Its a character study and a good one at that. OK, for modern day viewers who have watched Das Boot and Downfall, the depiction of Nazis is stereotypical and the portrayal of Germans simplistic. But for its time, its very open minded.

Contrast with the Book where whilst there is a distinction between German and NAZI... both are stereotyped as warmongering genocidal maniacs. Without detailing the slightly different ending of the book... sufficer to say its pretty derogatory about German people in general.

:up: :rotfl: I did get a laugh from that

The English lyrics were written for the movie. If you know German, it's not too hard to translate into German.

To you my friend - Nach du mein freund
and you my friend - und du mein freund
and all of us together - und alles uns zusammen

The original German folksong is titled "So leben wir alle tage" and was written in 1706. The lyrics are:

So leben wir, so leben wir,
So leb'n wir alle Tage
Bei der allerschönsten Kneipkompanie.
Des Morgens bei dem klaren Wein,
Des Mittags bei dem Bier,
Vor Morgengrau'n geht's nicht ins Nachtquartier

I had some German friends translate this into English, and they said it was a nightmare to do. The result makes almost no sense because of the differences in syntax and word meaning over 300 years and two languages. :down:

See http://www.ingeb.org/Lieder/solebenw.html for the music without lyrics.

if you have the DVD version of the film try watching it in german with english subtitles..it's a very different movie with dubbed voices...gives it almost an "art-house" atmosphere...

me i love the film-- love the cod philosphopy (better cod than none at all)

tho i'm allways left wondering why when the u-boat gives the DD time to abandon ship before firing the killing torpedo --and the DD uses the time to set a trap for the sub and destroy it..we should be left with the belief that the DD in this case is granted the moral high ground..(quite apart from the obvious of course) can't help thinking how this would have looked in generic moral movie terms..if the german sub had been damaged and the american DD had offerred them time to get their wounded off and was destroyed losing many crew in the process...typical Nazi behaviour-- so that allways has me scratching my head at the flexibility displayed in movie morailty..still it at least has something to make you think...where-as U571 for example is bereft of any possible thought what so ever..

Not all that difficult, is it? Here's what I make of it ...

This is how we live, this is how we live,
This is how we live every day
Among the nicest company in the pub.
With clear wine in the morning,
And beer at midday,
It's not time to go to sleep until the grey light of dawn.

Speaking of movie morality:

- the u-boat captain (Curt Jurgens)

A sentiment that is still just as valid now as it was then - perhaps moreso.

I also like the subtle humor in having the camera pan, in one of the scenes on the destroyer, from a rated man reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to an officer reading a "Little Orphan Annie" comic book. :D

At the risk of highjacking, has anyone seen "Attack on the Iron Coast", the movie based on Operation Chariot? If so, is it worth watching/buying? I just stumbled across it on amazon.com.

Just as an aside, I read that the Star Trek movie Wrath of Kahn used many elements of this movie in it's plot.

I saw it some time ago on TV; it was pretty dull and formulaic, with cartoon Germans and wooden Allies. (Whose idea was it to cast the breathtakingly bad Lloyd Bridges in the lead??) I guess some of the music was good, but that's because much of it was stolen from Ron Goodwin's excellent score for 633 Squadron. Operation Chariot was one of the most extraordinary and influential commando operations of the war, and it's too bad that the movie turned out to be such a turkey. (Despite the resurgence of interest in WWII films in the last decade or so, it's probably too much to hope for a new film on this great event.) I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again.

How about the Original Series' "Balance of Terror". The Enterprise vs the cloaked Romulan Bird of Prey.

I remember back in 1957 or 58 when the movie
"Enemy Below" first came to our local theatre.
I went to see it and loved it. Probably started
me on my love of WW2 combat.....


JIM

Thanks. That's pretty much the same as everything I've read about it. I'll pass until it's on cable.