Review of Das Boot (1981) by Ray R — 26 Dec 2013

When I watch a film almost 4 hours long and it feels like it ended to soon, that's how I know I enjoyed the crap out of it, and so was the case with Das Boot. This was the director's cut I had watched, and I can't imagine watching it in a shorter version like the theatrical cut, which I have yet to check out.

Das Boot follows a crew of German navy soldiers on a haunting journey through the seas in a U-boat against British forces. The film isn't about the war though, but rather the fear that strikes us all from the war.

With impressive technologies, but still undergoing limitations, being in these U-boats underwater for these navy officers is unsettling and it was difficult to tell what was approaching until it was very close.

You feel what these crew members feel, the ominous nature of what will happen. Any moment, a destroyer can appear, any minute a depth charge can strike. The sounds of radar sounding pulses of a nearby ship, the quietness that hushes over the crew, the darkness that is cast over the lighting -- all of this creates a tense, thrilling atmosphere that keeps you on the edge.

You hope for them, you fear for them, you're there with them. That's how deep of an experience this film is, and Wolfgang Peterson does a hell of a job giving the film a very claustrophobic feel with the tight corridor and the camerawork, the sets are great and very realistic, and the film benefits from a lot of the dialogue scenes, activities between the people aboard the boat, and getting to know the characters so we can identify with their struggles and see everyone's way of life on the long journey through the seas.

The film is just detailed so well in this manner. I have no complaints, its common use of tell not show builds the intensity of what will come next in attack scenes, and it's just a grand production that's great to behold.

The ending is quite something too. It's a tragic film but amazing in that matter.