Likes

• It was on Netflix
• Showed how tight the spaces were
• Had some Humor
• It was good to see a movie from the German perspective, because typical I’ve only seen films in from Great Britain or the United States, and I had to keep reminding myself that the Allies were the antagonists in this film.
• The ocean views are so pretty with the sunset/sunrise

Dislikes

• All in German(language)
• They’d all speak German but there was moments where they’d write in English
• Gave no timeline to the time that had passed(just that it was during the battle of the Atlantic), and suddenly the bread was moldy
• Didn’t really give an introduction of the characters, it was very up to the viewer to figure out anyone who wasn’t the captain
• I don’t understand the directions, such as “15” like what does that mean
• No clue who is who, they all began to look to same
• The one guy keeps being called lieutenant but he is very inexperienced and doesn’t seem like a lieutenant at all, and is seen being a photographer instead

This film has several accuracies and does a good job showing the harsh living conditions of the people at sea.

• How tight the spaces are, with people and equipment
• Food is everywhere(in machine rooms, beds)
• That food did become low and they had to be desperate and eat the moldy food
• How quickly disease spread(example Crabs), from living in such closed spaces
• People slept where ever they could and shared beds and hang from anywhere
• How horrible it is when they flood and can’t escape from the ship and await a painful death of lack of Oxygen.

New Technology

• Sonar used to detected
• That Uboats could go very deep and be hidden
• Knowledge of how to rebuild the uboat

Horrors

• Being attacked and having everything flood and catch fire
• Being shaken around
• Injuries(from being shaken)
• Crew members bullying one another
• Mental health is affected and it’s shown by the drunk Captain at the beginning
• Being under a very stressful situation, especially when they are under attack and the Germans can’t see where the British will attack from
• Also worry over if the ship can handle the pressure
• Being attacked by bolts
• People being violent from isolation(when the men discover they aren’t going back to their port
• Man having a breakdown
• Getting stuck and sinking

• Although it was desperate times, it doesn’t mean they should have such an inexperienced lieutenant
• Memory of the writer might be faulty since it was almost 20 years after the events

This film wasn’t the worst thing to watch but it surely wasn’t my favourite. The upside was atleast until like Menzies who has none of his films on any streaming service. This one was found in Netflix and I didn’t have to pay extra to watch it.

One thing that was annoying was that the film was all in German, but did have English subtitles

Casting

• Director: Wolfgang Petersen
• Writer: Wolfgang Peterson(screenplay), and Lothar G. Buchheim(novel)

Facts

• Based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim‘s 1973 German novel
• Released on September 17, 1981
• Created in West Germany
• Set during WWII Germany
• Follows the experiences of the Crew of a Uboat
• One of the most expensive films of German Cinema
• Budget- 32 Mil(equivalent to 29 million in 2009)
• Box office 84.9 mill(equivalen to 220 million in2018)
• Later became a TV series(in 2018), set 5 days after the end of the film

Author

Lothar-Günther Buchheim was born in Germany and did spend time on a U boat, but only took photos, which is kind of the only thing the lieutenant does in the film. The novel he wrote is a fictionalized autobiography. Lothar was in the Uboat and only wrote the novel in 1973, that is almost 20 years. By the time he got to the novel his encounters wouldn’t have been all accurate because memory changes

Writer and Producer

Wolfgang Petersen was born in Germany as well and was born during the war. He had no experience besides what he learned from others. Wrote, produced, and directed several films, including several German films.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothar-Günther_Buchheim
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Petersen

This movie was very different for me, and it was my first film I’ve ever watched in another language. This film was also better than a lot of the films I’ve watched for classes because it wasn’t 3 hours long and it was on Netflix, with subtitles. This film did a good job showing how tight the conditions onboard were and gave us a different perspective where the allies were the antagonists.

Although I liked several things I had a lot of dislikes as well. Throughout the film I was confused over two things; Which character was who and why did they speak German but write in English. These things left me very confused and I don’t know what to make of that decision to not write in German. Was it too long? is their another version? Did they not want to use subtitles for it? One thing that would’ve helped a lot would be a time elapse, because I had no clue how much time had past and only knew the film took place during the battle of the Atlantic. Another thing that probably bothered me the most was the Lieutenant, who literally did nothing throughout the film and only took photos. It wasn’t until I was an hour into the film I discovered he was a lieutenant, and he is a sucky lieutenant, all he does is take photos. While researching the author of the book Ii discovered that the guy taking pictures is the author

This film had several accuracies with how it portrayed conditions of living in the boot and how events effected the people. One thing as how tight the spaces were and how they had no space and had food hanging everywhere. Close spaces mean disease can travel quickly, and several man had crabs. Another thing is how desperate they were to ration food, and crazy guy(don’t know his name) was going to eat the moldy bread, but that was the time, nothing went to waste. The author of the novel got first hand accounts of these conditions and since the film is based on the novel, its safe to way there is a ton of accuracies.

Not only were the living conditions accurate, the other horrible things were true. They were attacked several times and suffered injuries from the shaking and even got attacked by bolts because of the pressure. Constantly on edge leads to several mental illnesses, such as PTSD, and crazy guy has a breakdown and tries to leave. One of the inaccuracies is the fact that that guy would have never been lieutenant because even though they are desperate, this guy knew almost nothing.