What makes you love a submarine movie?
 

Hi everyone. I've been wondering about this for a while now.

Everyone's got their own favourite sub movie, but what elements do you expect to see in a sub movie? A submarine is a needed, of course, but what about other aspects of the film that are an absolute must? What elements does a movie need to get you to love it? Friction between the Captain and XO? Depth Charge Attack? Bottoming to evade destroyers? Bags of tonnage? Pink paint job and golf clubs for levers?

What turns you off a film? Romantic Interest back home, waiting for James Garner? Incorrect use of the technology? Poor models? U-571? Bad sound effects?

Don't need friction, unless it's about something real. Don't need romance, unless it's affecting someone's performance. Don't need pink, unless it's plain from the start that this is a comedy. Don't need tonnage, unless the lack of it is causing friction (that's something real). Don't need a 'special' story. I loved Up Periscope, but the submarine was secondary; the story was about a frogman.

Just need a story about the ship, and her men.

The next submarine movie I see should tell the story of what they did, and why.

The Das Boot's turn me on and the U-571's turn me off. :arrgh!:

Lots of action and stuff blowing up.

There was one particular sub movie and it wasn't a war film. It was more horror/thriller about an american sub called 'Below'. I liked it a bit since it was unusual. So, I like a good plot and some sub action.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276816/

A struggle for life, not knowing if the crew is going to make it or not. The crew coming together to do the job, save the boat and save themselves all the while doing their jobs. Good to have alot of sub and underwater shots as well.

I like movies like this one :http://www.eztakes.com/store/movie/W...e-Download.jsp

I wish we could breake trough subnets like that :lol:

The movie has to show the drama of what the submarine did and what it was built to do. Out smart the enemy (kind of like Run Silent Run Deep). Insertion and extraction. Pilot rescue. Fiction like U571, although good entertainment for most, is very painful to watch when you have a good understanding of submarines and uboats. I like the movie, Enemy Below. Pretty good for it's time. Battle of wills between the DD captain and the uboat skipper.

I think the old sub movies of the 40s and 50s are a great watch on a Sunday afternoon. For me, the only sub movie that felt like a real sub and not a movie set was Das Boot. :D

Thats interesting since the conning tower that was used in the movie is in a park in Germany:D
http://uboat.net/gallery/u96/images/andi_tower.jpg

Movies like Enemy Below I like as it shows both sides as being professional military men.

One of the sub movies I hate is "crash dive" as it is just a sappy love story and a pretty bad one at that.

Although it is campy I do love Destination Tokyo.

Operation Pacific. Subs, John Wayne, Nuns what else do you need?

I also like K-19 despite the historical problems

I am afraid that a sub movie that we would love would not appeal to the average movie goer.

Does anyone here like U571? :down:

Wouldn't it be great if they made a couple of movies like "Flags of our fathers"/"Letters from Iwo Jima" this time about the submarine war. A pair of films showing the conflict from both sides.

The nearest combo we've got at the moment would be the Atlantic duel between U-Boat and corvette in the two fantastic films "Das Boot" & "The Cruel Sea". I think these films are at their best when they showing the real stress and strain of realistic people in combat situations not over the top action oriented junk like "U571". It's a bit like comparing a sim with an arcade game. In the same way "A Night to Remember" is a much better film than "Titanic" .

Me love "Authenticness" in submarine movies. Closely reflect authentic historical events in RL.

BRING ON THE USS TANG AND O'KANE 4 WW2 PACIFIC SUB MOVIE!!!

That's a good idea... One movie inside the sub chasing a convoy, the other about the merchant's and the escorts! (Are you around here Mr Spielberg?):D
Interesting book about the men serving in a convoy, and how they felt is HMS Ulysses by Alistair McLean. His first book. I read it in Greek many many years ago.

U-571 sucks ass! (Cartman's voice , South Park) :rotfl:

Funnily enough Mr Spielberg/Dreamworks did actually purchase the rights to Adm Fluckey's book "Thunder Below" a few years ago (about 5) and a movie script was indeed developed from it, but not yet shot, so that it's actually quite possible- especially with teh success of "Letters" & "Flags"!

from Yahoo movies on writer Shane Salerno...
"Schmidt was also pitching a submarine story, "Thunder Below" which Salerno convinced Schmidt to let him write. Both projects were ultimately stalled, but not before "A Season in Hell" was bought for mid-six figures and "Thunder Below" was greenlighted by Steven Spielberg for DreamWorks. "


I've read "HMS Ulysees" too, a very fine book, in may ways similar to "The Cruel Sea" both authors having served in convoy duty in the Royal Navy, their books were very authentic.

I didn't know that! I sure hope it will make it into production, especially when Spielberg is one of my favorites directors :D

Also funny is the fact that just some minutes before as I was searching wikipedia about the English title of HMS Ulysses (the version I have read in Greek had a different title "Battle at Sea", as it was very common in Greek publications of foreign books to change the title in ordre to make it more apealing), I saw "The cruel Sea" mentioned in the same article. First time I heard it and here you are mentioning it in a matter of minutes :D

"The novel received good critical notices as well, with a number of reviewers putting it into the same class as two other 1950s classic tales of World War II at sea, Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny and Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. [1]."

Yes, and the "Cruel Sea" movie is also great, probably the closest thing we in the UK have to a "Das Boot".

More on the Cruel Sea movie

The most famous scene from the film on Youtube

Thanks for posting that. I read The Cruel Sea not to long ago; now waiting for a chance to see the movie. Our local library also had Monsarrat At Sea, a collection of his actual articles he wrote during the war, some short stories (including a delightful one about three men delivering a yacht to Dunkirk and lying about what they did that famous day) and a story telling the true story about his wartime adventures, and what he really thought of the officers he served with. All-in-all a great read.

I've been eyeing that up on Amazon UK, thanks for the review, sound's like a must have.

The Caine Mutiny is another great film, hardly any fighting in it but the psychological drama/ nature of command aspects work well, a good story, well shot, unlike 85% of today's Hollywood output.