Movie "Enemy Below"

[JJ]

Originally Posted by joea

Sure you guys who don't like the film are not confusing it with "In enemy hands"?

Haha.. that's what I thought first but then figured it can't be, since In Enemy Hands is so complete and utter crap that it's beyond comprehension. Then I cleared my confusion with a little help from IMDB. Can't recall seeing The Enemy Below.

[KL Seestern]

Originally Posted by Threadfin

I'm sure. In Enemy Below, at the end, the American frigate or DE gets torpedoed by the u-boat. Most of the crew abandons ship, but the Captain and a few others stay on. The ship is buring, and of course the u-boat surfaces 200 meters away to use the deck gun. The ship and u-boat start shooting at each other, then the ship rams the u-boat, coming to rest on top of the u-boat, which stays afloat with the destroyer on top of it, high and dry. Everbody abandons ship, and Americans and Germans end up in the same lifeboat, and watch their vessels finally explode.

Is that the one?

Aww ... now you've gone and spoiled the ending for me

When I first saw the film, like many others here, I was distracted by the dreadful interior U-Boat set. But then, like DeepSix, I came to look beyond that and see the good aspects of the film. Sure, it's a bit corny at times, but certainly no worse than many films of its day. Or even this day -- the 'bonding' of enemies at the end of this film is no cornier than that in In Enemy Hands (in fact it's much better -- it leaves things unsaid, rather than degenerating into a sentimental mess), and at least the action of the hunt (as opposed to the interior set) is portrayed realistically in The Enemy Below.

Remember, the film is nearly half a century old! If they'd had the technology for, or (equally, if not more, importantly) the audience interest in, something like Das Boot in 1957, they might have made a different film. But they didn't, and shouldn't be faulted for that; the sympathetic portrayal of the U-Boat crew was probably quite daring and controversial enough at the time.

[Threadfin]

Hehe, I get a pass. 50 years is plenty of time to see it, so I can't be blamed for revealing the ending, can I?

I'm impressed you guys find some merit in this film. I watched it with an open mind and no preconceptions of the film, but I just didn't think it was good. There are other movies of the same vintage I find much better like In Harm's Way, We Dive at Dawn, Run Silent Run Deep and others.

[nikimcbee]

Overall, I like the film, but I thought the German acting was tacky/awfull .

Favorite (dumb) moments from film:
1. the countdown to launch torpedoes :rotfl:
2. The nazi guy
3. The clean u-boat crew.
4. Jurgens (not the lotion :|\ ) speech about the "good ol' days

Cool (actual) moments from the film.
1. The footage of the DE.
2. Robert Mitchum

[DeepSix]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

...3. The clean u-boat crew.
...

You forgot to mention those spiffy Nazi sport shirts. :P

[DAB]

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.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by DeepSix

You forgot to mention those spiffy Nazi sport shirts. :P

:rotfl: I did get a laugh from that

[Raptor]

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.

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

[CB..]

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..

[KL Seestern]

Originally Posted by Raptor

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.

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.

[DeepSix]

Speaking of movie morality:

Now I look in the periscope and it gives me the distance and the speed.... The machinery turns, the lights flash, and we get the answer. The torpedo runs to its target, and there is no human error in this. They've taken human error out of war.... They've taken the human out of war.

- 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.

[JScones]

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.

[mem]

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

[KL Seestern]

Originally Posted by JScones

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.

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.

[cmdrk]

Originally Posted by mem

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

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