Review of Das Boot (1981) by Filipeneto — 31 Mar 2018

This interesting war film shows us a little of what was the daily life of a submarine crew during World War II. As the film is German, not surprisingly, is a German submarine. And tastes good to hear the dialogues in the original tongue, giving more authenticity tho the movie than the English, which most of films used indiscriminately, because of commercial interests.

This film is, of all submarine movies, the best I've ever seen. The more realistic and closer to reality, without dramatic contrivances, without the flying imagination of those who have never seen a submarine but has to make a film about it. Its based on a book by Lothar G. Buchheim which, I believe, describes real events. The script reflected this effort, this search for reality. I do not know any of the actors, I am no expert in cinema, but I enjoyed the interpretation of Jürgen Prochnow, the captain, and Klaus Wennemann, who played chief engineer submarine. I will not be very surprised if someone says to me that some footage was shot in a real submarine... whole scenario was thought to detail and it shows how submarines are claustrophobic.

Far from the American sensationalism, this European film makes a very interesting picture of a reality that most movies rather fantasize the extreme. It is a proof of how thin can sometimes be the line between documentary and a cinematographic work.