What you get:
Theatrical version: 2-1/2 hours
Director's Cut: 3-1/2 hours (probably the "4-hour" version you saw).
'Original, Uncut Version', also known as the miniseries version, but without the credits at the beginning and end of each episode; 293 minutes (4 hours 53 minutes), the '5-hour' version.
What you'll see if you see the long version is: The 'Old Man' and Thomsen discussing torpedo failures in the club; scenes featuring Ulmann's French girlfriend (very pretty!); more crash dives; more air attacks, including one which may not be; more depth charging; a scene in which they actually argue about the ethics of leaving the British sailors behind in the water (instead of just staring at each other); more scenes of the 'Hitler Youth' 1WO, rounding out his character much more fully; and, most important of all, the whole thing is narrated by Lt. Werner!
You don't have to watch it all at one sitting; I usually just watch an hour or so at a time. In fact, I kind of wish they had released it with the episodes intact, so I could watch it as a very nice TV show.
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