Review of Das Boot (1981) by Nicholas G — 08 Mar 2009

"Das Boot" is not a film meant to entertain. Wolfgang Peterson's epic is perhaps one of the finest anti-war films of all time. It is a gripping, gritty and unflinching portrayal of the conditions in which U-boats functioned at the height of World War II. Not for one second does the film try to romanticise war, its perpetrators or their agents. It demonises war and its perpetrators but sympathises with the agents.

Interestingly, instead of looking at the War from the perspective of the Allies, which is the usual coloured lens through which World War II has been explored in most movies, it looks at it from the perspective of sailors on a German U-boat. That helps greatly as the viewer abandons any expectation of cliches running their course through the film. One doesn't expect the Germans to win or survive. In fact, some may even look forward to their failure. However, that, in fact, makes the task of making an anti-war film all the more difficult with the subject matter.

But Peterson needs to be credited for making one of the most powerful war films by focusing on the individuals involved in the war independent of the side they were on. He reminds us that sides are often chosen involuntarily but the horrors of war are felt equally by the individuals on both sides. He succeeds in creating an atmosphere which is authentic. Instead of clean cut sailors as are often seen in the movies, we have sweaty, unshaved, filthy and disgusting sailors who look as if they have actually been at sea for over a month.

The production design is very good and helps in creating the perpetually damp, salty and nauseous atmosphere. The background score is melancholic and sombre. The special effects are dated but nevertheless adequate. The performances are good especially by Jurgen Prochnow, the captain of the submarine. He fits the role of the leader who harbours his own doubts about the War but does not let those come in the way of the duty he owes to his sailors. There are moments which require him to be inscrutable and others that require him to be vulnerable and the actor excels in both. The actor who plays the reporter is also excellent in a quiet, underplayed performance. He starts off as the outsider whose duty is to document the ship's adventures and who slowly forms a bond with the sailors. In fact, by the end of the film, he becomes its central focus, its conscience.

There are a number of memorable scenes in the near 6 hours uncut version of the epic. The scene where the English sailors from the destroyed submarine call for help and where the reporter offers to take the mail of one of the soldiers to his beloved when he gets off shore are extremely moving. The battle scenes are intense and the fear and tension there is palpable. Ultimately, there is a sadness associated with the events depicted in the film. The final chapter of the film is unforgiving in its depiction of horror. The sense of doom and entrapment is overwhelming.

The heroism of its characters lies in their sheer will to survive against all odds. There are several points in the film that convince the viewer that all hope is lost. But the characters prove us wrong again and again. The movie is deliberately slow to give a taste of what life at sea is really about. It is brutal in its depiction of pain and pressure and lays bare the emptiness of ideologies in the end. In that sense, an interesting contrast can be drawn with "Der Untergang," another fine film on the Second World War from the German perspective which, in fact, chose to look at the centrality of ideology in war and life. While that showed life as meaningless without the ideology one believes in, "Das Boot" gives survival primacy over everything else.

Overall, "Das Boot" is a long but rewardingly enlightening film about the undesirability of war and the toll it takes on human beings. It keeps the viewer guessing and at the edge of his seat for a large part of the film. For a movie running for nearly four hours, that is a great achievement. Super solid recommendation!