Das Boot, Uncut or "the original" ?

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

i understand, but you should be allowed to speak your mind

Oh, don't worry. I do.

But there's a time and a place for everything.

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

Oh, don't worry. I do.

Confirmed! :rotfl:

[toryu]

Originally Posted by Bluesman

To the point, which one do you (who has one, or both) prefer, the uncut, or the original mini-series?

:|\

I have the 5 hour miniseries, with the making-of documentary on the 2nd disk. I would recommend it to anybody. It's not boring at all. Any of it. Your eyes are glued to the screen for every moment. The additional background sequences add a lot to the story.

Here's some trivia: one of my cousins from Germany clued me in to the fact that Herbert Grönemeyer (Lt Werner) is a popular singer over there. I've been offered one of his CDs to borrow, but haven't had the chance yet. I'll admit I'm very curious. If he's good, I'll give him a recommendation here at subsim Maybe he can be added in to the gramophone. I wonder if he's like David Hasselhof from Baywatch, also a popular vocal act with the Deutsch. There's no accounting for taste

More trivia: my wife is also Jewish. She was a bit leery of Das Boot for obvious reasons, but has watched some of it with me. She has admitted to liking Jurgen Prochnow. I can see his appeal for the ladies My wife hates fascist types, as do I, but she's actually good friends with my German relatives. Because we know that Fascism isn't a disease peculiar to Germans. It's something to be watched for everywhere in the world.

[_alphaBeta_]

Haven't seen the uncut version, but I was happy with the amount of character development in the director's cut. Not sure I would want even more. There's still plenty dull moments in the cut - enough for me to get the idea.

[Twelvefield]

I can't speak for what the film must have looked like or sounded like on VHS, or in the theatre, but the DVD remastering for the Uncut version left me a little underwhelmed.

The story and the characters are all first rate, and the sets and locations look very authentic, as well as does much of the fx model work.

The look of the film was crisp enough, but I suspect that because of the original film stock, there's a limited amount of clarity that you can get from remastering. As a result, I did notice a bit of pixellation and "rainbow" from the video codec they used for their remastering. I wonder if the Superbit version would cure that?

But the biggest problem I had was with the sound remastering. Das Boot and Star Wars came out in theatres at roughly the same time, and the Star Wars remastering is magnificent. Lucasfilms truly works all of the speakers, inclusing an excellent subwoofer track for Star Wars. I found the same was not true for Das Boot -- all of the dialogue comes out of center channel and the vast majority of the sound effects come out of the main speakers. If there are any "surrounded" sounds, they share the side speakers equally with zero separation. Simply put, you don't hear very many sounds that come from one single speaker (except center channel), so if something happens camera-left, you hear it coming from the center.

Worse still, the subwoofer gets very little work-out. When the TIE-fighter explodes at the end of the attack on the Millenium Falcon in Star Wars, the pictures on my wall shake. But when the u-boat gets DC'd in Das Boot, there's very little bass response, you don't get the impression from the sound that the world is about to end. Compare and contrast to U-571, which won a much-deserved Oscar for sound editting, that picture has DC's that shake the whole house!

So, from that view, and that view only, Das Boot comes across as being rather conventional, if not a bit bland. It's not going to test the boundaries of your home theatre. However, to get to your original query, I would reccommend that if you can afford the Uncut version, that you should buy it. Even the so-called boredom is fascinating. It's a landmark motion picture for WWII films, and an excllent addition to any DVD library. It's definitely a clinic on how to stage a film with mostly unknown and/or amateur actors in a confined set.

In summary, owning a copy of Das Boot beats not owning a copy of Das Boot.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by _alphaBeta_

Haven't seen the uncut version, but I was happy with the amount of character development in the director's cut. Not sure I would want even more. There's still plenty dull moments in the cut - enough for me to get the idea.

I realise that some folks these days think that a lack of constant action only means boredom, but in the olden days we used to have this thing called 'suspense'. It was used as a counterpoint to action and dramatic sequences, to throw them into contrast. It worked nicely to enhance the drama or action, making them more meaningful, and making older, less action-packed movies like 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' much more entertaining than suspense-less movies like 'The Mummy Returns'.

Without suspense you simply don't get the full impact, and if you just throw action sequence after action sequence an audience ends up feeling a bit cheated. A good movie needs to be well-paced, and that doesn't mean that it needs to be fast-paced. But I suppose, these days, it's no use telling people about suspense - you have to see it for yourself, and anyone who has been brought up only on modern action movies and FPS games probably can't understand what it is they're missing. Actually I'm a bit surprised that SH3 fans don't understand how suspense works - sub simulations are pretty much all suspense.

Originally Posted by Beery

I realise that some folks these days think that a lack of constant action only means boredom, but in the olden days we used to have this thing called 'suspense'.

Yeah, and just because most movies nowadays are lacking any suspense I love 'antique' (well... ) cinema much more...around 80 % of my DVD collection are films older than 20 years.

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by terrapin

Yeah, and just because most movies nowadays are lacking any suspense I love 'antique' (well... ) cinema much more...around 80 % of my DVD collection are films older than 20 years.

In 'The Longest Day' the seaborne invasion only started after the break...
There was a lot of suspense and confusion before the break.

[Fishmachine]

Well, I have seen only the mini-series version and it's great. I just can't think of anything to be cut from the movie - it just fits like it should! Part of these five hours was boring but... that's the trick! You can really feel the overwhelming boredom of weeks without any contact. The same tasks over and over waiting WEEKS for some action...
And when you finaly meet a ship it DC you Man, I was frustrated as hell watching it If I wouldn't play ShIII I'd probably consider the uncut version too boring, but knowing more about u-boats I just love this movie

[Takeda Shingen]

Having seen all three versions (theatrical, director's cut and mini-series), my preference is for the mini-series for nothing more than the fact that this was the way the director and producers originally concieved the work. Directors, composers and various other artists throughout history have regularly edited and rearranged their works to suit particular settings and climates, and thusly, have served to accomodate a variety of tastes and prespectives. Each version, therefore, remains as valid as the others.

[martes86]

Mini-series, forever.
Contains lots more insights on the characters, and also some more air raid alarms.
If there's a long version of the best U-Boot movie ever made, why would you miss it?

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Well crap! I just found out that the director's cut and the un-cut version ARE NOT the same.

I'm missing out on more than an hour of footage.

I gotta fix that!

Today!

[yankee-V]

Anyone prefer the theatrical version?

I have not seen the mini-series, which may be great. Seems to me though that the theatrical release holds together better as a story than the director's cut.

[kiwi_2005]

Well crap! I just found out that the director's cut and the un-cut version ARE NOT the same.

Which one is longer! this is new news to me too. This is not good, i am getting frustrated.

[martes86]

The un-cut one is the longest.