I do agree that "Das Boot" is a good movie. Very powerful and seemingly realistic movie. I saw it when it first came out in the eighties and I bought the Director's Cut a few years ago. Never seen the long version though.
I've read the book numerous times as well. As somebody mentioned above, it is still a work of fiction even though it based on fact .
With that being said, and at risk of being branded a heretic, I read in Michael Gannon's book "Operation Drumbeat" some of the crewmen of Hardegan's U-123 discussing both the book and the movie.
Quoted from the book:
Quote:
Hans Seigel:It wasn't at all like what people saw in Bucheim's movie, Das Boot.
Walter Lorenz: No, not at all. In the movie when the depth charges hit you see men falling all about. It was just not like that. Sure, your nerves jangled, but falling about on each other? No, no.
Seigel: When you heard the ASDIC, and when you heard the depth charges, you knew that you were still alive. But it's true, when the destroyer's propeller noises grew louder and closer, and when the pinging reverberated throughout the boat, and when you heard the click of the explosives reaching their depth, sure it rattled your nerves. But there was never any screams or shouts like in the film. It just didn't happen. It couldn't happen-they'd locate you immediately. If just one man shouted-
Richard Amstein: I don't think there was man on board who wasn't scared.
Walter Kaeding: The man who says he wasn't scared, he's a liar. The difference was that in a U-boat you couldn't show your fear. So we didn't. But in Bucheim's film Das Boot, where the men are so scared they go in their pants, not one of us had that happen, not one.
Karl Latislaus: Did you know that Bucheim also wrote a book? He is truly crazy. He made only one trip in a U-boat, as a photojournalist. How could he presume to write about U-boatmen? Some things are factual, but most are not. Before a mission we didn't drink that much or go around without our shirts-
Kaeding: We always knew where we stood. We understood from the beginning that we could be hit out there. But discussing that was taboo. Not in the family, not in the homeland, nowhere did we discuss it. We didn't even discuss with our shipmates.
Seigel: Every boat was different. The commander of every boat was different. And I believe that if we had a commander who was very tense, we wouldn't have been so calm either. But with Hardegen we had confidence that we would make it. And we were a well-experienced crew. You could trust your life to every single man.
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