then we wouldnt even make it out of port before it ended. SOme concessions have to be made for the sake of "watchability".
Floater
11-15-05, 11:18 PM
I had noticed that in a couple of scenes, he was in the background reading to another crewmember, and it did sound a bit ....propagandish....
A little-known fact: most of what the young Nazi was reading aloud was actually the genuine text of lectures made by Wolfgang Luth, a famous U-boat commander with pro-Hitler sympathies.
I had noticed that in a couple of scenes, he was in the background reading to another crewmember, and it did sound a bit ....propagandish....
A little-known fact: most of what the young Nazi was reading aloud was actually the genuine text of lectures made by Wolfgang Luth, a famous U-boat commander with pro-Hitler sympathies.
So it was in a way propoganda because the literature obviously relfected or at least supported to a degree the young Nazi's political beliefs.
kiwi_2005
11-15-05, 11:52 PM
YEah ive got the book and movie. I wish they would make another Das boot type movie as good as das boot.
Ive seen U571 which was over the top crap.
one called "Below" - which was ok with a horror twist. The US sub crew were actually all dead. More like submariners never die they just keep on patroling type of conclusion.
And another i saw recently about a US sub crew on a uboat as prisoners where they get all friggin sick. Another BS movie.
We need a new DAS BOOT movie.
Hmmm maybe i should ring up my friend here in NZ Peter Jackson and ask him to make one :)
I think Das Boot should stand alone. Any new tries at a "new" Das Boot would bastardize our memory of it. Maybe a better idea would be to do what they did after "Saving Private Ryan": make a mini series like "Band of Brothers". A mini series about either a single U-boat as it goes through the war or maybe about a particular flotilla or a certain member of the U-boat wing of the Kriegsmarine as he sees captains come and go and gets transferred and meets new comrades would be exiting. Though I would imagine they'd want to include something about Doenitz. That could be good too though. Alot of room in a less binding mini series I think. More time to explore other facets of the U-boat war. Every episode could even be about different important events in the war (such as Gunther Prien's attack on Scapa Flow or the capture of the first U-boat). I like that idea.
kiwi_2005
11-16-05, 12:26 AM
Maybe a better idea would be to do what they did after "Saving Private Ryan": make a mini series like "Band of Brothers
Yeah a mini series would be a great idea. And Steven Speilburg would be great as the director. He has made some good realistic war movies. Private ryan, Schlinders List and Band of brothers series.
Maybe a better idea would be to do what they did after "Saving Private Ryan": make a mini series like "Band of Brothers
Yeah a mini series would be a great idea. And Steven Speilburg would be great as the director. He has made some good realistic war movies. Private ryan, Schlinders List and Band of brothers series.
Yes but I found that most of the story in Saving Private Ryan after the initial beachhead assault was kinda stupid. I think Band of Brothers and Shcindler's List were good because the script was adapted from real events so they were believable. I think a U-boat mini series with Spielberg directing would be good provided they go after a storyline based on real events instead of making something up that would "appeal" to alot of people and therefore make it suck.
Marhkimov
11-16-05, 04:08 AM
I think a U-boat mini series with Spielberg directing would be good provided they go after a storyline based on real events instead of making something up that would "appeal" to alot of people and therefore make it suck.
Isn't it ironic that whenever directors choose to go for mass appeal, it only seems to make things suck?
I think a U-boat mini series with Spielberg directing would be good provided they go after a storyline based on real events instead of making something up that would "appeal" to alot of people and therefore make it suck.
Isn't it ironic that whenever directors choose to go for mass appeal, it only seems to make things suck?
Nope. Its because they appealk to the braoder puplic's interests so as to pull in more people for the sake of box office revenues but this means that the story is shallow because the appeal is shallow. For guys like us who are into serious war stuff and historical accuracy and true depictions of these events we just get pissed off but then we are a sad minority. Its good business but bad film-making.
GlobalExplorer
11-16-05, 06:35 AM
Yeah a mini series would be a great idea. And Steven Speilburg would be great as the director. He has made some good realistic war movies. Private ryan, Schlinders List and Band of brothers series.
No comment :o
Lothar Günther Buchheim ranks as one of my favourite writers. He was the "Wunderkind" par excellence among german war correspondent, an extremely gifted painter, photographer and writer. If you can, you should of course read the german original of his work, otherwise he would miss the literature qualities of his work. His style is very graphic, and he is mixing foul language and laddish humour with highly intellectual passages, which is special. I would even say his style is extremely "masculine", I am afraid only very few women will be able to read the book and not feel disgusted sometimes. If you feel you know "Das Boot" too well, you should read "Die Festung". More than 1000 pages of goodness in the 1944, I felt very close to this man when I read the book.
Highly recommended.
kiwi_2005
11-16-05, 06:42 AM
If you feel you know "Das Boot" too well, you should read "Die Festung". More than 1000 pages of goodness in the 1944, I felt very close to this man when I read the book.
I will search for that book. Sounds good.
I think Steven Speilburg if he did make a Uboat movie as good as Das Boot, he would go for the truth, not some made up story. Hes rich enough to take risks. Maybe do a movie on Prien how he got into the harbour and sank a BB then follow his patrols right up to his sinking.
HEMISENT
11-16-05, 07:33 AM
Ok, I'm convinced. I'll go head over to Amazon's site and get the book. Now I can't wait. Thanks for all the great book reviews.
Personally I don't think any movies made by Hollywood types will be able to come up with anything that can compare. While Spielberg is a great director and Schindlers List was a great movie, I doubt we'll see anything close to that level of intensity and realism for a long time. It's all about $ and I'm sorry to say the public at least in America is too shallow to pay out big bucks for anything that we in this community would consider worthwhile.
It's like comparing simmers to the 13 year old shoot em up play station crowd. Thats where the money is.
turbidite
11-16-05, 07:47 AM
If you like Das boot and have read the novel as well, I highly recommend you to get the trilogy from Bucheim :
1 - U-Boot-Krieg
2 - U-Boot-Fahrer : Die Boote, die Besatzungen und ihr Admiral
3 - Zu Tode gesiegt : Der Untergang der U-Boote
They all have plently of interesting photographs from the war (taken by Bucheim) and you even get to see the real u-96 crew. Only the first volume has been translated in english, the rest is in german.
Here's the urls :
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3492040446/qid=1125256122/sr=8-6/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl/028-2766053-5886124
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/349204042X/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/028-2766053-5886124
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3492040438/qid=1125256122/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i7_xgl/028-2766053-5886124
There is an even older book of pictures about u-96 :
Jäger im Weltmeer
written by Bucheim as well
TDK1044
11-16-05, 01:01 PM
Anybody know if the dubbed English version of the DVD features the actual actors voices, or whether post production actors were used? I haven't seen Das Boot for 20 years, and at that time I watched the German version with English subtitles.
Marhkimov
11-16-05, 01:09 PM
I haven't seen Das Boot for 20 years, and at that time I watched the German version with English subtitles.
Das Boot has been out for 20 yeats?? I thought it was a movie of the 1990s
Seeadler
11-16-05, 01:21 PM
I thought it was a movie of the 1990s
Das Boot was filmed 1980, in cinema 1981. The 6h TV version was shown for the first time 1985 in German television.
capt-jones
11-16-05, 02:10 PM
:rotfl: seadler wrote Das Boot was filmed 1980, in cinema 1981. The 6h TV version was shown for the first time 1985 in German television.
:know: now i know why the captain looks so old in the interview of the directors cut :hmm:i thought i saw the tv series a very long time ago :smug:
but still one of the best war films ever :rock:
GlobalExplorer
11-16-05, 02:12 PM
I will search for that book. Sounds good.
@kiwi: You won't be dissappointed. Just keep in mind that the major part of the novel plays on land, and deals with the chaos in France at the time of the Invasion. There is some part on a submarine, but it's very different to "Das Boot".
GlobalExplorer
11-16-05, 02:25 PM
For those of you that speak german, while reading the thread I was searching somewhat and found this article:
http://www.uni-duisburg.de/AL/koepfinterview.html
I'd say it is a witchhunt on the most potent level after buchheim, which has btw been going on since his first book appeared. They even call it the "Buchheim case".
What do you think of it? I cannot believe how somebody can write such nonsense. Just recently I read "Jäger im Weltmeer" and I was amazed that the book could even be published during WWII because there is not one line of Nazi propaganda in it. And in the interview they act as if Buchheim was a prominent neo-nazi .. Possibly because he wrote in the book that he had the greatest moment of his life during the war. What's wrong with that?
I had noticed that in a couple of scenes, he was in the background reading to another crewmember, and it did sound a bit ....propagandish....
A little-known fact: most of what the young Nazi was reading aloud was actually the genuine text of lectures made by Wolfgang Luth, a famous U-boat commander with pro-Hitler sympathies.
Here´s the 'Leadership Lecture' by Wolfgang Lüth:
http://www.uboatarchive.net/LuethLecture.htm
wetwarev7
11-18-05, 11:32 AM
I had noticed that in a couple of scenes, he was in the background reading to another crewmember, and it did sound a bit ....propagandish....
A little-known fact: most of what the young Nazi was reading aloud was actually the genuine text of lectures made by Wolfgang Luth, a famous U-boat commander with pro-Hitler sympathies.
Here´s the 'Leadership Lecture' by Wolfgang Lüth:
http://www.uboatarchive.net/LuethLecture.htm
Good find! :up:
VWPowerSub
11-18-05, 10:45 PM
Das Boot was the first foreign film i watched in the movei theater. I was visiting my Dad in NYC and he took me to see it back when it was in theaters. I was a early teen then but really enjoyed it even in German. I did not speak german but still followed it petty well hardly glancing at the subtitles. Ahhh memories. Have not watched it in years but need too.
later,
Erick
Average Joe
11-18-05, 11:33 PM
Glad I saw this topic. I'll be watching the 6-hour DVD version tonight; or..., maybe just the first DVD, then the rest tomorrow :zzz:
I got this DVD-set about 5 months ago, and it's due for another viewing. Plus watching for 'tips' to apply to SH3 :)
I don't speak German but will watch with subtitles. The English dubbing is quite good (I heard they were done by the original actors?), but it's so much more 'intense and realistic' in the German language.
Personally I don't see whats so bad about subtitles. The actual words used by the actors is only part of watching an actor. The real meat of it is in how he gestures and the emotion you feel from his performance. Something is always lost in translation and I enjoy much more experiencing thje German perspective of living andd fighting in a U-boat and with that comes the German language. Thats my perspective on this.
U-552Erich-Topp
11-19-05, 12:19 AM
:) Das Boat is by far the MOST ACCURATE account of German submarine warfare. :up: :up: :up:
Check the ratings out on Uboat.net in the forums section under movies to see what people in general think of all the submarine movies ever produced. :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:
It's too bad with all the money that was spent into producing U-571, that they didn't protray an accurate event during the war. But........that's Hollywood for you.
Das Boat does protray the events of the war quite accurately. :up: :up: :up: Bottom line: I have seen most of the WWII submarine movies produced and Das Boat is by far the best. To get a real feeling of what the war was like, it is best viewed using the German language for sound and the English subtitles turned on (as the movie was produced overseas). You'll need the DVD to do this (and a good bottle of wine or a case of beer). My best advice, sit back, relax and enjoy it. :rock: :rock: :rock:
Good Hunting, Erich Topp U-552 :) P.S. You might even discover a tactic that you can use during your next SH3 mission.
GlobalExplorer
11-19-05, 07:49 AM
P.S. You might even discover a tactic that you can use during your next SH3 mission.
Then it can only be the "Schnellbootangriff" ! Too bad I play on Manual TDC, so it's not really an option.
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