Super interesting to watch a WW2 movie from a different perspective! Also one of the most stressful movies we have seen! Thank you all for your suggestions and support!
TBR Schmitt If you really want to watch a WW2 movie or indeed a war movie in general from a different perspective and one that doesn't pull any punches then you really need to react to Come and See. That is a film like no other that I have ever seen.
Have a look at "Letters from Iwo Jima". It shows the assault on Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. It was directed by Clint Eastwood and is the companion movie to Flags of Our Fathers (which deals with Iwo Jima from an American perspective).
@@lampad4549 I've heard they brought someone who actually used to help make the submarines in on the film to basically rebuild one just for the movie. Otherwise I don't know but apparently the drills of 'ALARM' are a necessary part of submarine life, you have to be sure everyone is in and down before they go, no-one has a spare second. Like I said, otherwise I don't know what is or isn't realistic.
@@lampad4549 That's a lie as the experts advising the film when it was made were actual navy soldiers from the german marine and u-boot crew who fought in ww2. So your source of that is either made up or complete bullshit. The only thing that could be unrealistic is the first 10 minutes. Anything else is death accurate for the time this took place.
Masterpiece. A few years ago I had the great honor to eat dinner with Jürgen Prochnow (captain) in LA. He was kind enough and very patient to answer every single stupid question I had about this movie and the intense work on it. Best steak of my life.
6:52: "Na na na" is basically a very mild reprimand. The verbal equivalent of waving a finger at a child. He's telling him to mind his manners/not speak out of line.
To give you guys a little bit more perspective from the German side: When this movie premiered there were actual submarine veterans in the cinema. Some of them had to walk out because their PTSD flared up, the movie was THAT realistic. But in the end they all thanked the director for finally telling their story. The crew at the end is NOW in makeup. They were actually that pale because they were not allowed to go out in the sun during the production of the movie/show, so they actually were transforming into these ghostly pale men over the course of production. That's what they really looked like. They are also not acting that shaking. They were in a boat/set that could be moved, so they were actually being thrown around and some of them got injured. Language wise it's also interesting. If you're German or have lived long enough in Germany, you can tell the different regional dialects of the actors. It's like Americans being able to tell "oh this guy is from New York, or this guy is from Austin Texas. Most U-boat crew members were recruited both from the German north where the seafaring stuff was going on as well as (mostly actually) from the German Ruhr region, which was heavily industry region in Germany. The reason was that those young guys had experience working with metal and machines and would have the necessary knowledge to keep the boat running and fixing things. Also there were a lot of coal miners there, which were used to working in cramped dark spaces with heavy equipment and not freak out. And the dialects you hear are actually from those regions, since the actors were from there. As for "how can anybody keep working under such stress": That's just military discipline for you. Civilians always wonder why recruits get yelled at all the time in basic training and such. That's not because the drill sergeants are bad people, it's so you get used to loud noises and high stress. You need to be able to function in high stress and with very loud noises going on all around you. You can't have people freaking out when stuff gets loud. Try taking the average guy or girl from the stream and scream at them out of nowhere. They'll be completely paralyzed for a moment and/or freak out. That can't happen to you in such a situation or you die. That's why in the military we slowly build up the stress resistance and the discipline. Without that training, none of this is possible. But that training helps you remain functional in those situations. Your actions kind of go into autopilot, and only when everything is over, the emotions come rushing in. In regards to the "suicide mission" of going through Gibraltar from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean: The Germans actually did that. Several Uboats were opperating in the mediterranean, so this was possible. But it was still highly dangerous. What the movie also hinted at was the Allied superiority in Radar. Early in the war the Uboats stayed under water during the day and came out at night when airplanes couldn't spot them, so they had a major advantage. Early war the night attacks were the standard and super devastating. but later in the war the Allied Radar made that impossible. The allied planes were spotting them via radar, while they were not able to see the attacking airplane until it was too late. That's what happened here, they got spotted by an airplane with radar and got attacked out of nowhere. That's why later in the war the Germans completely changed their tactics and stayed above water during the day, and dived at night. THey could still get spotted in daylight but at least they had a chance to see the airplane in time to avoid it. Also, the fact that they hit sand on the bottom wasn't just a coincidence or luck. When they got spotted (you probably didn't notice that in all the chaos), the captain actually told them to stay surfaced at first, go full speed and changed course to the african coast. He knew they were screwed but if they made it to the african coast, they'd be in Spanish territory and could get interned by Spain and stay in prison in a neutral country for the rest of the war. So he was trying to save his crew, not break through. And the fact that he moved them closer to the african coast meant that he moved them to a more shallow area of the straight. That's why they hit that sand, they were closer to the coast where the sea wasn't as deep. And finally... in case you are wondering why the crew is running like crazy through the boat during alarm: They are not running to their stations. Back then the literally use the crew as ballast. If they wanted to dive, they ordered every man that wasn't needed at their station to the front of the boat, to shift the center of mass and dive quicker. That's why, when they had their depth rudders stuff, the captain ordered all men to the rear of the ship, to try and stop the boat from going down.
Fun facts: The captain at the beginning really was drunk while filming. All the food in the u-boat was real. Over the course of filming it slowly decayed. The water inside really was rotting and smelling. Then they bought all the cologne they could get their hands on to mask the smell. The crew (actors) really had to scoop al the water for hours, making them really (real) tired. The actors could not go out into the sun while filming. All the beards are real. The big boot at the beginning and ending was made from wood. Parts of the movie had to be re-dubbed in German, because the hand-held camera they used for action scenes made a loud whirring sound. The outside scenes where made with a 60% scale model with a diver inside. Then they overshot with 60% more speed. Slowed down to 100% it then looked like the big thing. The scene where they encounter the other sub where barbie dolls waving through a mechanism. When the movie was first shown they invited real German u-boat captains and sailors. The officers where outraged about the slang and jokes, and that did not happen on their boats. Then the real sailors confirmed that is was pretty realistic. Edit 2023: For the bolts snapping they shot a carbine with blanks. The test pressure of this sub type was 160 m. They did a modern day calculation of the burst pressure, so when the hull would implode, and it was 280 m, just like the max. in the movie. I always thought it was made up, but more realistic than i thought. Go watch the 6 part series. It is worth it.
That was actually the second Captain at the start - the first drank on set and was fired for it. The replacement actually had to be *made* drunk During a rare break in production, a number of former uboat crew were being shown around the set - a production assistant was fixing something on a panel and hit the alarm button. Despite not having been in a boat since 1945, five of them being shown around instantly dived for stations! Jürgen Prochnow's first English speaking role was a redub of his own character in the film A review in a UK film trade paper stated "This may very well be the first film in which it is permissible to cheer for the Germans"
Correct, except for two things. Of course the actors did not have to eat spoiled food. And they did not have to do hard labor. I don't know about Holywood, but that wouldn't have flown in West Germany... Other trivia: The "man overboard" scene was actually an on-set accident. A contraption was built to spray water at the bridge, and one of the actors (Jan Fedder) lost his footing, actually injuring himself in the fall. The "man overboard!" call is genuine and was kept in the final cut. @Trek001: Thomsen was played by Otto Sander, and yes, he *did* get intentionally drunk for the scene. No, he was not fired for it.
Herbert Grönemeyer (Lt. Werner) said that the filming conditions put him off acting so much that he concentrated on music. He is now considered one of Germany’s premier musicians.
The boat used for the exterior shots was loaned by Steven Spielberg for Raiders!. Most of the German actors dubbed their voices in English. Klaus Doldinger´s music was used in U96 song¨Das Boot¨ and Doldinger would also score The Never Ending Story. In one of the last scenes you see twin engine bombers taking evasive action,but the look very much like the CASA bomber´s used in Battle if Britain(Heinkel´s made in Spain by Casa with Rolls Royce engines)but i am not sure but they look very similar to the shot in Battle of Britain when the bomber´s attack from Norway.
I am a retired U.S. Chief Petty Officer, Submariner. 17 years in the submarine force. This movie shakes me to the core every time I see it. For me, this is a horror movie, a history movie, and a movie that shows how human beings are quite capable of pushing through fear for their brothers in arms or as we say, shipmates. Love your channel and how you both approach reacting to these classic movies. I like that you don't critique for good or bad but just for how the movie hits you. Continued success to you both and may I suggest you reacting to TO HELL AND BACK, with Audie Murphy playing himself in the true story movie of his wartime experiences which made him one of America's most-decorated soldiers.
My older brother is a retired submarine reactor operator. This is his "favorite" (as in gives him the screaming heebie jeebies) submarine movie. He served on fast attack boats, not the boomers.
Interesting fact: The entire interior of the U-Boat used in the film was built precisely to exact specs, even the bolts used were accurate to those used back then. The attention to detail was so insane that the actors were made to stay away from the sun for a year to create the pale and tired look.
Das Boot is one of the best and most famous German anti-war movies of all time, portraying the brutality and futility of war, the fear and stress and pain. Plus, the main theme of the sound track is just epic.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver , with "futility" I meant the characters' struggle to survive in the madness of war - just to die after all, in the end. It goes without saying that the Nazis had to be fought and brought down.
@@broetchenahoi6524 The madness of the _Nazi Germany_ war, yes. In the end, it was the Germans, Japanese, and Italians who suffered under their own madness. The Allies saw and dealt with insane things; the Axis _perpetrated_ that madness. Then came Cold War, a new kind of madness ...
Mind-a-like! Not many 'war' movies out there that work that well. Sheer terror and psyche, no heroes, no mayhem, no bloodshed, just the sheer terror of war: Boredom, tension, short moments of horror. Das Boot, Stalingrad, Die Brücke. Interestingly all coming from Germany, all brutal in the way of how the real horror of war is displayed.
I've read over 100 comments here and I agree to all of the credits. But I miss comments on Jost Vacano because I think this cameraman has given us one of the most impressive examples of film art in history! Joost, thank You for this masterpiece!
Jost and German camera company Arri built a really small film camera to make it possible to move around in the cramped space. Only with this camera could they get these shots running through the whole length of the boat with no cuts. Only problem was that the camera was really loud, so they had to re-dub almost all of the dialog.
The scene with the guys jumping off the burning freighter is developed to way more depth in the 5 hour version. For everyone to whom that is available, it's a 6 part TV movie of 50 minutes each. And believe me, it is worth every single minute. You get so much more insight in the characters. If you get the opportunity to watch it, do it.
@Count Drunkula that and bad localizations, I don't know which version these two watched but the subs are definitely more natural sounding than the version I got.
I watch this movie at least once a year to remind me that you don't need CGI and 150 million dollars to make a masterpiece. This is the best and most accurate ww2 movie ever made, I've read a lot about the battle in the Atlantic and Uboats in particular and all the little details in this movie such as the night surface attack, the food hanging, the operating of pumps and valves, the water gushing into the control room hatch. This movie is just perfect.
@@maltehenryk1409 This was the most expensive German TV Production, that was ever made by the time, costing 32 mill. DM (Deutsche Mark), which would be roughly 35 mill € today. Still - no comparison to generic and soulless 150 mill $ crap that is pumped out from certain studios today. I mean just look at all the comments from people coming from every corner of the planet, all brought together by the universial truth of the series that war is cruel and random and sensless. On top of that, transported by protagonists that belonged to the side that started all this shit. Best german production by a 100 miles, best sub war movie ever made, timeless...
As a German myself I do like the movie for two reasons. On one side it shows that many Germans weren't Nazis. They just followed orders from a crazy Dictator. Soldiers not abandoning duty. A good example is the scene, where the LI and the photographer are supposed to leave the Boot before the suicide order. You said it correctly. Who would deny such a request? A crazy man would. And on the other side the stupidity and meaninglessness of war. Fighting, surviving every catastrophe that's put into their path and in the end, still dying from the plane attack they couldn't possibly have prevented. A very raw and in-your-face movie missing all that glorifying "hero" aspect most war movies do have a lot of.
My Grandfather who fought in both WW1 and 2 said, and I can see him saying it: "There are no heros in war. Just survivors." And when you think about it, he is right. Most of the "heroic" doings in a war are driven by the pure instinct to survive and protect your brothers.
This movie captures boredom so well, without ever being boring. And yes the guy listening for ships through the hydrophones is the only person doing that job. The thing is that those only work when the ship is submerged, so the captain ordered the boat to dive every hour or two hours to listen. You could hear single ships about 20 km away and convoys 100km. So you had a bit of time. The depth charges of submarines could go on for many many hours and aside from damaging the ship, it was meant to break the crew and make them surface so they could finish them off.
They work as long as the hydrophone head is underwater. I mean, they work for destroyers. But they do work a lot better if you don't have the noise of waves against the sub's hull or conning tower.
@@wwoods66 against the hull... waves and water makes hella lot of sound on the surface just on its own. On the surface Hydrophones are near useless unless the keel reaches down low, very low, practically at the 40-50 metre depth which is not coincidentally the standard calm water operating depth of ww2 german subs.
It depends on where the hydrophones are located. This Uboot is a type 7b and at that stage of the war the hydrophone was the GHG type of 24 different sensors mounted around the hull which routed signals to a central switch box that converted them to sound that could be interpreted by the operator. They could detect sounds while on the surface. Later models were directional sensors that had better results when submerged but were very vulnerable to damage from depth charge attacks. yes, depth charge attacks could go on for hours if they had enough escort ships doing them but the main effort was directed to keeping the Uboot submerged so it could not chase a convoy and re-attack. The Uboot would only surface if it was flooding or running out of air because they could expect no mercy from the waiting gun crews on the ships. Most Uboots ( 52% ) were sunk by aircraft attacks, not depth charges.
@@louisavondart9178 The GHG had the sensors mounted in the bow around the depth planes, not all around the hull. In WW2 768 U-boats got sunk, only 250 by aircrafts, far away from 52%, even if you count the 43 U-boats sunk by air raids in harbours and the 37 U-boats sunk by aircrafts and ships in cooperation, its still less than 50%
I knew a man who was a survivor of that submarine war. He said that the food was rotten within days down there, but you would eat it - or starve. Nevertheless, he lived to the age of 95.
My grandfather on my mother side served in the U-Boot service and part of the "Wolf Pack." He survived WWII. He served from the beginning of the war to the end. They surrendered the U-Boot to the British at the end of war.
You can recreate Das Boot by changing the bulb in your bathroom to a red one, then try and stop the water coming out of your shower head with your hands.
I once broke a shepherd's crook outlet on a hose linked to a pump in an 1100 litre tank. First thing I did, as it stood upright, waving about and fountaining, was try and stop it with my hands! Humans are basic.
HA HA! Good fun!. Years ago, I worked graveyard, cleaning restaurants, and when I was stacking boxes for the trash, I threw one and accidentally hit a water pipe (plastic, of course!) all that water, ugh! I was there for an additional 4 hrs, after a 12 hour shift! Didn't have the red light though! HA HA!
The scene where the U-Boot has to reverse away from the convoy survivors looks like a reference to the Laconia incident. U-156 sank a British troop carrier and to help with the rescue effort broadcast her position on Allied channels before being joined by other U-boots to pick up survivors. U-156 began to tow the Laconia life boat and accommodate survivors on the fore deck of the now surfaced sub. When the American bombers reported U-156's position along with Laconia survivors they were given the order to attack and after bombing and strafing runs U-156 had to cast the survivors into the sea and dive to avoid destruction. Another U-boot attempting to rescue survivors was also attacked by the American bomber. This lead to all U-boot commanders being ordered not to pick up survivors.
the fact is that before the film was made, some american hollywoood directors were asked to make the film. they all wanted to portray the crew as bloodthirsty nazis. Ultimately, the decision was made in favor of Wolfgang petersen, who was then still unknown. As we know today, the best decision.
Like someone said, life on a German submarine in WWII was 95% absolute, utterly unbreakable, hellish boredom, followed by 5% mind-numbing, terrifying, hellish action. If you survived your duties, you were scarred by it. Some sailors were not certain what was worse. That 'man overboard' scene was not planned but happened due to the massive waves being sent into them from of the tower prop. It was a 10 meter slanted tower (30 feet tall) with a huge water tank on top. Down a large slide water was sent rushing down from that tower to generate realistic spray and waves into the tower prop. One of those waves washed one of the actors over board, who injured himself during filming this scene (not as bad as depicted, but still, a real injury). The other actors on the conning tower were so deeply into their roles that one actually screamed 'man overboard'. Wolfgang Petersen, the director, kept that unscripted moment, and adjusted the future script a bit around that incident. /edit The British ASIICS ultra-sound was a very new invention and addition to British destroyers. It meant that subs lost 90% of their stealth capability when pinged actively by it. And those destroyers DID active pings because they knew that they were the hunters, and the subs were the prey. It caused terror among most sub crews because they knew they had only a tiny chance to survive a destroyer hunting them with ASIICS. That scene after the chief returned with the report of what had all been fixed when they had struck ground. Right after that, the captain / Kapitän-Lieutnant did some deep breathing. That was also not a scripted scene but a breathing technique of Jürgen Prochnow, the actor, to get himself into character. Due to some strange circumstance the camera had kept rolling. Again, Petersen decided to keep those additional few seconds of deep breathing because he thought it fit that situation perfectly. For me, that is one of the most impressive scenes of this movie.
Uhmm... its called ASDIC, and it was not entirely new piece of equipement at the beginning of WW2 as it was an invention created at the end of WW1, out of need to combat U-boats, due to the losses of ships suffered to them during WW1. ASDIC as we now know as Sonar was developed and refined during the interwar period so when WW2 came about British destroyers had it as standard equipment. Despite it being quite advanced for its time it did still had its drawbacks. It couldn't detect a submarine on the surface, due to the noise generated at the surface. It was also set in a fixed downward sloped angle, meaning it could no turn the direction of the sonar beam in a more steep downward angle i.e look straight down, so when the Destroyer got into a certain distance of a submerged U-boat the beam would pass over the submarine and thereby loose contact. So the deeper the U-boat was, the longer the distance of the contact loss would be, this could buy time for the U-boat to make an evasive manoeuvre and get out of the way, so the Destroyer would have to sprint in on the final leg of its attack run. Further more depending on the condition of the ocean, such as different thermal temperature or salt layers etc, sonar beams or pings, could get deflected by it, meaning a submarine could go undetected by hiding between layers, while the sonar beam pulse could get trapped between two other layers. The British ofcourse developed tactics that could mitigate some of the deficiencies of the ASDIC. Such as having destroyers working in pairs or groups, while one destroyer maintained contact with the submerged U-boat from a favourable distance, it would direct another destroyer in on the position of the U-boat, the other destroyer would sometimes creep up on the U-boat so when the U-boat detected the threat, the destroyer was so much on top of it, that the time for evasive manoeuvres was very limited. That's why in the many convoy battles during WW2 you had these deadly cat and mouse duals between u-boats and the opposing convoy escorts. Where the hunter could be turned into hunted from one moment to another. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_Asdic_systems
Now you can understand why the sailors were all drunk at the beginning of the movie. They all knew that the life of a uboat sailor was just mainly constant fear and terror, and every night might be their last one. And so they partied away like it might be their last night on earth. For many of them it was.
Sorry - that was added fictional in the novel this movie is based on. Buchheim (the author) was in the propaganda department (and actually ot a nice guy - very egoistic and very egocentric) and even after the war he made 'his story' of reality. What you saw in the movie was in reality a meeting with officers, coffee and cake with crewmates an their wifes and having a nice boring evining ... Source: Gerrit Reichert: U96 - Realität und Mythos (damned good book) ... Buchheim 'arranged' several incidents in the novel (and thus in the movie) which were fake - and some of the original Crew (yes - most of them survived including the captain), were quite pissed off about it ...
@@christianschluter6458 Buchheim compressed several trips into one, because otherwise the bordedom of many weeks without any action would have been even more intense. And Buchheim himself criticised some of the leeway the movie took.
@@ohauss It had to be compressed, or else the ending wouldn’t make sense: Allies couldn’t bomb German-Occupied-France with so many planes at once in late 1941 early 1942.
Dubbed versions are looked down on by serious movie fans in America. But that is wrong too. Sometimes the dubbed are superior. Not usually but sometimes. The subtitle version is definitely better here.
While I normally prefer subtitles, I must say that this film had THE BEST English dub I've ever seen. Most of the actors dubbed themselves, and the syncing was incredibly well done. (Maybe it helps that English and German are grammatically similar.)
I visited a WW2 submarine [British] in the early fifties at Chatham. I still remember how cramped it was. No concessions to comfort whatever..It was what it was, a killing machine. Watching 'Das Boot' years later reminded me of that day out, a conducted tour of the 'Boat' by a navy rating. Das Boot is without doubt the most realistic submarine film ever made....It should be shown in schools to remind children that War isn't a video game...
When it comes to that I'm quite happy i went on holidays with my family back in 1999 to the Baltic Sea, at the town of Laboe U-995, an exact same Type VII C like presented in that movie is displayed as walkable memorial. It was impressive to see that 70m long steel tube from the outside, and when you got into it, it immediately snapped you into that claustrophobic tightness of a WW2 German sub, and you got the feel of how the crew must have felt when they left harbor to go on a mission. Specially having seen the movie beforehand helped me to actually realize what I saw there, and it felt so surreal to actually think about it. 58 years earlier and I could have been one of the beardless kids waving good-bye to La Rochelle and riding out onto the Atlantic. And indeed, war isn't a video game. No random medi packs lying around, no ammo just placed somewhere, and most of all, no save-points where you can reload if your mission fails, no respawn if you get killed.
The actors in this are great. Almost everyone of them was a prominent German actor, or became one because of this film. Most of them influenced German TV and Film through the 80s and 90s. This is one of the very few really great German films. Herbert Grönemeyer, who plays the guy coming on board as a war correspondent is one of the most prominent German singers. And still active too: Latest album came out in 2018. Little bit of movie trivia: The full-size submarine mockup for exterior shots was re-used in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
True. Uwe Ochsenknecht, Jan Fedder, Heinz Hoenig, Grönemeyer and of course Jürgen Prochnow who went on to star in Beverly Hills Cop 2, The English Patient & Air Force One.
@@matnichol And what about the "bad guys" on film and a little in real life II Wo Semmelrogge (the funny character), has often little problems with the law, but is a great guy, his brother was the "bibelforscher from Kötzschenbroda, Ralf Richter, Claude Oliver Rudolph, for english, and other languages speakers, maybe intresting to know, is all of the crew, speak diffrent dialect of german, like Johan is a bavarian, others are Hamburger, Berliner, or from Saxonia, or Hessen. That makes it authentic too. I show that film colleagues from Russia (Deutsch-Russen) and they were impressed too.
Very famous in germany is "Die Bruecke" or the bridge. Almoust every school kid has to watch it in history class. Made in the 1950s, it show a group of teenage students who had to defend a small bridge agains US troops in the very last days of WW2.
Funny that it is not known as the original title. Here in Denmark, it is known by the name "Der untergang". Downfall is not actually the correct term. But then again, you can not call it The Apocalypse eighter. It is more about the way everything falls to pieces, than it is about personal story.
Thats one of the core points of the movie, the Captain (as is Thomsen as well) is an Old Salt officer, experienced and trained in peacetime. He mentions he has experience on sailing ships and when he's talking about them, you notice he really loves those. I dont know whether it was the movie, the series or the book, but he doesn't enjoy destroying ships. And as I believe, he also subscribes to the old notion that no matter what ship you're on and who you sail for, unltimately, all sailors are comrades.
In real life Der alte serve on some merchan ships and after the war (yes in real life he survived ) he become the captain of a German nuclear merchan ship he also was a consultant for the movie
@@chucknorris6640 Provided he is really meant to be Lehmann-Willenbrock, as everyone seems way too ready to assume just because Buchheim was a guest on that particular boat. Keep in mind that in the book, the boats are not referred to with their numbers and there are also few names. Its entirely possible (and I think its also pretty probable) that the officers and crew are entirely fictional.
Glad you liked the film. Here’s some tidbits: The Submarine set was constructed as a completely enclosed set, meaning unlike traditional sets which are segmented for ease of removing sections to accommodate camera and sound crews for certain angle shots, the production had to develop a smaller camera that could easily operate in the confines. If you notice, as the film progresses, the crew get paler and paler. This was not done with makeup. The cast were actually kept out of sunlight for the entire duration of filming, so the paleness is real. One day during filming, the cast and crew went down to the dock where the full sized surface prop was moored. When they got there, the submarine was gone, the anti aircraft gun (on the rear of the Sail or conning tower) had been removed and was sitting there, and all the ropes nicely coiled. Unbeknownst to the cast and crew, Bavarian Studios had made a deal with an American director to briefly use the submarine for an adventure movie. The director was Seven Spielberg, and the movie was Raiders of the Lost Ark. The “Nazi sub” in Raiders is the Das Boot sub. The scenes of the secret base were also filmed at Port LaRochelle as well. In building the set, the designers actually had to fly to the United States. Specifically the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry which holds the most perfectly preserved Type VIII U-Boat. The set is still preserved, though, it has been cut into sections, and can be visited at Bavarian Studios.
Also, the actors were forbidden to shave (with the exception of the political officer). Drinking water on board those subs was sparse, so bathing and shaving were considered a luxury. Anyone spending more water than usual was called a Badehure, a bathing-whore. So Wolfgang Petersen forbade all actors to shave, unless their crew was supposed to be on shore leave where they would have access to tap water. Also, the waves were generated by a large tower with a huge slide, and a water tank on top. Whenever the waves were supposed to crash into the conning tower set, a huge splash of water was sent down that slide. So yes, the actors were splashed HARD by the water when in their surface set.
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They were allowed to be out in daylight, but were not allowed to be out too long, or even, _gasp_, get a tan!
27:32 We have to accept the fact that while Germany was ruled by the Nazis, not everyone in the army, air-force and navy followed their ideals. It was very common for U-Boots to help survivors of ships they had sunk, by giving them food, water, medical care and directions to the nearest port or land mass. This was the case with the infamous "Laconia incident"; Somewhere off the coast of western Africa, midway between Liberia and Ascension Island, U-156 spotted the troopship RMS Laconia. As with all armed merchant and troop ships, U-Boots had orders to attack without warning, and since the Laconia fell under that category, U-156 conducted a torpedo attack on her. However, unbeknownst to U-156's commanding officer, Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, the Laconia was transporting some 1600 Italian POWs. While there were enough lifeboats for all her crew, including all the POWs, the Laconia's heavy listing, due to damage from torpedoes, prevented half of her lifeboats from being launched. Realizing that most of the survivors were POWs and civilians, Hartenstein ordered immediate rescue, while raising the Red Cross flag. An hour later, with the Laconia finally sinking completely, Hartenstein sent a coded message to BdU (Befehlshaber der U-Boote, German U-Boot command) saying "Sunk by Hartenstein, British Laconia, Qu FF7721, 310 deg. Unfortunately with 1500 Italian POWs; 90 fished out of the water so far. Requesting orders." The head of submarine operations at the time, Admiral Karl Donitz, ordered all of the submarines from the Wolfpack "Eisbar", which were tasked with attacking Cape Town, to immediately divert to the scene and help with rescue efforts. Donitz informed Berlin of the situation, making Hitler furious, who demanded the rescue be cancelled. Donitz was ordered by Admiral Erich Raeder to cancel the re-tasking of Wolfpack Eisbar, which also included U-156, and to send them back towards Cape Town, as per their original orders. The Italian submarine "Comandante Cappellini" was to rendezvous with U-156 and pickup any survivors, before proceeding to where the Laconia had been sunk and rescuing any Italians they found. The Vichy French were also contacted by Raeder, who dispatched 2 sloops and the 7600 ton cruiser, "Gloire", from Dakar. Donitz then disengaged the Eisbar U-Boots, ordering them "All boats, including Hartenstein, only take as many men into the boat as will allow it to be fully ready for action when submerged." U-156 had some 200 survivors on and below deck, including 5 women and 200 more in 4 lifeboats that she was towing. U-156 also sent a message, in open frequency and not in code, reporting her position; "If any ship will assist the shipwrecked Laconia crew I will not attack her, provided I am not being attacked by ship or air force. I picked up 193 men. 4°-53" South, 11°-26" West. - German submarine." The British forces in Freetown intercepted the message, but believed it to be a trap and didn't credit it. Two days later, on the 15th of September, the Americans got the message that the Laconia had been sunk and that the British merchant ship "Empire Haven" was routed to pick up survivors. However, this message loosely implied that the Laconia had been sunk on the 15th, not the 13th which it originally had been sunk, and had no mention of German submarines conducting rescue operations under cease-fire, nor the fact that French neutral ships were also en-route to the scene. U-156 remained on the surface for 2 and a half days, and on the 15th, she was joined by U-506. A few hours later, U-507 along with Cappellini joined them as well. The four submarines, towing multiple lifeboats, had set a course for the African coast, where they'd meet with the Vichy French ships. During the night of the 15th, the submarines became separated, and on the morning of the 16th, U-156 was spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber. Hartenstein, using Morse code, contacted the plane in English and requested assistance. A rescued British officer also messaged the plane "RAF officer speaking from German submarine, Laconia survivors on board, soldiers, civilians, women, children.", however, Lt. James Harden of the US Army Air Force, made no efforts to respond and turned away, while notifying his base at Ascension. The senior officer on site, who was unware of the Red Cross flag being flown by U-156 and the rescue operation, ordered Harden to "[Sic] sink the sub." The officer later claimed that he believed that the rules of war, at the time, did not permit a combat ship to fly the Red Cross flag, and was afraid U-156 would discover the secret base on Ascension and raid the depots, cutting off critical reinforcements and much needed fuel for the Allied offensive in Egypt. Harden's B-24 flew back to the scene, and an hour later, began attacking U-156 with bombs and depth charges. According to Harden, his B-24 made 4 attack runs but failed to release bombs or depth charges on 3 of them. On the final run, he dropped 2 bombs, which missed U-156, and sadly, landed between 2 lifeboats, killing most of the occupants. Hartenstein then ordered the remaining lifeboats be cast adrift and to slowly submerge, instead of crash-diving, in order to give the survivors who were still on deck the necessary time to jump into the water and escape. Unaware of the events, U-506, U-507 and the Cappellini, continued picking up survivors until the next morning, when the commander of the Cappellini discovered that they were in fact picking up survivors cast adrift from U-156. This is considered to be the first of the war crimes committed by Allied Forces, as under the conventions of war at sea; ships, including submarines, engaged in rescue operations are held to be immune from attacks. Five B-25 Mitchell bombers were also dispatched to hunt for submarines in the area, which spotted some of Laconia's lifeboats on the 17th. Hardin's B-24 also spotted U-506, which had 151 survivors onboard, including 9 women and children, and began his second attack. Making two attack runs, with the first one failing to release bombs, U-506 crash-dived fast enough for the second run to no damage to the boat or the survivors. The incident had major consequences; Until that point in the war, it was very common for U-Boots to assist survivors. The sight of a U-Boot literally picking up survivors onto her deck was very rare, as space inside the boat was already cramped and limited. Following the incidents on the 17th, Admiral Karl Donitz issued the "Laconia order" which forbade U-Boot crews from helping survivors. Their orders were to leave the survivors to their fate in the waters. However, despite the enforcing of the order, U-Boot crews often disregarded it and continued providing help to survivors. In total, out of the Laconia's original complement of 2732 souls, only 1113 survived. Of the 1619 souls lost, 1420 were Italian POWs.
thank you for this comment. I didn't know about it but its important that these things get also shown and communicated. That not all germans were bad and that war itself is not a thing of black and white.
It was not happening after the laconia incident any more. This was war, and U-Boats were hunters and destroyers - as intended of the Nazi Regime. No pardon asked, none given. Rescue in WW II was somewhat shady, as often even hit and straggling ships in convoys were left to their destiny by their own escorts, also merchant marine sailors were often not saved from being in the water and in life rafts, as the convoys had to sail on steadily for safety-reasons. Crews of abandoned U-Boats were often shot at with machine guns in the water, only few were rescued aboard allied military ships. U-Boats dived and provided not rescue at all after their attacks after the laconia incident (those were the orders from the BdU and they were followed).
The Allies wanted to charge the Nazis for this at Nuremberg, but then it turned out to be proven the Allies behaved in the exact same manner in the Pacific. Curiously enough they chose to ignore war crimes they had committed themselves.
As german (Austrian) to watch this movie is much more intense,because of language and stuff,n my opinion it is one of the best movies ever made in history,i saw it probably 30 times or more...it was our people dying for nothing and almost all of them was only soldiers,not nazis...
I watched this when it was first shown on British TV in the early 80s, as a 6 (?) part weekly series. I'd never seen anything like it, before or since. So atmospheric, especially in German with sub-titles, you were in there with them, experiencing the alternate panic and elation. My favorite movie of all time.
As someone who saw the bbc2 miniseries first. I was surprised, nope, the film was first (1981!) (but yeah, the 300min version.. best version) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot
@@unpaintedleadsyndrome If your German is excellent, switch off the subtitles. I found it best to just listen to the language and follow as best I could, but let the brain do it's own thing and almost sub-consciously read the subtitles... By episode 2 you won't even be aware that you're reading them :)
Oh yeah, I am going to make the same comment. Downfall for me is up there in the terms of "War" movie. Acting, set's, makeup, everything is on point with Downfall.
Downfall is also great. The only thing to criticize in my opinion is that they turned some nazi butchers in nice honorable men to contrast them to the core-party-leaders. But that is kinda a minor thing compared to the fact they captured this apocalyptic crazy last days
The director build the Submarine in a massive warehouse, within a salt water pool. The actors were shut in for most of the weeks of filming, not allowed out into the sun nor allowed to wash properly or shave, so by the end of the movie they looked filthy, dishevelled and exhausted, because they simply were. During the filming one of the men slipped and fell off the U-boat 'stage' and badly hurt himself, breaking ribs and getting a concussion, this was then written into the film as the man overboard, so it's all real blood and pain in that scene.
Goggles are to "preserve" night vision. Inside the sub it's brighter than outside at night. Every second the periscope is up is a second you can be detected. You don't want to wait until your eyes have adjusted to the dark light outside. Hence the goggles to pre-adjust to the outside low light. Scope up, fast look around, scope down.
When she was a child, my mother would ask her uncle what it was like being in a U-boat. He wouldn't answer her, but she was persistent, and he finally answered and told her, "Go into the basement, sit facing the corner and turn the lights off. That is what it is like."
My grandfather wouldn't talk about the Pacific, unless he was pretty drunk; in which case you realized how bad it was. My grandmother chewed me out, in tears, once for asking him about his service, when I was pretty young. Those experiences have contributed to my foggy notions of 'glory' and 'patriotism'.
@@MrBendylaw Ye, my grandfather wasnt actually in the war since sweden kept out. But he did his obligatory military service during the war on the border to norway. He never spoke to us about it. My mother said that it had been bad psychological for them and pretty much said it scarred them for life. I dont know what actually happened there, history books doesnt really tell us anything, but I have my guesses.
@@hairlokk8672 My granddad was up in the north of sweden also guarding the border. One time he meet a german soldier up close, they was both lifting their guns and pointing to each other over the border. Then slowly both lowered the guns and turned around and walked away. Only thing I ever heard him say about the war.
@@MrBendylaw In Canada it was considered bad form to ask a veteran about the war. Even if they said something in conversation. You just listened. I asked a guy at my uncles place about the war, when I around 9 yrs. My dad pulled me out of the room and I got yelled at. My son is a veteran. I don`t ask him about Afghanistan. They tell you what they feel like at the time. Just listen.
A true masterwork: cinematography, writing, acting, Das Boot may seem absurd when you say we're going to watch a 4 hour submarine movie from a WWII German's perspective, but everyone I've shown it to comes away impressed. It's that good.
Watched this 1981 with my Grandfather. He was Captain of Submarines during WW2 and took the surrender of the Kriegsmarine 1945 in Norway. Was so interesting watching this with him. Will never forget the tension it was like he was back hunting this U Boat.
@@guymorris6596 cheers. He wrote a Book about his WAR. it’s really good. He took his golf clubs everywhere and as Captain basically decided where to go which quite often meant heading to the nearest GREAT golf course. Honestly he ticked them off across Europe Indian Ocean Pacific you name it. and he gave me my first golf lesson. I inherited his Clubs too. and his Zeiss Binoculars from the Commandant Kriegsmarine Norway. Nazi swastika is on the frame. they are still better glasses than anything you can buy in the shops.
I remember seeing this at the theater when I was a kid with my dad, and for the first time in a war film I found myself caring about the “enemy.” It was then that I realized that wars may be started and ended by governments, but it is human beings doing the fighting and dying. Great movie, great reaction.👍
12:37 That's condensed, sweetened milk. You can find it in the grocery store, in the baking section. Back then, it was used as a source of protein & fat that could be stored (canned) for long-term voyages. The reason you saw them eating so well when they frist started out was that the food would quickly spoil, so they got to (had to) feast on it pretty quickly.
i saw this when the mini series got shown on British TV in the early 80's, having grown up surrounded by people that had fought in the war and having only seen Allied representations of the war it was a huge eye opener, the first time i saw the Germans as people and not just the enemy
Same experience for me as a kid in Denmark in the 80s, where everyone still saw the Germans as evil monsters, only 35 years after the war. Such an eye opener, yes. They were actually humans too.
Thank you very much do not see us germans as enemies! I'm german and I never feld british, french or american are enimies! This war was extremely intensive but keep in mind not every soldier was convinced about what he does. Let's keep friends now british, american, canadian, australien german and so on.........Just be a good human, be humble be kind! Sread peace, joy and love! /Chris
I also saw this on British TV in the 80s, it was so intense I couldn't think about anything else for a few days. The sheer quiet courage of the men were truly humbling.
@@sylla2 There is a recent Danish movie, I have forgotten the name, perhaps you can help me: It's set in 1945 and German prisoners of war are made to clear the beaches of mines. A bunch obviously get blown up, but they're all teenagers, so it's not obvious that one should say: "Serves them well! They start it". Very interesting film, I recommend it.
The U-boat that sunk my grandfather's destroyer with all but 19 of its crew in a storm near the Azores was itself sunk with all hands off the coast of South Africa. The Battle of the Atlantic was utterly brutal, and Das Boot is a superb depiction of the terror - and the contrast of their experience with that of the officers on the supply ship at Vigo. The best war filmography, by a long way, until Band of Brothers equalled it. I have lost count of how many times I have watched this masterpiece. Hey, no CGI either.
As a german who watched band of brothers... it literally america good, germany bad nazis. It portrays the americans as the ultimate chads who singlehanded won the whole war. On the opposite germans are portrayed something between dumb cavemen and brutal murderous vikings. My grandfather fought against the russians, and he never spoke bad about his enemys, i dont really know why american ww2 movies need to be absolute Propaganda against germany and german people. There is a reason why germans dont see americans as allies today
@@Jerry1848_Luetzow I get your point, but just as the narrative of Das Boot follows a crew on one side, so Band of Brothers follows an infantry unit on the other. As in all good scripts there must be protagonists and antagonists, and it is the task of all in the production to make the audience feel sympathy with the protagonists, and to that dramatic end portray antagonists as either worthy adversaries or monsters. That explains why - films are not history, they are dramatisations. And it is a truth of combat that you don't get to know your enemy - if you see them at all, they are just targets. In Hollywood, combatants do all sorts of threat displays and square up to each other, which creates suspense, and the viewer gets to know the protagonists, their struggles, back-story and so on, so that some sort of dilemma can be portrayed. The narrative is about them. Rarely so with the antagonists, they are usually vaguely sketched in the shorthand of stereotypes. And for the record, my grandfather had no overt hatred of Germans, who sunk ships under him three times and gave him good cause. However, he did say that he hated Americans - who had given him no cause - and also the Communists in Russia, the latter for their utter brutality to their own people, which he saw when in Archangelsk. There's nowt so queer as folk.
@@martinn.6082 Not really i dont think you ever spoke to german veterans, or germans at all. So you can think whatever you want. But i put my my trust in to the people who fought in this war. Sure the gouvernement wanted the germans to hate russians and sure some germans really hated them. But as far as i know the americans were the most hated by the germans, especially after the war until today... this is all i can say from the perspective of a german (me)
@@Jerry1848_Luetzow ich denke, es gibt deutliche Hinweise darauf, dass Amerikaner weniger verhasst und gefürchtet waren. 1) Gegen Ende des Krieges versuchten viele deutsche Soldaten, in amerikanische, britische oder französische Gefangenschaft statt in russische zu geraten. 2) Aus dem Osten gab es aus Angst eine riesige Flüchtlingswelle. Vergleichbares gab es aus dem Westen nie. 3) Rassistische Propagnda gegen Slawen und Russen gab es zuhauf, gegen Amerikaner maximal gegen Schwarze. Der Mythos von der unschuldigen Wehrmacht ist ein Mythos, nichts weiter.
I want to add that this movie is based on the book "Das Boot" from Lothar Gunter buchheim. It's his true story what he experienced in world War 2 on a submarine and the role of Leutnant Werner (herbert Grönemeyer), the photographer, is basicly the role of buchheim. In Germany we still concider this one as probably the best German movie in terms of acting(!) , technique, score, setting and storytelling. My father showed it first to me and still loves to watch it with me. I am looking foward to the day when I will look this one with my son.
I tried Herbert Gronmeyer's act when he's cheering and riding the huge waves. It IS fun ... until you get back on solid land and you still feel the waves!
The book (as he writes at the start) is a mix of several different operations ("Feindfahrten") over the course of several years. They didn't experience all these events on one single tour. But yes, all of those events did happen (well, apart from the end with all of them dying - Buchheim and captain Lehmann-Willenbrock both survived the war, with Lehmann even becoming the captain of the only German nuclear ship, the "Otto Hahn")
The young man's French girlfriend hid her engagement and pregnancy because the French resistance would strike at collaboraters and girlfriends were by definition collaborating with the enemy. He kept it secret as well because he would become a special target as well. They were teens thrown togeather during the war but had to fear the reaction to them coming to love each other.
Yea… Sadly this side-story arch is not even really touched in the Theatrical cut nor the Directors Cut. Only in the TV cut it's being actually dealt with properly. It is one of the parts that always makes me tear up… and shows that love is stronger than fighting. Even between "enemies" during war times.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 There isn't much more in the TV version anyway. Just a clumsy looking cuddle scene between the two and and a poorly added cut of her waving him when they set out. It was fine not to include it.
I read recently that millions of French men were held as POW's in Germany for the duration of the war & many others got sent there to work in factories so no wonder that some girls hooked up with German soldiers.
19:09 The goggles and the red light helped the eyes to adjust to the darkness outside at night faster. When stepping out of a lighted room into the darkness, it takes a few seconds for the eyes to get used to the darkness. Under certain circumstances, these can be seconds that make the difference between life and death.
Depending on how bright the light was before stepping into the dark - e.g. watching a camp fire at night and then take a walk into the surrounding woods - it takes up to 30 minutes for the eyes to fully adapt.
@@harzerrolla335 that's btw also the reason WHY pirates used eye patches: Patch one eye with it, run over to the enemy ship, through the door/hatch down inside, SWITCH the eyepatch from one eye to the other and you're immediately able to see a LOT better in a darker interior of a ship.
That movie was the beginning of the international career of Wolfgang Petersen, later he made movies like Air Force One or Troja. The captain of the boat is Jürgen Prochnow in Hollywood movies he played mostly the villain, the main role for a German actor if they made it to Hollywood, he played in Beverly Hills Cop 2, Twin Peaks, Judge Dredd or The English Patient. Leutnant Werner is played by the German singer songwriter Herbert Grönemeyer, a lot of these actor's started their career with that movie, of course not everyone in the US film industry, but a very good one in Germany and Europe. Jost Vacano the camera operator of this movie went to the US as well and did movies like Total Recall, RoboCop and Starship Troopers.
Jürgen Prochnow also played the captain of the Earth ship in the video game adaptation film "Wing Commander," which portrayed space warfare in a very similar vein to submarine warfare to the point of having a visual similarity to the launch of torpedoes at the enemy spacecraft, and he portrayed that captain very similar to how he portrayed the U-Boat commander in this film - a perfect choice for casting.
@@peterkoester7358 Jurgen is also in a bizarre horror fantasy sci-fi movie from 1983 called "the Keep" that also Stars Scott Glenn and Ian McKellen. He's also in Beerfest and makes a comment about how he hates submarines because he had a bad experience in one one time.
@@llocarydoline9738 weirdos had that movie a few Ralf Richter, Claude Oliver Rudolph and on a lower level Erwin Leder, Jan Fedder and Heinz Hoenig. And don't forget Otto Sander.
My Uncle was on U-588. I studied the log book. They helpt a lot people wich are on boats after an attack (if there was not a destroyer in the near). They repaired the rescue boats and gave them food, alcohol, and cigarettes. Nobody talks about that.
With all the respect to Your uncle this sounds a bit strange when it comes to history. The rule about "no prisoners or taking survivors" was an order and breaking it would be punished for sure if such thing would end up in a log book, there might be some moments in history where u boot crew would help some survivors but rather no one would be talking about it. A good explanation for this can be found in story of a heavy damaged B17 that was escorted back to england by one Me 109, in british reports the story was made secret as allied command was afraid that spread of the story that some german pilot has shown humanitarian ways while he could score a easy shotdown could possibli affect soldiers as it`s harder to kill enemy when you think that they can be humanitarian.
@@DSP16569 Like i said, it is possible such actions were done but i hardly belive such order was made in middle of WWII as U boots were used even in WWI and even at that time it was common knowledge that a U Boot has no capability to operate and take prisoners or help them, it would be same thing as modern nuclear submarine trying to act like some sort of torpedo speed boat on surface. There is a possibility that some captains were helping but still making a log out of it would be a suicide for military service records.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 The director Wolfgang Petersen also made sure that the cast stayed indoors as much as possible to get that pale look to increase during filming.
This is brilliant. The drunken opening scene fits with my Dad's tales from his days in the Royal Navy, and the sinkings with my Grandfather's experience on HMS Firedrake as told to my Dad (too brutal for me as a child). Anyone who has ever served their country will recognise the realism. Superb direction, lighting, special effects and cinematography. Superb.
A big thank you from myself, honorably discharged US Army veteran since 1991, to your father and grandfather for their service. This is the most realistic submarine movie ever produced.
And it's the same U Boat used in the new Das Boot Seasons 1-2, it's based in Malta and the only one of it's kind. The Uboat film with Matthew McConaughey, it was used in that also.
@@eukariootti1 those aren't daddy longlegs, they are just some kind of spider..... the actual daddy longlegs are arachnida but not spiders, no two part body, no mandibules etc
Fun fact: Otto Sander (Kapitänleutnant Philipp Thomsen) who was lying in his own puke in the bathroom, was actually really drunk and wasted during the shoot of this scene. He admitted this later in an interview and some of the cast confirm this in a documentary. He was so much in character, that he wanted to play this as real as possible. AND...the (real) Captain does not die at the end. He actually survived the war and died 1986 in Bremen.
My grandfather was in a submarine in WW2, HMS Thrasher. He told me some stories when I was a kids (back in the 70’s) but like all old soldiers he never told me about the bad stuff. I was fascinated, however it was really hard for him and he asked my older sister to ask me not to ask him about the war anymore. He lost a lot of friends and it would bring back painful memories.
Thank you to your grandfather for his service, aboard HMS Thasher, during World War Two. It brought tears to my eyes reading your comments because I know your grandfather saw and experienced horrendous things. Thank you to his friends for their service as well. I'm honorably discharged from the US Army in 1991 so I have some things I'm dealing with.
My dad was a submariner in the 70s - still diesel submarines, and he smoked then. There was so little oxygen in the air you couldn't light your cigarette. I think they might have had 3 to a bunk, because you just get 8 hour shifts. The food was often stale and mouldy. The submariners get so messed up by being at sea they have a 24 hour acclimation to being back on shore before they go off duty. And that was peacetime. Alcoholism was common, including with my dad. Submarines compress under pressure, so if you hang a string tightly across the inside, at depth the string will hang lower.
Sooo happy you went with the non-dubbed version! So much better to see films in their original language. Well done commentary too! You guys are my favorite reactors. ❤️👍
Hollywood movies are better when dubbed into german! The original ever seemed to me like there was a blanket over the mike .Except monty python films ! They are better in the original english!
You should definitely check out Master and Commander: Far Side of The World. It does for sailing vessels what Das Boot does for submarines. Amazing film.
Master and Commander has one very serious downside - it is shameless pandering to US audiences. Because the original story they based most of the plot on is set during the war of 1812 and the enemy ship is American. But you can't have that in a Hollywood blockbuster, of course!
My all time favorite movie, it inspired me in so many ways, the music, the u-boat and the actors! Greatest and most realistic movie about u-boat men roaming the Atlantic
The movie is made after a book of a guy called Lothar Günther Buchheim. Buchheim was a military journalist himself, just like Lt. Werner in the movie. The Book is based on the summary of experiences of 3 tours buchheim made on different boats. So in a way almost everything you see in the movie, except some exagerations for dramtic purposes did actually happen, but not on one tour or boat.
Meaning the depiction of daily life in a submarine is extremely realistic, as are the combat situations. A bit like "Platoon," where the director combined his experiences from serving in two or three different units, making one Sergeant from his first unit the mortal enemy of another Sergeant he served under in another unit.
In a sense (that it's a mashup of different tours on different boats) makes it a bit like Apocalypse Now. Which is a mashup of Conrad's Hear of Darkness, and Michael Herr's "Dispatches" which was based on his time in Viet Nam.
@@AudieHolland Yes, I know. I read it when I was 16 and researched what it was about when I was 17. That said, it was still part of the inspiration for Apocalypse Now.
2:19 Forty thousand German sailors served on U-boats during WWII. However, the number that returned is blocked by TBR Schmitt's head. So I looked it up. 75% did not return. So the number blocked by TBR's head would have been 10,000. Great! Just great! Thirty thousand men died for what?? More than anything in the folly of the human condition, nothing makes my blood boil more than the futility of war. All that war does is provide fodder for tales of bravery and endurance, like this film. Thankfully, my two sons managed to be born into a time and place where they didn't get dragged into fighting a war that ultimately serves no purpose.
Or "The Bridge" but the old one from 1959 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCcke_(film) or a bit modern from 2013 "Generation War" when you like WWII from the German perspective en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_War, i guess its not Netflix? Oh and of course "Downfall".
I love this movie (one of the cuts is actually a TV series with 6 parts with a lot of more scenes). So intense and impressive with awesome effects. You won’t see such a great piece of movie history nowadays.
One of my favourite bits of this was your reaction when the captain is looking through the periscope and the destroyer appears out of nowhere, behind a wave. One of the scariest and coolest bits of the film. Literally awesome filmmaking
What a brillant cast! Jürgen Prochnow, the captain, turned 80 some days ago. And Herbert Grönemeyer, the reporter, is one of the most important German singer-songwriters.
When the crew talks to the chief, many people think they are saying "Eddie". In fact, they are saying "LI", which is the short form for "Leitender Ingenieur" = chief engineer
Ich hab vor ein paar Tagen nochmal den Film mit Untertiteln gelesen. Da sagt der Kommandante am Ende im Untertitel: Gut Eddi gut. Da war der Untertitel echt falsch🤣🤣
11:00 Yes, they were massive (like most of the torpedoes from that time). The G7e (for electric) were 7 meters long and weighed a little more than 1.5 metric tons each.
All 300-ish minutes comprise the best version of _Das Boot._ You can’t go back to watching the director’s cut, much less the theatrical cut, after experiencing all five hours.
I'm German. I think this is the best submarine movie ever. Thank you for watching the film. Not all Germans at war are pigs! We also know love, loss and everything else you feel too!!!
It isnt entirely fiction - the author of the book the movie is based on was war reporter on a german uboot and wrote the book on the basis of his accounts.
One of those movies you tune in when it’s randomly on TV you keep watching and after two hours or so when’s over you think it must have 30 minutes of watching max. Great music, great actors, great story. It’s amazing how you feel like you’re almost part of the crew while watching it. Best German movie I know.
Great review of this classic film, you guys are awesome! Thank you. The authentic realism in this movie was intense; this is one of THE best German big-budget movies ever made after 1945. Greetings from Northern Germany
Never saw the extended version, but I remember that this came out when I was a kid and I was fascinated that the Germans were not that different from people I knew around me. War always builds walls around us. We need to remember that lesson forever and never forget it.
There is an American WW2 submarine, the USS Razorback, in Little Rock, AR, still floating on the river and in fantastic condition. It is a museum ship with a guided tour that takes you through the whole thing. It's pretty awesome and just as cramped as the U-Boat in this movie.
There is also the USS Drum in Mobile, Alabama next to the USS Alabama battleship. You can go through most of both vessels. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a captured Uboat and you can go through most of that too. Having visited both, the Uboat is much more cramped than the US subs, and the US ones weren't exactly spacious.
If someone visits northern Germany, he might visit Kiel. At the mouth of the Kiel Fjord in Kiel-Laboe, there is Marine-Ehrenmal Laboe (a memorial to German sailors who died in both world wars). Inside, there is an exhibition devoted to the history of the German navy. Next to the quay, there is a fully restored U-995, a VIIC type U-boat, exactly like this from the action of the novel "Das Boot" and the movie. The only difference is that it is a later production version that no longer had an 88mm onboard gun, but reinforced anti-aircraft guns. When you get inside ... you will understand that in the film the interior of the ship, despite its claustrophobic dimensions, seems larger than it really was. In Kiel itself, which has been an important base of the German navy since 1871, is the HDW shipyard, which still produces, among others, submarines. About 50% of all conventional submarines (that is, non-nuclear powered) in the world come from it. The shipyard in Kiel also produced the U-96, which is a ship that is both crewed and its commander considered to be the prototype of the U-boat from the Lothar-Günther Buchheim novel and of course the film.
They weren't rescued, because it was policy of the convoys to not stop and pick up survivors with Uboats being around. Speed was their only defence in the vastness of the Atlantic, and the escort ships were busy fending off/hunting down the subs. The Germans were forbidden from rescuing anyone, due to them doing it before, and when they went to rescue people from the sunk Laconia in the Mediterranean and even calling in a couple other subs to pick up survivors, they were attacked by US planes... they broadcast on open frequency, that they were doing rescue operations, flew Red Cross flags on the ships' hulls, and asked for Allied assistance in getting these people out. The Americans instead sent bombers to attack the submarines, packed with civilians they had rescued, forcing them to emergency dive and abandoning them. The Brits knew what the Americans were doing and that there would be a lot of collateral, and did nothing to either ask them to stop or warn the Germans... After that Adolf ordered that no survivors were to be picked up. Also a British commander of a submarine, who retired in the 50s as a Vice Admiral (2nd highest rank in the Navy) and with a Victoria Cross (highest decoration), murdered German sailors in the water on at least two different occasions, and even bragged about it in his log book. He machine gunned them in their life boats. Plenty of war crimes to go around on both sides, but you only ever hear about what the Germans, Japanese etc. did....
THIS. Especially the part about the Laconia incident. I cannot count the instances I had to explain this to other people, as so little know of the true reason behind the Kriegsmarine‘s „no rescue operations“ order. It wasn’t out of inhumane cruelty on the German‘s side but out of a need to protect their own men from devious attacks by the Americans.
@@Helena-me6mp I once wrote a quora reply about dozens of Allied warcrimes, ranging from murdering people who had either already surrendered and been taken POW or were in the process of surrendering (+ who had given the orders and which units were involved to gang rapes where GIs ie attacked a hospital on a whistle signal. I was banned soon after for being "offensive". They always bring up Malmedy (1944), but the Americans had murdered Italian and German PoW already one year earlier at Biscari (1943) and they were murdering Germans and others who tried to surrender or had surrendered during D-Day and after. And soon after Malmedy they murdered another 80 Waffen SS as "justice" for Malmedy. Major General Raymond Huyfft ordered his troops to stop taking prisoners once they crossed the Rhine. He later reflected on it saying that if they had lost the war, he would have been on trial in Nuremberg. Over 1/3rd of American service members of WW2 admitted that they saw war crimes being committed by their own side. The British also have plenty of dirt on them, ranging from genocide (that was masked with incompetence) in Bengal (they caused a famine that killed millions in 1943) + another one in Iran/Persia in BOTH world wars 2 (another neutral country they attacked for no reason, other than it being useful to overall strategy, which they are so fond of reminding everyone that Germany attacked neutral countries), to gunning down defenceless sailors in life boats etc. The French were some of the worst. One of the earliest instances was the Massacre of Abeville in 1940, when France was close to collapsing. Many Belgian right wing politicians (and that doesn't mean they were fascists or nazis, just right of the center) were arrested on order of the social "democrat" government when war broke out, since they "might be unreliable". They were then handed over to the French intelligence service (2eme Bureau), and many of them were massacred at Abbeville as the Germans closed in. ie Leon Degrelle (a Belgian parliamentarian and leader of the Rexist party, who were Christian/Catholic right wingers) escaped with his life, and he was the one who originally found out that the Belgian Soc-Dems had also drawn up a list of right wing officers in the Belgian military that were to be arrested also and handed over, and went to the Belgian King with this to stop it (knowing he'd still be arrested, even though he had parliamentarian immunity and this was highly illegal and undemocratic). The French were one of the premier perpetrators when it came to killing PoW especially once the Allies started retaking France.
@@youtubemodsaresnowflakelef7692 "I was banned soon after for being "offensive"." Thats so ridiculous wtf? But honestly im not surprised, having different opinions or stating facts is often offensive to idiots.
The goggles you see a couple of the crew wearing were for crew that might have to go up on deck when they surfaced at night. They wanted to keep these guys in the dark so they could preserve their night-vision so they could work fast while surfaced. If they went outside into the dark after being in the lights of the ship, it would take them many minutes for their eyes to adjust. That's enough time to get you sunk. As a side note, the American crews who wore these goggles found that the red pips (hearts and diamonds) on playing cards would disappear when they wore their goggles. They just couldn't see them. So the U.S. Navy had the company Brown & Bigelow make special playing cards for the sub crews with the diamonds and hearts outlined in black so the crews in their goggles could still play cards while waiting for duty.
One of the best war films ever! The claustrophobic feeling that the movie gives you is made all the more real by the fact that the film makers actually built the set inside a true scale sized steel tube with no broken wall to film through, so for the actors it was just like being inside a submarine.
Thanks for reviewing this excellent film. One thing I really like about the film is how it captures the fog of war. The crew of U96 aren't sure exactly how many other U boats are around the convoy, where they are or if they're even there. Also, due to the bad weather and storms, they're not even quite sure where they are.
Some historical background: the regular german army wasnt too fond of Hitler, especially the navy. Not all germans were fanatical nazis. Thats why they would put a nazi officer in militairy units to keep an eye on things and make sure Hitlers orders were carried out. Das Boot is an amazing movie and Jurgen Prognov is one of my all time favorite actors. He moved to Hollywood later (Dune and Seventh Sign e.g.)
That's a really difficult question and I am not sure that the answer can be known. Historians say "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there". He is one to show how odd the past is: A particular group of German soldiers were ordered to execute civilians in Poland (I cannot remember whether Jewish or not). At that time one could opt out of participating in the executions. Nobody did. So the assumption was that they enjoyed killing those people. The members of this particular unit could be located after the war and were interviewed. They reported that the executions were horrible, but that they participated out of a sense on responsibility and humanity. The idea was that if one soldier recused himself than the killing would have to be done by the other members of the group. So out of a sense of responsibility and humanity they couldn't burden their friends and comrades with this terrible chore that nobody should have to do.
@@paulfriedrich1686 I don´t know if it is true, but it kind of figures for me. It seems plausible. If you see what the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment revealed, it does make a lot of sense. Lindybeige told in one of his better videos, that most british recipients of the VC had one trait in common: They were responsible elder siblings. Also, germany at that time had been a thoroughly militarised country for some decades, so discipline and a sense of responsibility, to take up any burden, no matter how ugly, and prove yourself by doing what´s asked of you, were generally already very high on the list of social priorities at that time. Seeing where that got us, this might also explain why germany is not a very disciplined country nowadays. Blindly following orders is generally almost frowned upon. But yeah, that Catch-22 of burdening the soldiers with their responsibility to not let their comrades down, the Nazis played that to perfection to have the Army do what was demanded, and the outcome was truly horrifying. Most german veterans returning from the East wouldn´t talk about the war for decades, if at all. I just watched "Come and See", and it still haunts me, although I tell myself that this is basically what really happened. It´s literally hell on earth. There is also another haunting post-war movie scene by Vilsmaier, in the movie "Rama dama" ( bavarian for "we are clearing up"), where a soldier is suddenly appearing at home, coming back from the east to his wife who is clearing the rubble of the bombed-out city, and he just isn´t the same man anymore, he just can´t connect to his family, and shows all signs of what we would nowadays call "severe PTSD".
Well, you should at least write his name right, if he is one your favorites, it's Jürgen Prochnow or, if your keyboard doesn't have an ü, it is written Juergen.
The best submarine movie of all time. Whoever the story is about if it's well done, you feel for them, because you've gotten to know them. For ordinary people that war was just one giant tragedy that took a lot of good lives on both sides.
Dear Both, remember watching this in the early / mid 80s. Is considered to be one of the very best and balanced war stories films ever. The crew and captain quickly become the heroes. I have a friend who served in a senior position in the RN submarine service and says that life on board was very accurate, particularly how the crew deals with boredom - incl flicking boggies at each other and ignoring that fact that boggieds are being flicked - just to playfully annoy each other x Graham W x ps submariners are very special people !
This movie is easily the best war film ever made. It shows the boredom of waiting and stark terror of combat, the incredible camaraderie that this hellish situation generates, and it drags you into this, makes you experience it all with the crew. Then as its from the German perspective there is no glorious heroism, no greater good, these tragic men are fighting for a truly evil and horrifying regime and their courage and sacrifice is ultimately on behalf of a vile ideology. Nothing removes from the stark terrible reality, this is War.
@@bbb462cid Semantics I guess, I see that a film can be a War movie and anti-war. Similarly Kelly's Heroes is a War movie and comedy, although I wouldn't say it glorifies war. Then there are War movies which are also propaganda pieces or action hero films, which would be how I'd define what you'd call War movies. But yes Das Boot either way is an visceral anti-war film with war scenes and combat (actually almost exclusively).
@@bbb462cid Mate there is not a definition of the necessary content of either a war movie or an anti-war movie. I think a film can be both. A war movie does not necessarily glorify war, that is your definition of it, which is fine, but it is not THE definition of it. I can list plenty of films I, personally, consider movies set during war, which primarily focus on the experience of combat and war, but which do not glorify it and are powerfully anti-war. You explained how you see the difference in your mind and definitional structure. I separate and define the genres of film differently, hence semantics, and unless either of us can identify a "well accepted industry definition" to support us (and I cannot) then each opinion can exist distinct from the other. My definition is not the "formal" one, neither is yours, I am unaware that there is a formal definition of what MUST be the content of a war movie that means it CANNOT also be an anti-war movie, or vice versa.
I dare you to watch "Come and See". But beware, it´s a rough ride. Pick a day when you feel stable, and prepare a bedside lamp. THis movie grips you by the guts. I watched it, and it was probably the ugliest, most terrifying time I ever had watching a movie, but I am glad for every minute of it. I see evrything I read about the Eastern Front in a different light now.
Originally "Das Boot" was shot as a TV-mini-series of six episodes, each lasting about an hour. In the series there is much more focus on the different individuals on the boat and much more focus on the stress and strain our of pure boredom onboard during that war patrol. So the TV version is emotionally even more "gripping" than the 3 1/2 hours cinematic version you guys watched.
@@greece6000 if the thing you watched on Netflix had six parts it was the TV series. Ofc I can only speak for myself but Netflix Germany/Austria had the full series with six episodes available
wrong, this was a movie from the get go (1981). later a tv series was made (1984). and with time different releases were made (1997 and 2004). and now we have a reboot series (2014).
"Man overboard!" - That was actually a genuine accident during filming, and the guy on watch was so in character that he yelled "Mann über Bord!", so they left it in. The actor was washed from the tower onto the reilings, and actually broke a rib, I think.
There are so few films that execute tension as well as "Das Boot". It is a master class in atmosphere, and the main ingredient in that atmosphere is tension.
One of the high water marks of German cinema post WW2. I remember seeing it as a kid as a 2 night miniseries ( which I believe is the 3 hour cut ). With the exception of the 2 old guys all the actors were virtually unknown and all broke through with this move and to this day ( if still alive ) are still huge tv and movie stars in Germany. The exception would be the actor who plays Werner , he is , and already was at that time , a massively popular singer and has now legendary status in Germany speaking countries.
I remember seeing this movie in theaters. I was a bit too young for it. It was a shock at the beginning how disorderly the sailors were. This was an eye opener for a kid who had watched John Wayne type war movies before this. Then I saw Gallipoli and that one made me cry.
Super interesting to watch a WW2 movie from a different perspective! Also one of the most stressful movies we have seen!
Thank you all for your suggestions and support!
Definitely check out Stalingrad. It's like Das Boot on land.
If you can find it; try on Yamato (2005) for size. It's Das Boot for the Japanese.
TBR Schmitt If you really want to watch a WW2 movie or indeed a war movie in general from a different perspective and one that doesn't pull any punches then you really need to react to Come and See. That is a film like no other that I have ever seen.
you can still visit the Set in the Studios in Munich and its even more cramped if you stand in it yourself.
Have a look at "Letters from Iwo Jima". It shows the assault on Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. It was directed by Clint Eastwood and is the companion movie to Flags of Our Fathers (which deals with Iwo Jima from an American perspective).
One of the greatest war movies ever made.Dark, ruthless and realistic.
Not exactly realistic there have been experts coming out about how unrealistic it is
@@lampad4549 Some parts maybe but I know what a war can do to people.
War is descent into madness and this movie perfectly captures that.
@@lampad4549 I've heard they brought someone who actually used to help make the submarines in on the film to basically rebuild one just for the movie. Otherwise I don't know but apparently the drills of 'ALARM' are a necessary part of submarine life, you have to be sure everyone is in and down before they go, no-one has a spare second. Like I said, otherwise I don't know what is or isn't realistic.
@@milostomic8539 "War is descent into madness and this movie perfectly captures that." That's Apocalypse Now.
@@lampad4549 That's a lie as the experts advising the film when it was made were actual navy soldiers from the german marine and u-boot crew who fought in ww2. So your source of that is either made up or complete bullshit. The only thing that could be unrealistic is the first 10 minutes. Anything else is death accurate for the time this took place.
40 Years and it's still the best Submarine Movie.
The good old time... no CGI at all
*best war movie 🍿
u-137 is great too
Stimmt zu 100%
with the german young top actors, of their time, for many it was the start of their acting careers.
Masterpiece. A few years ago I had the great honor to eat dinner with Jürgen Prochnow (captain) in LA. He was kind enough and very patient to answer every single stupid question I had about this movie and the intense work on it. Best steak of my life.
That’s so sick
Wow
how did that happen?
Amazing actor.
It is a story from the German perspective, but mainly from the human perspective.
Good point. Makes no difference, if the boat is German, Japanese or US. The horror was the same on all sides.
Same as Generation War
@@TheKartoffel101 and "Letters from Iwo Jima"
Also Cross of Iron, directed by Sam peckinpah. Not a great movie, but interesting because it is shown from the German perspective.
@@simond1574 Right. Also don't forget: There are no winners in wars, only loosers.
6:52: "Na na na" is basically a very mild reprimand. The verbal equivalent of waving a finger at a child. He's telling him to mind his manners/not speak out of line.
To give you guys a little bit more perspective from the German side:
When this movie premiered there were actual submarine veterans in the cinema. Some of them had to walk out because their PTSD flared up, the movie was THAT realistic. But in the end they all thanked the director for finally telling their story.
The crew at the end is NOW in makeup. They were actually that pale because they were not allowed to go out in the sun during the production of the movie/show, so they actually were transforming into these ghostly pale men over the course of production. That's what they really looked like. They are also not acting that shaking. They were in a boat/set that could be moved, so they were actually being thrown around and some of them got injured.
Language wise it's also interesting. If you're German or have lived long enough in Germany, you can tell the different regional dialects of the actors. It's like Americans being able to tell "oh this guy is from New York, or this guy is from Austin Texas.
Most U-boat crew members were recruited both from the German north where the seafaring stuff was going on as well as (mostly actually) from the German Ruhr region, which was heavily industry region in Germany. The reason was that those young guys had experience working with metal and machines and would have the necessary knowledge to keep the boat running and fixing things. Also there were a lot of coal miners there, which were used to working in cramped dark spaces with heavy equipment and not freak out. And the dialects you hear are actually from those regions, since the actors were from there.
As for "how can anybody keep working under such stress": That's just military discipline for you. Civilians always wonder why recruits get yelled at all the time in basic training and such. That's not because the drill sergeants are bad people, it's so you get used to loud noises and high stress. You need to be able to function in high stress and with very loud noises going on all around you. You can't have people freaking out when stuff gets loud. Try taking the average guy or girl from the stream and scream at them out of nowhere. They'll be completely paralyzed for a moment and/or freak out. That can't happen to you in such a situation or you die. That's why in the military we slowly build up the stress resistance and the discipline. Without that training, none of this is possible. But that training helps you remain functional in those situations. Your actions kind of go into autopilot, and only when everything is over, the emotions come rushing in.
In regards to the "suicide mission" of going through Gibraltar from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean: The Germans actually did that. Several Uboats were opperating in the mediterranean, so this was possible. But it was still highly dangerous.
What the movie also hinted at was the Allied superiority in Radar. Early in the war the Uboats stayed under water during the day and came out at night when airplanes couldn't spot them, so they had a major advantage. Early war the night attacks were the standard and super devastating.
but later in the war the Allied Radar made that impossible. The allied planes were spotting them via radar, while they were not able to see the attacking airplane until it was too late. That's what happened here, they got spotted by an airplane with radar and got attacked out of nowhere.
That's why later in the war the Germans completely changed their tactics and stayed above water during the day, and dived at night. THey could still get spotted in daylight but at least they had a chance to see the airplane in time to avoid it.
Also, the fact that they hit sand on the bottom wasn't just a coincidence or luck. When they got spotted (you probably didn't notice that in all the chaos), the captain actually told them to stay surfaced at first, go full speed and changed course to the african coast. He knew they were screwed but if they made it to the african coast, they'd be in Spanish territory and could get interned by Spain and stay in prison in a neutral country for the rest of the war. So he was trying to save his crew, not break through.
And the fact that he moved them closer to the african coast meant that he moved them to a more shallow area of the straight. That's why they hit that sand, they were closer to the coast where the sea wasn't as deep.
And finally... in case you are wondering why the crew is running like crazy through the boat during alarm: They are not running to their stations. Back then the literally use the crew as ballast. If they wanted to dive, they ordered every man that wasn't needed at their station to the front of the boat, to shift the center of mass and dive quicker. That's why, when they had their depth rudders stuff, the captain ordered all men to the rear of the ship, to try and stop the boat from going down.
thanks
very interesting !
Sometimes the information in the comments is fascinating and this certainly is. Thanks for taking the time to explain all that.
It’s definitely a masterpiece…one of these movies that go well beyond anything you’ve watched before.
Fully agree with your comments..thanks!
“Schalke lost”
Fun facts:
The captain at the beginning really was drunk while filming.
All the food in the u-boat was real. Over the course of filming it slowly decayed. The water inside really was rotting and smelling. Then they bought all the cologne they could get their hands on to mask the smell.
The crew (actors) really had to scoop al the water for hours, making them really (real) tired.
The actors could not go out into the sun while filming. All the beards are real.
The big boot at the beginning and ending was made from wood.
Parts of the movie had to be re-dubbed in German, because the hand-held camera they used for action scenes made a loud whirring sound.
The outside scenes where made with a 60% scale model with a diver inside. Then they overshot with 60% more speed. Slowed down to 100% it then looked like the big thing.
The scene where they encounter the other sub where barbie dolls waving through a mechanism.
When the movie was first shown they invited real German u-boat captains and sailors. The officers where outraged about the slang and jokes, and that did not happen on their boats. Then the real sailors confirmed that is was pretty realistic.
Edit 2023:
For the bolts snapping they shot a carbine with blanks.
The test pressure of this sub type was 160 m. They did a modern day calculation of the burst pressure, so when the hull would implode, and it was 280 m, just like the max. in the movie. I always thought it was made up, but more realistic than i thought.
Go watch the 6 part series. It is worth it.
That was actually the second Captain at the start - the first drank on set and was fired for it. The replacement actually had to be *made* drunk
During a rare break in production, a number of former uboat crew were being shown around the set - a production assistant was fixing something on a panel and hit the alarm button. Despite not having been in a boat since 1945, five of them being shown around instantly dived for stations!
Jürgen Prochnow's first English speaking role was a redub of his own character in the film
A review in a UK film trade paper stated "This may very well be the first film in which it is permissible to cheer for the Germans"
Correct, except for two things. Of course the actors did not have to eat spoiled food. And they did not have to do hard labor. I don't know about Holywood, but that wouldn't have flown in West Germany...
Other trivia:
The "man overboard" scene was actually an on-set accident. A contraption was built to spray water at the bridge, and one of the actors (Jan Fedder) lost his footing, actually injuring himself in the fall. The "man overboard!" call is genuine and was kept in the final cut.
@Trek001: Thomsen was played by Otto Sander, and yes, he *did* get intentionally drunk for the scene. No, he was not fired for it.
@@DevSolar No, they originally had somebody else for Thomsen - its on the commentary for one of the DVD versions
Herbert Grönemeyer (Lt. Werner) said that the filming conditions put him off acting so much that he concentrated on music. He is now considered one of Germany’s premier musicians.
The boat used for the exterior shots was loaned by Steven Spielberg for Raiders!. Most of the German actors dubbed their voices in English. Klaus Doldinger´s music was used in U96 song¨Das Boot¨ and Doldinger would also score The Never Ending Story.
In one of the last scenes you see twin engine bombers taking evasive action,but the look very much like the CASA bomber´s used in Battle if Britain(Heinkel´s made in Spain by Casa with Rolls Royce engines)but i am not sure but they look very similar to the shot in Battle of Britain when the bomber´s attack from Norway.
I am a retired U.S. Chief Petty Officer, Submariner. 17 years in the submarine force. This movie shakes me to the core every time I see it. For me, this is a horror movie, a history movie, and a movie that shows how human beings are quite capable of pushing through fear for their brothers in arms or as we say, shipmates. Love your channel and how you both approach reacting to these classic movies. I like that you don't critique for good or bad but just for how the movie hits you. Continued success to you both and may I suggest you reacting to TO HELL AND BACK, with Audie Murphy playing himself in the true story movie of his wartime experiences which made him one of America's most-decorated soldiers.
Yo Chief,
STG2 here, if you operated in the north pacific, we might have tracked you. 85 to 89. Check out Greyhound for our perspective
Chief and STG2 Pops, thank you for your service from an honorably discharged US Army veteran.
@@guymorris6596 Ditto, thanks for taking the time to say something. God bless you!
My older brother is a retired submarine reactor operator. This is his "favorite" (as in gives him the screaming heebie jeebies) submarine movie. He served on fast attack boats, not the boomers.
Interesting fact: The entire interior of the U-Boat used in the film was built precisely to exact specs, even the bolts used were accurate to those used back then. The attention to detail was so insane that the actors were made to stay away from the sun for a year to create the pale and tired look.
My Brother was a LT. on a US nuclear sub in the 80's and he says this is the best submarine film ever made.
Granted, a nuclear sub in the 80's is a 5 star hotel compared to this.
Das Boot is one of the best and most famous German anti-war movies of all time, portraying the brutality and futility of war, the fear and stress and pain. Plus, the main theme of the sound track is just epic.
There was no futility in fighting the insane and domineering regimes of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan. It had to be done.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver , with "futility" I meant the characters' struggle to survive in the madness of war - just to die after all, in the end. It goes without saying that the Nazis had to be fought and brought down.
@@broetchenahoi6524 The madness of the _Nazi Germany_ war, yes. In the end, it was the Germans, Japanese, and Italians who suffered under their own madness. The Allies saw and dealt with insane things; the Axis _perpetrated_ that madness. Then came Cold War, a new kind of madness ...
@@RideAcrossTheRiver , agreed! Just like the madness of U.S. wars perpetrated against Vietnam, in Iraq, Afghanistan etc. War is madness. We need peace
Mind-a-like! Not many 'war' movies out there that work that well. Sheer terror and psyche, no heroes, no mayhem, no bloodshed, just the sheer terror of war: Boredom, tension, short moments of horror. Das Boot, Stalingrad, Die Brücke. Interestingly all coming from Germany, all brutal in the way of how the real horror of war is displayed.
I've read over 100 comments here and I agree to all of the credits. But I miss comments on Jost Vacano because I think this cameraman has given us one of the most impressive examples of film art in history! Joost, thank You for this masterpiece!
Jost and German camera company Arri built a really small film camera to make it possible to move around in the cramped space. Only with this camera could they get these shots running through the whole length of the boat with no cuts. Only problem was that the camera was really loud, so they had to re-dub almost all of the dialog.
The scene with the guys jumping off the burning freighter is developed to way more depth in the 5 hour version. For everyone to whom that is available, it's a 6 part TV movie of 50 minutes each. And believe me, it is worth every single minute. You get so much more insight in the characters. If you get the opportunity to watch it, do it.
I concur.
Sadly it's not anywhere in internet :(
@@smigoltime It is available in German Amazon as VoD.
@@smigoltime physical media ;-)
I've been looking for that for years.
Someone not afraid of subtitles. Enjoyed this thanks
People who refuse to see movies with subtitles are morons- it's their loss to see some great movies (e.g., Parasite)
@Count Drunkula that and bad localizations, I don't know which version these two watched but the subs are definitely more natural sounding than the version I got.
@Count Drunkula oops.. Don't tell on me hehe.
Though enough of a reason to convince me to buy the full episodic version.
yes
So many lost in translation... "zwei saufen ab" = "two going down".. Really?!!
"absaufen" is a harsh word for drowning.
I watch this movie at least once a year to remind me that you don't need CGI and 150 million dollars to make a masterpiece. This is the best and most accurate ww2 movie ever made, I've read a lot about the battle in the Atlantic and Uboats in particular and all the little details in this movie such as the night surface attack, the food hanging, the operating of pumps and valves, the water gushing into the control room hatch. This movie is just perfect.
It was a very big budget movie at the time though.
@@maltehenryk1409 This was the most expensive German TV Production, that was ever made by the time, costing 32 mill. DM (Deutsche Mark), which would be roughly 35 mill € today. Still - no comparison to generic and soulless 150 mill $ crap that is pumped out from certain studios today. I mean just look at all the comments from people coming from every corner of the planet, all brought together by the universial truth of the series that war is cruel and random and sensless. On top of that, transported by protagonists that belonged to the side that started all this shit.
Best german production by a 100 miles, best sub war movie ever made, timeless...
As a German myself I do like the movie for two reasons. On one side it shows that many Germans weren't Nazis. They just followed orders from a crazy Dictator. Soldiers not abandoning duty. A good example is the scene, where the LI and the photographer are supposed to leave the Boot before the suicide order. You said it correctly. Who would deny such a request? A crazy man would. And on the other side the stupidity and meaninglessness of war. Fighting, surviving every catastrophe that's put into their path and in the end, still dying from the plane attack they couldn't possibly have prevented. A very raw and in-your-face movie missing all that glorifying "hero" aspect most war movies do have a lot of.
My Grandfather who fought in both WW1 and 2 said, and I can see him saying it: "There are no heros in war. Just survivors." And when you think about it, he is right. Most of the "heroic" doings in a war are driven by the pure instinct to survive and protect your brothers.
Oh hey, Felix!
My grandfather served in the british merchant navy in ww2 and had nothing but respect for the u boat men.
I’m English but completely sympathised with the German U-Boaters here. Not Nazis at all, just doing their jobs as soldiers.
@@richard21109 Someone told me a long time ago: 'God asked the stones, if they want to go in an U-Boot' - 'They told him 'we are not hard enough''.
This movie captures boredom so well, without ever being boring.
And yes the guy listening for ships through the hydrophones is the only person doing that job. The thing is that those only work when the ship is submerged, so the captain ordered the boat to dive every hour or two hours to listen. You could hear single ships about 20 km away and convoys 100km. So you had a bit of time.
The depth charges of submarines could go on for many many hours and aside from damaging the ship, it was meant to break the crew and make them surface so they could finish them off.
They work as long as the hydrophone head is underwater. I mean, they work for destroyers. But they do work a lot better if you don't have the noise of waves against the sub's hull or conning tower.
@@wwoods66 against the hull... waves and water makes hella lot of sound on the surface just on its own. On the surface Hydrophones are near useless unless the keel reaches down low, very low, practically at the 40-50 metre depth which is not coincidentally the standard calm water operating depth of ww2 german subs.
nope, there was 2 guys aboard for this job. when the boat submerged, they worked as a hydrophone operator, otherwise as radio operator.
It depends on where the hydrophones are located. This Uboot is a type 7b and at that stage of the war the hydrophone was the GHG type of 24 different sensors mounted around the hull which routed signals to a central switch box that converted them to sound that could be interpreted by the operator. They could detect sounds while on the surface. Later models were directional sensors that had better results when submerged but were very vulnerable to damage from depth charge attacks. yes, depth charge attacks could go on for hours if they had enough escort ships doing them but the main effort was directed to keeping the Uboot submerged so it could not chase a convoy and re-attack. The Uboot would only surface if it was flooding or running out of air because they could expect no mercy from the waiting gun crews on the ships. Most Uboots ( 52% ) were sunk by aircraft attacks, not depth charges.
@@louisavondart9178 The GHG had the sensors mounted in the bow around the depth planes, not all around the hull.
In WW2 768 U-boats got sunk, only 250 by aircrafts, far away from 52%, even if you count the 43 U-boats sunk by air raids in harbours and the 37 U-boats sunk by aircrafts and ships in cooperation, its still less than 50%
I knew a man who was a survivor of that submarine war. He said that the food was rotten within days down there, but you would eat it - or starve. Nevertheless, he lived to the age of 95.
My grandfather on my mother side served in the U-Boot service and part of the "Wolf Pack." He survived WWII. He served from the beginning of the war to the end. They surrendered the U-Boot to the British at the end of war.
Zu früh! Die XXI hatte einen Kühlschrank!
@@waynehatchell6343 thank you, the trouble is some people don’t know or understand the half of it at the end of the day how brave them lot were.
You can recreate Das Boot by changing the bulb in your bathroom to a red one, then try and stop the water coming out of your shower head with your hands.
I once broke a shepherd's crook outlet on a hose linked to a pump in an 1100 litre tank. First thing I did, as it stood upright, waving about and fountaining, was try and stop it with my hands!
Humans are basic.
Jurgen Prochnow: "For the topside scenes, they shot tons of water at us. ... _Cold_ water."
But - also have some kind of trigger below you that if too much water hits the floor it drops a truck on you.
hehe
HA HA! Good fun!. Years ago, I worked graveyard, cleaning restaurants, and when I was stacking boxes for the trash, I threw one and accidentally hit a water pipe (plastic, of course!) all that water, ugh! I was there for an additional 4 hrs, after a 12 hour shift! Didn't have the red light though! HA HA!
The scene where the U-Boot has to reverse away from the convoy survivors looks like a reference to the Laconia incident. U-156 sank a British troop carrier and to help with the rescue effort broadcast her position on Allied channels before being joined by other U-boots to pick up survivors. U-156 began to tow the Laconia life boat and accommodate survivors on the fore deck of the now surfaced sub. When the American bombers reported U-156's position along with Laconia survivors they were given the order to attack and after bombing and strafing runs U-156 had to cast the survivors into the sea and dive to avoid destruction. Another U-boot attempting to rescue survivors was also attacked by the American bomber. This lead to all U-boot commanders being ordered not to pick up survivors.
Very un-Hollywood like. They would have figured some way to pick up the survivors. But that would be very unrealistic for WW II.
@@alanstevens1296 surprise surprise.... Hollywood =/= reality
@@alanstevens1296 Hollywood would have the germans massacre the survivors, who are we kidding here lol
the fact is that before the film was made, some american hollywoood directors were asked to make the film. they all wanted to portray the crew as bloodthirsty nazis. Ultimately, the decision was made in favor of Wolfgang petersen, who was then still unknown. As we know today, the best decision.
@@TheChumbaba
The movie was produced by the Bavarian Film Works. Hollywood had nothing to do with it.
Like someone said, life on a German submarine in WWII was 95% absolute, utterly unbreakable, hellish boredom, followed by 5% mind-numbing, terrifying, hellish action.
If you survived your duties, you were scarred by it. Some sailors were not certain what was worse.
That 'man overboard' scene was not planned but happened due to the massive waves being sent into them from of the tower prop. It was a 10 meter slanted tower (30 feet tall) with a huge water tank on top. Down a large slide water was sent rushing down from that tower to generate realistic spray and waves into the tower prop.
One of those waves washed one of the actors over board, who injured himself during filming this scene (not as bad as depicted, but still, a real injury). The other actors on the conning tower were so deeply into their roles that one actually screamed 'man overboard'. Wolfgang Petersen, the director, kept that unscripted moment, and adjusted the future script a bit around that incident.
/edit The British ASIICS ultra-sound was a very new invention and addition to British destroyers. It meant that subs lost 90% of their stealth capability when pinged actively by it. And those destroyers DID active pings because they knew that they were the hunters, and the subs were the prey. It caused terror among most sub crews because they knew they had only a tiny chance to survive a destroyer hunting them with ASIICS.
That scene after the chief returned with the report of what had all been fixed when they had struck ground. Right after that, the captain / Kapitän-Lieutnant did some deep breathing. That was also not a scripted scene but a breathing technique of Jürgen Prochnow, the actor, to get himself into character. Due to some strange circumstance the camera had kept rolling. Again, Petersen decided to keep those additional few seconds of deep breathing because he thought it fit that situation perfectly. For me, that is one of the most impressive scenes of this movie.
Uhmm... its called ASDIC, and it was not entirely new piece of equipement at the beginning of WW2 as it was an invention created at the end of WW1, out of need to combat U-boats, due to the losses of ships suffered to them during WW1.
ASDIC as we now know as Sonar was developed and refined during the interwar period so when WW2 came about British destroyers had it as standard equipment.
Despite it being quite advanced for its time it did still had its drawbacks.
It couldn't detect a submarine on the surface, due to the noise generated at the surface.
It was also set in a fixed downward sloped angle, meaning it could no turn the direction of the sonar beam in a more steep downward angle i.e look straight down, so when the Destroyer got into a certain distance of a submerged U-boat the beam would pass over the submarine and thereby loose contact.
So the deeper the U-boat was, the longer the distance of the contact loss would be, this could buy time for the U-boat to make an evasive manoeuvre and get out of the way, so the Destroyer would have to sprint in on the final leg of its attack run.
Further more depending on the condition of the ocean, such as different thermal temperature or salt layers etc, sonar beams or pings, could get deflected by it, meaning a submarine could go undetected by hiding between layers, while the sonar beam pulse could get trapped between two other layers.
The British ofcourse developed tactics that could mitigate some of the deficiencies of the ASDIC.
Such as having destroyers working in pairs or groups, while one destroyer maintained contact with the submerged U-boat from a favourable distance, it would direct another destroyer in on the position of the U-boat, the other destroyer would sometimes creep up on the U-boat so when the U-boat detected the threat, the destroyer was so much on top of it, that the time for evasive manoeuvres was very limited.
That's why in the many convoy battles during WW2 you had these deadly cat and mouse duals between u-boats and the opposing convoy escorts.
Where the hunter could be turned into hunted from one moment to another.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_Asdic_systems
Now you can understand why the sailors were all drunk at the beginning of the movie. They all knew that the life of a uboat sailor was just mainly constant fear and terror, and every night might be their last one. And so they partied away like it might be their last night on earth. For many of them it was.
About 75% were killed in action!
Everyone of us who have been in combat feel the same way, and used to party just as hard.
Sorry - that was added fictional in the novel this movie is based on. Buchheim (the author) was in the propaganda department (and actually ot a nice guy - very egoistic and very egocentric) and even after the war he made 'his story' of reality. What you saw in the movie was in reality a meeting with officers, coffee and cake with crewmates an their wifes and having a nice boring evining ... Source: Gerrit Reichert: U96 - Realität und Mythos (damned good book) ... Buchheim 'arranged' several incidents in the novel (and thus in the movie) which were fake - and some of the original Crew (yes - most of them survived including the captain), were quite pissed off about it ...
@@christianschluter6458 Buchheim compressed several trips into one, because otherwise the bordedom of many weeks without any action would have been even more intense. And Buchheim himself criticised some of the leeway the movie took.
@@ohauss It had to be compressed, or else the ending wouldn’t make sense: Allies couldn’t bomb German-Occupied-France with so many planes at once in late 1941 early 1942.
As a German, this is weird. I appreciate you went for the original and not the dubbed version.
Dubbed versions are looked down on by serious movie fans in America. But that is wrong too. Sometimes the dubbed are superior. Not usually but sometimes. The subtitle version is definitely better here.
While I normally prefer subtitles, I must say that this film had THE BEST English dub I've ever seen. Most of the actors dubbed themselves, and the syncing was incredibly well done. (Maybe it helps that English and German are grammatically similar.)
@@Johnny_Socko The flaw of the dub is, the language gets too clean at times. Too nice.
As a German like me you should know your History.
@@tomhirons7475 nope, has nothing to do with knowing history.
I visited a WW2 submarine [British] in the early fifties at Chatham. I still remember how cramped it was. No concessions to comfort whatever..It was what it was, a killing machine. Watching 'Das Boot' years later reminded me of that day out, a conducted tour of the 'Boat' by a navy rating. Das Boot is without doubt the most realistic submarine film ever made....It should be shown in schools to remind children that War isn't a video game...
When it comes to that I'm quite happy i went on holidays with my family back in 1999 to the Baltic Sea, at the town of Laboe U-995, an exact same Type VII C like presented in that movie is displayed as walkable memorial. It was impressive to see that 70m long steel tube from the outside, and when you got into it, it immediately snapped you into that claustrophobic tightness of a WW2 German sub, and you got the feel of how the crew must have felt when they left harbor to go on a mission. Specially having seen the movie beforehand helped me to actually realize what I saw there, and it felt so surreal to actually think about it. 58 years earlier and I could have been one of the beardless kids waving good-bye to La Rochelle and riding out onto the Atlantic.
And indeed, war isn't a video game. No random medi packs lying around, no ammo just placed somewhere, and most of all, no save-points where you can reload if your mission fails, no respawn if you get killed.
The actors in this are great. Almost everyone of them was a prominent German actor, or became one because of this film. Most of them influenced German TV and Film through the 80s and 90s. This is one of the very few really great German films. Herbert Grönemeyer, who plays the guy coming on board as a war correspondent is one of the most prominent German singers. And still active too: Latest album came out in 2018. Little bit of movie trivia: The full-size submarine mockup for exterior shots was re-used in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
True. Uwe Ochsenknecht, Jan Fedder, Heinz Hoenig, Grönemeyer and of course Jürgen Prochnow who went on to star in Beverly Hills Cop 2, The English Patient & Air Force One.
Not re-used, actually borrowed during the shoot
@@matnichol And what about the "bad guys" on film and a little in real life II Wo Semmelrogge (the funny character), has often little problems with the law, but is a great guy, his brother was the "bibelforscher from Kötzschenbroda, Ralf Richter, Claude Oliver Rudolph, for english, and other languages speakers, maybe intresting to know, is all of the crew, speak diffrent dialect of german, like Johan is a bavarian, others are Hamburger, Berliner, or from Saxonia, or Hessen. That makes it authentic too.
I show that film colleagues from Russia (Deutsch-Russen) and they were impressed too.
The submarine captain may be recognizable as Count Leto in the 1984 Dune film.
"Stalingrad" (the 1993 one) and "Downfall" are both excellent (and depressing as hell) movies about WWII from the German perspective.
Wasnt "Stalingrad" the one about the Russian sniper or is that another movie?
@@JustPlayTheGame76 ..you're thinking of Enemy at the Gates.
@@thetechsite9619 YES! Thats right. Thank you.
Very famous in germany is "Die Bruecke" or the bridge.
Almoust every school kid has to watch it in history class.
Made in the 1950s, it show a group of teenage students who had to defend a small bridge agains US troops in the very last days of WW2.
Funny that it is not known as the original title. Here in Denmark, it is known by the name "Der untergang". Downfall is not actually the correct term. But then again, you can not call it The Apocalypse eighter. It is more about the way everything falls to pieces, than it is about personal story.
Thats one of the core points of the movie, the Captain (as is Thomsen as well) is an Old Salt officer, experienced and trained in peacetime. He mentions he has experience on sailing ships and when he's talking about them, you notice he really loves those. I dont know whether it was the movie, the series or the book, but he doesn't enjoy destroying ships. And as I believe, he also subscribes to the old notion that no matter what ship you're on and who you sail for, unltimately, all sailors are comrades.
In real life Der alte serve on some merchan ships and after the war (yes in real life he survived ) he become the captain of a German nuclear merchan ship he also was a consultant for the movie
@@chucknorris6640
Provided he is really meant to be Lehmann-Willenbrock, as everyone seems way too ready to assume just because Buchheim was a guest on that particular boat. Keep in mind that in the book, the boats are not referred to with their numbers and there are also few names. Its entirely possible (and I think its also pretty probable) that the officers and crew are entirely fictional.
Glad you liked the film. Here’s some tidbits:
The Submarine set was constructed as a completely enclosed set, meaning unlike traditional sets which are segmented for ease of removing sections to accommodate camera and sound crews for certain angle shots, the production had to develop a smaller camera that could easily operate in the confines.
If you notice, as the film progresses, the crew get paler and paler. This was not done with makeup. The cast were actually kept out of sunlight for the entire duration of filming, so the paleness is real.
One day during filming, the cast and crew went down to the dock where the full sized surface prop was moored. When they got there, the submarine was gone, the anti aircraft gun (on the rear of the Sail or conning tower) had been removed and was sitting there, and all the ropes nicely coiled. Unbeknownst to the cast and crew, Bavarian Studios had made a deal with an American director to briefly use the submarine for an adventure movie. The director was Seven Spielberg, and the movie was Raiders of the Lost Ark. The “Nazi sub” in Raiders is the Das Boot sub. The scenes of the secret base were also filmed at Port LaRochelle as well.
In building the set, the designers actually had to fly to the United States. Specifically the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry which holds the most perfectly preserved Type VIII U-Boat. The set is still preserved, though, it has been cut into sections, and can be visited at Bavarian Studios.
I've been in the set, which was/is part of the studio tour at Bavaria Filmstadt. It's that cramped.
Also, the actors were forbidden to shave (with the exception of the political officer).
Drinking water on board those subs was sparse, so bathing and shaving were considered a luxury.
Anyone spending more water than usual was called a Badehure, a bathing-whore.
So Wolfgang Petersen forbade all actors to shave, unless their crew was supposed to be on shore leave where they would have access to tap water.
Also, the waves were generated by a large tower with a huge slide, and a water tank on top. Whenever the waves were supposed to crash into the conning tower set, a huge splash of water was sent down that slide. So yes, the actors were splashed HARD by the water when in their surface set.
They were allowed to be out in daylight, but were not allowed to be out too long, or even, _gasp_, get a tan!
Typ VIII ? U505 ,now in Chicago , is a TypIXC. At Laboe in germany you can visit a Typ VII. And a Typ XXI at Bremerhaven.
@@kratzikatz1 it was a typo, I meant Type VII since the sub in Das Boot is a Type VII-C
27:32 We have to accept the fact that while Germany was ruled by the Nazis, not everyone in the army, air-force and navy followed their ideals. It was very common for U-Boots to help survivors of ships they had sunk, by giving them food, water, medical care and directions to the nearest port or land mass.
This was the case with the infamous "Laconia incident";
Somewhere off the coast of western Africa, midway between Liberia and Ascension Island, U-156 spotted the troopship RMS Laconia. As with all armed merchant and troop ships, U-Boots had orders to attack without warning, and since the Laconia fell under that category, U-156 conducted a torpedo attack on her.
However, unbeknownst to U-156's commanding officer, Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, the Laconia was transporting some 1600 Italian POWs. While there were enough lifeboats for all her crew, including all the POWs, the Laconia's heavy listing, due to damage from torpedoes, prevented half of her lifeboats from being launched.
Realizing that most of the survivors were POWs and civilians, Hartenstein ordered immediate rescue, while raising the Red Cross flag. An hour later, with the Laconia finally sinking completely, Hartenstein sent a coded message to BdU (Befehlshaber der U-Boote, German U-Boot command) saying "Sunk by Hartenstein, British Laconia, Qu FF7721, 310 deg. Unfortunately with 1500 Italian POWs; 90 fished out of the water so far. Requesting orders."
The head of submarine operations at the time, Admiral Karl Donitz, ordered all of the submarines from the Wolfpack "Eisbar", which were tasked with attacking Cape Town, to immediately divert to the scene and help with rescue efforts. Donitz informed Berlin of the situation, making Hitler furious, who demanded the rescue be cancelled. Donitz was ordered by Admiral Erich Raeder to cancel the re-tasking of Wolfpack Eisbar, which also included U-156, and to send them back towards Cape Town, as per their original orders. The Italian submarine "Comandante Cappellini" was to rendezvous with U-156 and pickup any survivors, before proceeding to where the Laconia had been sunk and rescuing any Italians they found.
The Vichy French were also contacted by Raeder, who dispatched 2 sloops and the 7600 ton cruiser, "Gloire", from Dakar. Donitz then disengaged the Eisbar U-Boots, ordering them "All boats, including Hartenstein, only take as many men into the boat as will allow it to be fully ready for action when submerged."
U-156 had some 200 survivors on and below deck, including 5 women and 200 more in 4 lifeboats that she was towing. U-156 also sent a message, in open frequency and not in code, reporting her position; "If any ship will assist the shipwrecked Laconia crew I will not attack her, provided I am not being attacked by ship or air force. I picked up 193 men. 4°-53" South, 11°-26" West. - German submarine."
The British forces in Freetown intercepted the message, but believed it to be a trap and didn't credit it. Two days later, on the 15th of September, the Americans got the message that the Laconia had been sunk and that the British merchant ship "Empire Haven" was routed to pick up survivors. However, this message loosely implied that the Laconia had been sunk on the 15th, not the 13th which it originally had been sunk, and had no mention of German submarines conducting rescue operations under cease-fire, nor the fact that French neutral ships were also en-route to the scene.
U-156 remained on the surface for 2 and a half days, and on the 15th, she was joined by U-506. A few hours later, U-507 along with Cappellini joined them as well. The four submarines, towing multiple lifeboats, had set a course for the African coast, where they'd meet with the Vichy French ships.
During the night of the 15th, the submarines became separated, and on the morning of the 16th, U-156 was spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber. Hartenstein, using Morse code, contacted the plane in English and requested assistance. A rescued British officer also messaged the plane "RAF officer speaking from German submarine, Laconia survivors on board, soldiers, civilians, women, children.", however, Lt. James Harden of the US Army Air Force, made no efforts to respond and turned away, while notifying his base at Ascension.
The senior officer on site, who was unware of the Red Cross flag being flown by U-156 and the rescue operation, ordered Harden to "[Sic] sink the sub." The officer later claimed that he believed that the rules of war, at the time, did not permit a combat ship to fly the Red Cross flag, and was afraid U-156 would discover the secret base on Ascension and raid the depots, cutting off critical reinforcements and much needed fuel for the Allied offensive in Egypt.
Harden's B-24 flew back to the scene, and an hour later, began attacking U-156 with bombs and depth charges. According to Harden, his B-24 made 4 attack runs but failed to release bombs or depth charges on 3 of them. On the final run, he dropped 2 bombs, which missed U-156, and sadly, landed between 2 lifeboats, killing most of the occupants. Hartenstein then ordered the remaining lifeboats be cast adrift and to slowly submerge, instead of crash-diving, in order to give the survivors who were still on deck the necessary time to jump into the water and escape.
Unaware of the events, U-506, U-507 and the Cappellini, continued picking up survivors until the next morning, when the commander of the Cappellini discovered that they were in fact picking up survivors cast adrift from U-156.
This is considered to be the first of the war crimes committed by Allied Forces, as under the conventions of war at sea; ships, including submarines, engaged in rescue operations are held to be immune from attacks.
Five B-25 Mitchell bombers were also dispatched to hunt for submarines in the area, which spotted some of Laconia's lifeboats on the 17th. Hardin's B-24 also spotted U-506, which had 151 survivors onboard, including 9 women and children, and began his second attack. Making two attack runs, with the first one failing to release bombs, U-506 crash-dived fast enough for the second run to no damage to the boat or the survivors.
The incident had major consequences; Until that point in the war, it was very common for U-Boots to assist survivors. The sight of a U-Boot literally picking up survivors onto her deck was very rare, as space inside the boat was already cramped and limited. Following the incidents on the 17th, Admiral Karl Donitz issued the "Laconia order" which forbade U-Boot crews from helping survivors. Their orders were to leave the survivors to their fate in the waters. However, despite the enforcing of the order, U-Boot crews often disregarded it and continued providing help to survivors.
In total, out of the Laconia's original complement of 2732 souls, only 1113 survived. Of the 1619 souls lost, 1420 were Italian POWs.
thank you for this comment. I didn't know about it but its important that these things get also shown and communicated. That not all germans were bad and that war itself is not a thing of black and white.
Wow this was very enlightening. Thanks for commenting
@@6666Imperator I knew it. And the Laconia Affaire saved Dönitz head at the Nürnberger Prozesse...
It was not happening after the laconia incident any more. This was war, and U-Boats were hunters and destroyers - as intended of the Nazi Regime. No pardon asked, none given.
Rescue in WW II was somewhat shady, as often even hit and straggling ships in convoys were left to their destiny by their own escorts, also merchant marine sailors were often not saved from being in the water and in life rafts, as the convoys had to sail on steadily for safety-reasons. Crews of abandoned U-Boats were often shot at with machine guns in the water, only few were rescued aboard allied military ships. U-Boats dived and provided not rescue at all after their attacks after the laconia incident (those were the orders from the BdU and they were followed).
The Allies wanted to charge the Nazis for this at Nuremberg, but then it turned out to be proven the Allies behaved in the exact same manner in the Pacific. Curiously enough they chose to ignore war crimes they had committed themselves.
As german (Austrian) to watch this movie is much more intense,because of language and stuff,n my opinion it is one of the best movies ever made in history,i saw it probably 30 times or more...it was our people dying for nothing and almost all of them was only soldiers,not nazis...
I watched this when it was first shown on British TV in the early 80s, as a 6 (?) part weekly series. I'd never seen anything like it, before or since. So atmospheric, especially in German with sub-titles, you were in there with them, experiencing the alternate panic and elation. My favorite movie of all time.
Originally it was a mini series, and later got shortened to a movie that's still quite long.
Yes, a six-parter.
As someone who saw the bbc2 miniseries first. I was surprised, nope, the film was first (1981!)
(but yeah, the 300min version.. best version)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot
saw that on the Beeb too, so confusing... do I read the subtitles or follow it in German?
@@unpaintedleadsyndrome If your German is excellent, switch off the subtitles. I found it best to just listen to the language and follow as best I could, but let the brain do it's own thing and almost sub-consciously read the subtitles... By episode 2 you won't even be aware that you're reading them :)
Downfall is another German WW2 movie that you should consider watching 👍
Oh yeah, I am going to make the same comment. Downfall for me is up there in the terms of "War" movie. Acting, set's, makeup, everything is on point with Downfall.
Downfall is also great. The only thing to criticize in my opinion is that they turned some nazi butchers in nice honorable men to contrast them to the core-party-leaders. But that is kinda a minor thing compared to the fact they captured this apocalyptic crazy last days
+1
I was about to comment this as well - +1! :)
Stalingrad (year 1993)?
2023 ... still a " MASTERPIECE " !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The director build the Submarine in a massive warehouse, within a salt water pool. The actors were shut in for most of the weeks of filming, not allowed out into the sun nor allowed to wash properly or shave, so by the end of the movie they looked filthy, dishevelled and exhausted, because they simply were. During the filming one of the men slipped and fell off the U-boat 'stage' and badly hurt himself, breaking ribs and getting a concussion, this was then written into the film as the man overboard, so it's all real blood and pain in that scene.
Goggles are to "preserve" night vision. Inside the sub it's brighter than outside at night. Every second the periscope is up is a second you can be detected. You don't want to wait until your eyes have adjusted to the dark light outside. Hence the goggles to pre-adjust to the outside low light. Scope up, fast look around, scope down.
Why pirates wore eye patches. Dark eye for the prey ship's below decks in daytime when boarding her; reverse for night battle.
Same with the red light. red light doesn't kill your night vision like bright lights do.
Das Boot’s ending is such a massive kick to the balls. And it’s brutality is what makes it a classic.
When she was a child, my mother would ask her uncle what it was like being in a U-boat. He wouldn't answer her, but she was persistent, and he finally answered and told her, "Go into the basement, sit facing the corner and turn the lights off. That is what it is like."
"...and stay there for two months."
My grandfather wouldn't talk about the Pacific, unless he was pretty drunk; in which case you realized how bad it was. My grandmother chewed me out, in tears, once for asking him about his service, when I was pretty young. Those experiences have contributed to my foggy notions of 'glory' and 'patriotism'.
@@MrBendylaw Ye, my grandfather wasnt actually in the war since sweden kept out. But he did his obligatory military service during the war on the border to norway. He never spoke to us about it. My mother said that it had been bad psychological for them and pretty much said it scarred them for life. I dont know what actually happened there, history books doesnt really tell us anything, but I have my guesses.
@@hairlokk8672 My granddad was up in the north of sweden also guarding the border. One time he meet a german soldier up close, they was both lifting their guns and pointing to each other over the border.
Then slowly both lowered the guns and turned around and walked away.
Only thing I ever heard him say about the war.
@@MrBendylaw In Canada it was considered bad form to ask a veteran about the war. Even if they said something in conversation. You just listened. I asked a guy at my uncles place about the war, when I around 9 yrs. My dad pulled me out of the room and I got yelled at. My son is a veteran. I don`t ask him about Afghanistan. They tell you what they feel like at the time. Just listen.
A true masterwork: cinematography, writing, acting, Das Boot may seem absurd when you say we're going to watch a 4 hour submarine movie from a WWII German's perspective, but everyone I've shown it to comes away impressed. It's that good.
Watched this 1981 with my Grandfather. He was Captain of Submarines during WW2 and took the surrender of the Kriegsmarine 1945 in Norway. Was so interesting watching this with him. Will never forget the tension it was like he was back hunting this U Boat.
Wow. What an experience to remember. Vale to your grandfather.
Thank you to your grandfather for his service and as Captain of Submarines at that.
@@guymorris6596 cheers. He wrote a Book about his WAR. it’s really good. He took his golf clubs everywhere and as Captain basically decided where to go which quite often meant heading to the nearest GREAT golf course. Honestly he ticked them off across Europe Indian Ocean Pacific you name it.
and he gave me my first golf lesson. I inherited his Clubs too. and his Zeiss Binoculars from the Commandant Kriegsmarine Norway. Nazi swastika is on the frame. they are still better glasses than anything you can buy in the shops.
@@henryviii6341 He wrote a book, you say?
I remember seeing this at the theater when I was a kid with my dad, and for the first time in a war film I found myself caring about the “enemy.” It was then that I realized that wars may be started and ended by governments, but it is human beings doing the fighting and dying. Great movie, great reaction.👍
It is important i think that there are movies out there that do not sugarcoat war.
War is..... when old people send young people to kill each other.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 And then old people swoop in to Make Peace, as the prince played by Alec Guinness in Lawrence of Arabia says.
12:37 That's condensed, sweetened milk. You can find it in the grocery store, in the baking section. Back then, it was used as a source of protein & fat that could be stored (canned) for long-term voyages. The reason you saw them eating so well when they frist started out was that the food would quickly spoil, so they got to (had to) feast on it pretty quickly.
Condensed milk is great in cold-brew coffee by the way.
The molded bread was called rabbits😉😊
My grandpa, dad, and uncles used to put this on to keep up boys busy during family holiday parties.. ah, memories.
i saw this when the mini series got shown on British TV in the early 80's, having grown up surrounded by people that had fought in the war and having only seen Allied representations of the war it was a huge eye opener, the first time i saw the Germans as people and not just the enemy
Same experience for me as a kid in Denmark in the 80s, where everyone still saw the Germans as evil monsters, only 35 years after the war. Such an eye opener, yes. They were actually humans too.
So true!
Thank you very much do not see us germans as enemies! I'm german and I never feld british, french or american are enimies! This war was extremely intensive but keep in mind not every soldier was convinced about what he does. Let's keep friends now british, american, canadian, australien german and so on.........Just be a good human, be humble be kind! Sread peace, joy and love! /Chris
I also saw this on British TV in the 80s, it was so intense I couldn't think about anything else for a few days. The sheer quiet courage of the men were truly humbling.
@@sylla2 There is a recent Danish movie, I have forgotten the name, perhaps you can help me: It's set in 1945 and German prisoners of war are made to clear the beaches of mines. A bunch obviously get blown up, but they're all teenagers, so it's not obvious that one should say: "Serves them well! They start it". Very interesting film, I recommend it.
The Director's Cut is 209 minutes.
The original cut was 150 minutes.
The Miniseries is 300 Minutes.
The Final Cut is 290 minutes.
Oh, there was a final cut? That got by me somehow. When did that happen?
longer is better
@@mdellan2001 defo
The Blade Runner of war movies...
I have the director's cut, I tell everyone to watch it instead of the 150 minute one but I usually also mention the miniseries which I haven't seen.
The U-boat that sunk my grandfather's destroyer with all but 19 of its crew in a storm near the Azores was itself sunk with all hands off the coast of South Africa. The Battle of the Atlantic was utterly brutal, and Das Boot is a superb depiction of the terror - and the contrast of their experience with that of the officers on the supply ship at Vigo.
The best war filmography, by a long way, until Band of Brothers equalled it. I have lost count of how many times I have watched this masterpiece. Hey, no CGI either.
As a german who watched band of brothers... it literally america good, germany bad nazis. It portrays the americans as the ultimate chads who singlehanded won the whole war. On the opposite germans are portrayed something between dumb cavemen and brutal murderous vikings. My grandfather fought against the russians, and he never spoke bad about his enemys, i dont really know why american ww2 movies need to be absolute Propaganda against germany and german people. There is a reason why germans dont see americans as allies today
@@Jerry1848_Luetzow I get your point, but just as the narrative of Das Boot follows a crew on one side, so Band of Brothers follows an infantry unit on the other. As in all good scripts there must be protagonists and antagonists, and it is the task of all in the production to make the audience feel sympathy with the protagonists, and to that dramatic end portray antagonists as either worthy adversaries or monsters. That explains why - films are not history, they are dramatisations.
And it is a truth of combat that you don't get to know your enemy - if you see them at all, they are just targets. In Hollywood, combatants do all sorts of threat displays and square up to each other, which creates suspense, and the viewer gets to know the protagonists, their struggles, back-story and so on, so that some sort of dilemma can be portrayed. The narrative is about them. Rarely so with the antagonists, they are usually vaguely sketched in the shorthand of stereotypes.
And for the record, my grandfather had no overt hatred of Germans, who sunk ships under him three times and gave him good cause. However, he did say that he hated Americans - who had given him no cause - and also the Communists in Russia, the latter for their utter brutality to their own people, which he saw when in Archangelsk. There's nowt so queer as folk.
@@Jerry1848_Luetzow get real, the Germans hated the Russians. There was so much propaganda.
@@martinn.6082 Not really i dont think you ever spoke to german veterans, or germans at all. So you can think whatever you want. But i put my my trust in to the people who fought in this war. Sure the gouvernement wanted the germans to hate russians and sure some germans really hated them. But as far as i know the americans were the most hated by the germans, especially after the war until today... this is all i can say from the perspective of a german (me)
@@Jerry1848_Luetzow ich denke, es gibt deutliche Hinweise darauf, dass Amerikaner weniger verhasst und gefürchtet waren.
1) Gegen Ende des Krieges versuchten viele deutsche Soldaten, in amerikanische, britische oder französische Gefangenschaft statt in russische zu geraten.
2) Aus dem Osten gab es aus Angst eine riesige Flüchtlingswelle. Vergleichbares gab es aus dem Westen nie.
3) Rassistische Propagnda gegen Slawen und Russen gab es zuhauf, gegen Amerikaner maximal gegen Schwarze.
Der Mythos von der unschuldigen Wehrmacht ist ein Mythos, nichts weiter.
I want to add that this movie is based on the book "Das Boot" from Lothar Gunter buchheim. It's his true story what he experienced in world War 2 on a submarine and the role of Leutnant Werner (herbert Grönemeyer), the photographer, is basicly the role of buchheim.
In Germany we still concider this one as probably the best German movie in terms of acting(!) , technique, score, setting and storytelling. My father showed it first to me and still loves to watch it with me. I am looking foward to the day when I will look this one with my son.
I tried Herbert Gronmeyer's act when he's cheering and riding the huge waves. It IS fun ... until you get back on solid land and you still feel the waves!
It has some awesome surround sound effects too.
Yes we do. Großartig!
By the way great that the tbrschmitts watch this in German language 👌
The book (as he writes at the start) is a mix of several different operations ("Feindfahrten") over the course of several years. They didn't experience all these events on one single tour. But yes, all of those events did happen (well, apart from the end with all of them dying - Buchheim and captain Lehmann-Willenbrock both survived the war, with Lehmann even becoming the captain of the only German nuclear ship, the "Otto Hahn")
The young man's French girlfriend hid her engagement and pregnancy because the French resistance would strike at collaboraters and girlfriends were by definition collaborating with the enemy. He kept it secret as well because he would become a special target as well. They were teens thrown togeather during the war but had to fear the reaction to them coming to love each other.
Yea… Sadly this side-story arch is not even really touched in the Theatrical cut nor the Directors Cut. Only in the TV cut it's being actually dealt with properly. It is one of the parts that always makes me tear up… and shows that love is stronger than fighting. Even between "enemies" during war times.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 Ganz genau!
Ladies love the bad boys. Perhaps she should choose someone from her own side?
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 There isn't much more in the TV version anyway. Just a clumsy looking cuddle scene between the two and and a poorly added cut of her waving him when they set out.
It was fine not to include it.
I read recently that millions of French men were held as POW's in Germany for the duration of the war & many others got sent there to work in factories so no wonder that some girls hooked up with German soldiers.
19:09 The goggles and the red light helped the eyes to adjust to the darkness outside at night faster. When stepping out of a lighted room into the darkness, it takes a few seconds for the eyes to get used to the darkness. Under certain circumstances, these can be seconds that make the difference between life and death.
THX for the hint, didn't know that.
Depending on how bright the light was before stepping into the dark - e.g. watching a camp fire at night and then take a walk into the surrounding woods - it takes up to 30 minutes for the eyes to fully adapt.
@@harzerrolla335 that's btw also the reason WHY pirates used eye patches:
Patch one eye with it, run over to the enemy ship, through the door/hatch down inside, SWITCH the eyepatch from one eye to the other and you're immediately able to see a LOT better in a darker interior of a ship.
@@gajustempus Thats right.
The german movie Stalingrad is also a unique take on the WW2 battle. I would highly recommend.
Definitely
And so much better than "ennemy at the gates"
@@Manu-rb6eo No comparison. Enemy at the gates is like Call of duty, while "Stalingrad" shows the real horror of war. It's like "Das Boot" vs. "U-571"
Stalingrad is excellent
Careful though, there are 2 movies with that name. The proper one you mean (I assume) is from 1993; avoid the one from 2013.
That movie was the beginning of the international career of Wolfgang Petersen, later he made movies like Air Force One or Troja.
The captain of the boat is Jürgen Prochnow in Hollywood movies he played mostly the villain, the main role for a German actor if they made it to Hollywood, he played in Beverly Hills Cop 2, Twin Peaks, Judge Dredd or The English Patient.
Leutnant Werner is played by the German singer songwriter
Herbert Grönemeyer, a lot of these actor's started their career with that movie, of course not everyone in the US film industry, but a very good one in Germany and Europe.
Jost Vacano the camera operator of this movie went to the US as well and did movies like Total Recall, RoboCop and Starship Troopers.
Don't forget about Martin Semmelrogge, he went on to become a weirdo 🤪
Yea twin peaks the movie not the series
Jürgen Prochnow also played the captain of the Earth ship in the video game adaptation film "Wing Commander," which portrayed space warfare in a very similar vein to submarine warfare to the point of having a visual similarity to the launch of torpedoes at the enemy spacecraft, and he portrayed that captain very similar to how he portrayed the U-Boat commander in this film - a perfect choice for casting.
@@peterkoester7358 Jurgen is also in a bizarre horror fantasy sci-fi movie from 1983 called "the Keep" that also Stars Scott Glenn and Ian McKellen. He's also in Beerfest and makes a comment about how he hates submarines because he had a bad experience in one one time.
@@llocarydoline9738
weirdos had that movie a few Ralf Richter, Claude Oliver Rudolph and on a lower level Erwin Leder, Jan Fedder and Heinz Hoenig.
And don't forget Otto Sander.
My Uncle was on U-588. I studied the log book. They helpt a lot people wich are on boats after an attack (if there was not a destroyer in the near). They repaired the rescue boats and gave them food, alcohol, and cigarettes. Nobody talks about that.
Thank you to your uncle for his service aboard U 588 and her crew for their humanitarian efforts to assist the crews of those ships.
With all the respect to Your uncle this sounds a bit strange when it comes to history. The rule about "no prisoners or taking survivors" was an order and breaking it would be punished for sure if such thing would end up in a log book, there might be some moments in history where u boot crew would help some survivors but rather no one would be talking about it. A good explanation for this can be found in story of a heavy damaged B17 that was escorted back to england by one Me 109, in british reports the story was made secret as allied command was afraid that spread of the story that some german pilot has shown humanitarian ways while he could score a easy shotdown could possibli affect soldiers as it`s harder to kill enemy when you think that they can be humanitarian.
@@z00mbi3s This order was given in the middle of the war after some "helping" - Submarines where attacked by allied forces.
@@DSP16569 Like i said, it is possible such actions were done but i hardly belive such order was made in middle of WWII as U boots were used even in WWI and even at that time it was common knowledge that a U Boot has no capability to operate and take prisoners or help them, it would be same thing as modern nuclear submarine trying to act like some sort of torpedo speed boat on surface. There is a possibility that some captains were helping but still making a log out of it would be a suicide for military service records.
Watch the movie "The Sinking of the Laconia," it shows that.
"The guy on the left" at 3:00 is Herbert Grönemeyer - he became one of the most famous German songwriters after that movie. 😀
Lot of them started their film career with that movie.
Grönemeyer was already a songwriter and singer when He Made the movie. He Made music since 74
...and an axxhole as well
@@Lou.Cypher He didn´t made the film, he almost ruined it ;o)
@@Stube36 Yes, he is. 👍👍👍👍👍
"Does everyone on this sub have crabs?"
Not sure how many have crabs, but considering they share bunks, it's probably an even number.
The part that made me laugh is the guy having crabs in his eyebrows and the others realising how that must have happened! 🤣
with 50 people on 70x3m , sharing bunks, if one of them brings crabs on board from his last night ashore, they all have them within a week....
18:01 Yes, they were counting the depth charges. They knew from intelligence roughly how many DCs a destroyer normally carried.
Such an incredible movie. The tension just grows with the beards.
Claustrophobic as heck
True, although I laughed when I read the second sentence. It sounded ludicrous but it’s entirely factual!
Das Boot was shot in chronologic order. Which is rare for movie productions. But it was done on purpose.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 The director Wolfgang Petersen also made sure that the cast stayed indoors as much as possible to get that pale look to increase during filming.
This is brilliant. The drunken opening scene fits with my Dad's tales from his days in the Royal Navy, and the sinkings with my Grandfather's experience on HMS Firedrake as told to my Dad (too brutal for me as a child).
Anyone who has ever served their country will recognise the realism. Superb direction, lighting, special effects and cinematography. Superb.
A big thank you from myself, honorably discharged US Army veteran since 1991, to your father and grandfather for their service.
This is the most realistic submarine movie ever produced.
The U Boat used in the movie is the same one used in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which today is the 40th Anniversary.
The base is the same too.
wow.. what other fascinating but random trivia can you bestow upon us?
@@christianc.2664 Mythbusters proved that wrong. Here Daddy Long Legs bites Adam Savage: th-cam.com/video/TOOx-v5mG58/w-d-xo.html
And it's the same U Boat used in the new Das Boot Seasons 1-2, it's based in Malta and the only one of it's kind.
The Uboat film with Matthew McConaughey, it was used in that also.
@@eukariootti1 those aren't daddy longlegs, they are just some kind of spider..... the actual daddy longlegs are arachnida but not spiders, no two part body, no mandibules etc
Fun fact: Otto Sander (Kapitänleutnant Philipp Thomsen) who was lying in his own puke in the bathroom, was actually really drunk and wasted during the shoot of this scene. He admitted this later in an interview and some of the cast confirm this in a documentary. He was so much in character, that he wanted to play this as real as possible.
AND...the (real) Captain does not die at the end. He actually survived the war and died 1986 in Bremen.
My grandfather was in a submarine in WW2, HMS Thrasher. He told me some stories when I was a kids (back in the 70’s) but like all old soldiers he never told me about the bad stuff. I was fascinated, however it was really hard for him and he asked my older sister to ask me not to ask him about the war anymore. He lost a lot of friends and it would bring back painful memories.
Thank you to your grandfather for his service, aboard HMS Thasher, during World War Two. It brought tears to my eyes reading your comments because I know your grandfather saw and experienced horrendous things. Thank you to his friends for their service as well. I'm honorably discharged from the US Army in 1991 so I have some things I'm dealing with.
My dad was a submariner in the 70s - still diesel submarines, and he smoked then. There was so little oxygen in the air you couldn't light your cigarette. I think they might have had 3 to a bunk, because you just get 8 hour shifts. The food was often stale and mouldy. The submariners get so messed up by being at sea they have a 24 hour acclimation to being back on shore before they go off duty. And that was peacetime. Alcoholism was common, including with my dad. Submarines compress under pressure, so if you hang a string tightly across the inside, at depth the string will hang lower.
i thought they had 4 hour shifts no?
I love how you guys take the time to review and share your thoughts at the end of the movies you watch
Sooo happy you went with the non-dubbed version! So much better to see films in their original language. Well done commentary too! You guys are my favorite reactors. ❤️👍
Hollywood movies are better when dubbed into german! The original ever seemed to me like there was a blanket over the mike .Except monty python films ! They are better in the original english!
first "Das Boot" reaction video on youtube and made the correct choice of having subtitles, respect.
You should definitely check out Master and Commander: Far Side of The World. It does for sailing vessels what Das Boot does for submarines. Amazing film.
+1000 for Master and Commander - the most beautiful movie about sailing a warship.
Wonderful film. If it weren’t for Lord of the Rings, Return of the King dominating the Oscars, it should have won Best Picture that year.
A new chapter was just announced, too! Great film.
Absolutely Brilliant movie
Master and Commander has one very serious downside - it is shameless pandering to US audiences. Because the original story they based most of the plot on is set during the war of 1812 and the enemy ship is American. But you can't have that in a Hollywood blockbuster, of course!
My all time favorite movie, it inspired me in so many ways, the music, the u-boat and the actors! Greatest and most realistic movie about u-boat men roaming the Atlantic
This movie I always watch in German with subtitles. There is no other way.
The movie is made after a book of a guy called Lothar Günther Buchheim. Buchheim was a military journalist himself, just like Lt. Werner in the movie. The Book is based on the summary of experiences of 3 tours buchheim made on different boats. So in a way almost everything you see in the movie, except some exagerations for dramtic purposes did actually happen, but not on one tour or boat.
Meaning the depiction of daily life in a submarine is extremely realistic, as are the combat situations.
A bit like "Platoon," where the director combined his experiences from serving in two or three different units, making one Sergeant from his first unit the mortal enemy of another Sergeant he served under in another unit.
In a sense (that it's a mashup of different tours on different boats) makes it a bit like Apocalypse Now. Which is a mashup of Conrad's Hear of Darkness, and Michael Herr's "Dispatches" which was based on his time in Viet Nam.
@@DonP_is_lostagain "Heart of Darkness" was inspired by the systematic atrocities perpetrated by the Belgians in their Congo colony.
@@AudieHolland Yes, I know. I read it when I was 16 and researched what it was about when I was 17. That said, it was still part of the inspiration for Apocalypse Now.
2:19 Forty thousand German sailors served on U-boats during WWII. However, the number that returned is blocked by TBR Schmitt's head. So I looked it up. 75% did not return. So the number blocked by TBR's head would have been 10,000.
Great! Just great! Thirty thousand men died for what??
More than anything in the folly of the human condition, nothing makes my blood boil more than the futility of war. All that war does is provide fodder for tales of bravery and endurance, like this film. Thankfully, my two sons managed to be born into a time and place where they didn't get dragged into fighting a war that ultimately serves no purpose.
Having spent a good portion of my own service sailing those same waters, there is no such thing as "good" weather in the North Atlantic.
Ever been to Holland?
Also, it takes them TEN HOURS to get to the convoy--a short trip.
Fantastic movie, one of my favs ^^
"Stalingrad" from 1993 is also a great WW2 movie from the germans perspective.
Or "The Bridge" but the old one from 1959 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCcke_(film) or a bit modern from 2013 "Generation War" when you like WWII from the German perspective en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_War, i guess its not Netflix? Oh and of course "Downfall".
Excellent film too!
I wonder if they've seen "enemy at the gates"
Definitely a great film.
And don't forget Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron from 1977.
I love this movie (one of the cuts is actually a TV series with 6 parts with a lot of more scenes). So intense and impressive with awesome effects. You won’t see such a great piece of movie history nowadays.
One of my favourite bits of this was your reaction when the captain is looking through the periscope and the destroyer appears out of nowhere, behind a wave.
One of the scariest and coolest bits of the film. Literally awesome filmmaking
What a brillant cast! Jürgen Prochnow, the captain, turned 80 some days ago. And Herbert Grönemeyer, the reporter, is one of the most important German singer-songwriters.
Martin Semmelrogge is also quite known in Germany of course well maybe not today anymore
He most certainly is neither. He had limited success.
Just for your concern:
When the crew talks to the chief, many people think they are saying "Eddie". In fact, they are saying "LI", which is the short form for "Leitender Ingenieur" = chief engineer
Ich hab vor ein paar Tagen nochmal den Film mit Untertiteln gelesen. Da sagt der Kommandante am Ende im Untertitel: Gut Eddi gut. Da war der Untertitel echt falsch🤣🤣
Mad respect for watching such a long foreign movie with subs. Thanks.
Thank you so much for reviewing this film, and opting for the subtitled version.
This is The WW2 Submarine film.
Really glad that you liked it.
11:00 Yes, they were massive (like most of the torpedoes from that time). The G7e (for electric) were 7 meters long and weighed a little more than 1.5 metric tons each.
All 300-ish minutes comprise the best version of _Das Boot._ You can’t go back to watching the director’s cut, much less the theatrical cut, after experiencing all five hours.
I have to do that one.
@@saxonrains yes, you do.
This reaction made my week, never seen anyone try and take this epic, devastating film on as a reaction. Simply superb.
I'm German. I think this is the best submarine movie ever. Thank you for watching the film. Not all Germans at war are pigs! We also know love, loss and everything else you feel too!!!
We know that. Evil men push wars, and evil vs evil usually creates war. I listened to the Hitler speech concerning Roosevelt and he made valid points.
Most weren’t. Most were just young men doing their duty. All sides have blood on their hands.
A masterpiece, and the most realistic submarine film ever made, despite being a fiction.
It isnt entirely fiction - the author of the book the movie is based on was war reporter on a german uboot and wrote the book on the basis of his accounts.
LOL this is no fiction. yes, the story had to be created but everything we see is real.
One of those movies you tune in when it’s randomly on TV you keep watching and after two hours or so when’s over you think it must have 30 minutes of watching max. Great music, great actors, great story. It’s amazing how you feel like you’re almost part of the crew while watching it. Best German movie I know.
Great review of this classic film, you guys are awesome! Thank you.
The authentic realism in this movie was intense; this is one of THE best German big-budget movies ever made after 1945.
Greetings from Northern Germany
Never saw the extended version, but I remember that this came out when I was a kid and I was fascinated that the Germans were not that different from people I knew around me.
War always builds walls around us. We need to remember that lesson forever and never forget it.
There is an American WW2 submarine, the USS Razorback, in Little Rock, AR, still floating on the river and in fantastic condition. It is a museum ship with a guided tour that takes you through the whole thing. It's pretty awesome and just as cramped as the U-Boat in this movie.
There is also the USS Drum in Mobile, Alabama next to the USS Alabama battleship. You can go through most of both vessels. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a captured Uboat and you can go through most of that too.
Having visited both, the Uboat is much more cramped than the US subs, and the US ones weren't exactly spacious.
Manitowoc Wisconsin has the USS Cobia parked next to it's maritime museum.
They even run it as a B n B as well as have it as an exhibit.
If someone visits northern Germany, he might visit Kiel. At the mouth of the Kiel Fjord in Kiel-Laboe, there is Marine-Ehrenmal Laboe (a memorial to German sailors who died in both world wars). Inside, there is an exhibition devoted to the history of the German navy. Next to the quay, there is a fully restored U-995, a VIIC type U-boat, exactly like this from the action of the novel "Das Boot" and the movie. The only difference is that it is a later production version that no longer had an 88mm onboard gun, but reinforced anti-aircraft guns. When you get inside ... you will understand that in the film the interior of the ship, despite its claustrophobic dimensions, seems larger than it really was. In Kiel itself, which has been an important base of the German navy since 1871, is the HDW shipyard, which still produces, among others, submarines. About 50% of all conventional submarines (that is, non-nuclear powered) in the world come from it. The shipyard in Kiel also produced the U-96, which is a ship that is both crewed and its commander considered to be the prototype of the U-boat from the Lothar-Günther Buchheim novel and of course the film.
They weren't rescued, because it was policy of the convoys to not stop and pick up survivors with Uboats being around. Speed was their only defence in the vastness of the Atlantic, and the escort ships were busy fending off/hunting down the subs.
The Germans were forbidden from rescuing anyone, due to them doing it before, and when they went to rescue people from the sunk Laconia in the Mediterranean and even calling in a couple other subs to pick up survivors, they were attacked by US planes... they broadcast on open frequency, that they were doing rescue operations, flew Red Cross flags on the ships' hulls, and asked for Allied assistance in getting these people out.
The Americans instead sent bombers to attack the submarines, packed with civilians they had rescued, forcing them to emergency dive and abandoning them. The Brits knew what the Americans were doing and that there would be a lot of collateral, and did nothing to either ask them to stop or warn the Germans...
After that Adolf ordered that no survivors were to be picked up.
Also a British commander of a submarine, who retired in the 50s as a Vice Admiral (2nd highest rank in the Navy) and with a Victoria Cross (highest decoration), murdered German sailors in the water on at least two different occasions, and even bragged about it in his log book. He machine gunned them in their life boats.
Plenty of war crimes to go around on both sides, but you only ever hear about what the Germans, Japanese etc. did....
THIS. Especially the part about the Laconia incident. I cannot count the instances I had to explain this to other people, as so little know of the true reason behind the Kriegsmarine‘s „no rescue operations“ order. It wasn’t out of inhumane cruelty on the German‘s side but out of a need to protect their own men from devious attacks by the Americans.
its always the germans, all the warcrimes were commited by germans, nobody talks about US or UK warcrimes
@@Helena-me6mp I once wrote a quora reply about dozens of Allied warcrimes, ranging from murdering people who had either already surrendered and been taken POW or were in the process of surrendering (+ who had given the orders and which units were involved to gang rapes where GIs ie attacked a hospital on a whistle signal.
I was banned soon after for being "offensive".
They always bring up Malmedy (1944), but the Americans had murdered Italian and German PoW already one year earlier at Biscari (1943) and they were murdering Germans and others who tried to surrender or had surrendered during D-Day and after.
And soon after Malmedy they murdered another 80 Waffen SS as "justice" for Malmedy.
Major General Raymond Huyfft ordered his troops to stop taking prisoners once they crossed the Rhine. He later reflected on it saying that if they had lost the war, he would have been on trial in Nuremberg.
Over 1/3rd of American service members of WW2 admitted that they saw war crimes being committed by their own side.
The British also have plenty of dirt on them, ranging from genocide (that was masked with incompetence) in Bengal (they caused a famine that killed millions in 1943) + another one in Iran/Persia in BOTH world wars 2 (another neutral country they attacked for no reason, other than it being useful to overall strategy, which they are so fond of reminding everyone that Germany attacked neutral countries), to gunning down defenceless sailors in life boats etc.
The French were some of the worst. One of the earliest instances was the Massacre of Abeville in 1940, when France was close to collapsing.
Many Belgian right wing politicians (and that doesn't mean they were fascists or nazis, just right of the center) were arrested on order of the social "democrat" government when war broke out, since they "might be unreliable".
They were then handed over to the French intelligence service (2eme Bureau), and many of them were massacred at Abbeville as the Germans closed in. ie Leon Degrelle (a Belgian parliamentarian and leader of the Rexist party, who were Christian/Catholic right wingers) escaped with his life, and he was the one who originally found out that the Belgian Soc-Dems had also drawn up a list of right wing officers in the Belgian military that were to be arrested also and handed over, and went to the Belgian King with this to stop it (knowing he'd still be arrested, even though he had parliamentarian immunity and this was highly illegal and undemocratic).
The French were one of the premier perpetrators when it came to killing PoW especially once the Allies started retaking France.
@@youtubemodsaresnowflakelef7692
"I was banned soon after for being "offensive"."
Thats so ridiculous wtf? But honestly im not surprised, having different opinions or stating facts is often offensive to idiots.
@@Helena-me6mp yeah I even cited all the sources for each individual thing I mentioned. didn#t matter one bit.
The goggles you see a couple of the crew wearing were for crew that might have to go up on deck when they surfaced at night. They wanted to keep these guys in the dark so they could preserve their night-vision so they could work fast while surfaced. If they went outside into the dark after being in the lights of the ship, it would take them many minutes for their eyes to adjust. That's enough time to get you sunk. As a side note, the American crews who wore these goggles found that the red pips (hearts and diamonds) on playing cards would disappear when they wore their goggles. They just couldn't see them. So the U.S. Navy had the company Brown & Bigelow make special playing cards for the sub crews with the diamonds and hearts outlined in black so the crews in their goggles could still play cards while waiting for duty.
Awesome trivia - I love that!
I knew about the goggles but had no idea about the cards. That’s great.
One of the best war films ever! The claustrophobic feeling that the movie gives you is made all the more real by the fact that the film makers actually built the set inside a true scale sized steel tube with no broken wall to film through, so for the actors it was just like being inside a submarine.
Both the actors and the camera crews actually had to run and dive through the submarine airlocks.
Thanks for reviewing this excellent film. One thing I really like about the film is how it captures the fog of war. The crew of U96 aren't sure exactly how many other U boats are around the convoy, where they are or if they're even there. Also, due to the bad weather and storms, they're not even quite sure where they are.
Some historical background: the regular german army wasnt too fond of Hitler, especially the navy. Not all germans were fanatical nazis. Thats why they would put a nazi officer in militairy units to keep an eye on things and make sure Hitlers orders were carried out. Das Boot is an amazing movie and Jurgen Prognov is one of my all time favorite actors. He moved to Hollywood later (Dune and Seventh Sign e.g.)
That's a really difficult question and I am not sure that the answer can be known. Historians say "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there". He is one to show how odd the past is: A particular group of German soldiers were ordered to execute civilians in Poland (I cannot remember whether Jewish or not). At that time one could opt out of participating in the executions. Nobody did. So the assumption was that they enjoyed killing those people. The members of this particular unit could be located after the war and were interviewed. They reported that the executions were horrible, but that they participated out of a sense on responsibility and humanity. The idea was that if one soldier recused himself than the killing would have to be done by the other members of the group. So out of a sense of responsibility and humanity they couldn't burden their friends and comrades with this terrible chore that nobody should have to do.
@@paulfriedrich1686 I don´t know if it is true, but it kind of figures for me. It seems plausible. If you see what the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment revealed, it does make a lot of sense. Lindybeige told in one of his better videos, that most british recipients of the VC had one trait in common: They were responsible elder siblings. Also, germany at that time had been a thoroughly militarised country for some decades, so discipline and a sense of responsibility, to take up any burden, no matter how ugly, and prove yourself by doing what´s asked of you, were generally already very high on the list of social priorities at that time.
Seeing where that got us, this might also explain why germany is not a very disciplined country nowadays. Blindly following orders is generally almost frowned upon. But yeah, that Catch-22 of burdening the soldiers with their responsibility to not let their comrades down, the Nazis played that to perfection to have the Army do what was demanded, and the outcome was truly horrifying. Most german veterans returning from the East wouldn´t talk about the war for decades, if at all. I just watched "Come and See", and it still haunts me, although I tell myself that this is basically what really happened. It´s literally hell on earth.
There is also another haunting post-war movie scene by Vilsmaier, in the movie "Rama dama" ( bavarian for "we are clearing up"), where a soldier is suddenly appearing at home, coming back from the east to his wife who is clearing the rubble of the bombed-out city, and he just isn´t the same man anymore, he just can´t connect to his family, and shows all signs of what we would nowadays call "severe PTSD".
Well, you should at least write his name right, if he is one your favorites, it's Jürgen Prochnow or, if your keyboard doesn't have an ü, it is written Juergen.
@@paulfriedrich1686 Don’t forget that they were all duped into believing that Poland Shot First.
The best submarine movie of all time. Whoever the story is about if it's well done, you feel for them, because you've gotten to know them. For ordinary people that war was just one giant tragedy that took a lot of good lives on both sides.
Dear Both, remember watching this in the early / mid 80s. Is considered to be one of the very best and balanced war stories films ever. The crew and captain quickly become the heroes. I have a friend who served in a senior position in the RN submarine service and says that life on board was very accurate, particularly how the crew deals with boredom - incl flicking boggies at each other and ignoring that fact that boggieds are being flicked - just to playfully annoy each other x Graham W x ps submariners are very special people !
This movie is easily the best war film ever made. It shows the boredom of waiting and stark terror of combat, the incredible camaraderie that this hellish situation generates, and it drags you into this, makes you experience it all with the crew. Then as its from the German perspective there is no glorious heroism, no greater good, these tragic men are fighting for a truly evil and horrifying regime and their courage and sacrifice is ultimately on behalf of a vile ideology. Nothing removes from the stark terrible reality, this is War.
The more realistic the war is portrait the more the movie becomes an anti war movie.
@@bbb462cid Semantics I guess, I see that a film can be a War movie and anti-war. Similarly Kelly's Heroes is a War movie and comedy, although I wouldn't say it glorifies war. Then there are War movies which are also propaganda pieces or action hero films, which would be how I'd define what you'd call War movies. But yes Das Boot either way is an visceral anti-war film with war scenes and combat (actually almost exclusively).
@@bbb462cid Mate there is not a definition of the necessary content of either a war movie or an anti-war movie. I think a film can be both. A war movie does not necessarily glorify war, that is your definition of it, which is fine, but it is not THE definition of it. I can list plenty of films I, personally, consider movies set during war, which primarily focus on the experience of combat and war, but which do not glorify it and are powerfully anti-war. You explained how you see the difference in your mind and definitional structure. I separate and define the genres of film differently, hence semantics, and unless either of us can identify a "well accepted industry definition" to support us (and I cannot) then each opinion can exist distinct from the other. My definition is not the "formal" one, neither is yours, I am unaware that there is a formal definition of what MUST be the content of a war movie that means it CANNOT also be an anti-war movie, or vice versa.
I dare you to watch "Come and See". But beware, it´s a rough ride. Pick a day when you feel stable, and prepare a bedside lamp. THis movie grips you by the guts. I watched it, and it was probably the ugliest, most terrifying time I ever had watching a movie, but I am glad for every minute of it. I see evrything I read about the Eastern Front in a different light now.
@@paavobergmann4920 Yep this movie is horrifying, impactful and generally excellent.
Originally "Das Boot" was shot as a TV-mini-series of six episodes, each lasting about an hour. In the series there is much more focus on the different individuals on the boat and much more focus on the stress and strain our of pure boredom onboard during that war patrol. So the TV version is emotionally even more "gripping" than the 3 1/2 hours cinematic version you guys watched.
Do you have hair in your nose....? 🤔 😝
@@greece6000 if the thing you watched on Netflix had six parts it was the TV series.
Ofc I can only speak for myself but Netflix Germany/Austria had the full series with six episodes available
It's also a little bit dirtier. 😜
Totally! I saw the tv series first. Best ever. Even the longest of movies dont really capture the vibe of that!
wrong, this was a movie from the get go (1981). later a tv series was made (1984). and with time different releases were made (1997 and 2004). and now we have a reboot series (2014).
"Man overboard!" - That was actually a genuine accident during filming, and the guy on watch was so in character that he yelled "Mann über Bord!", so they left it in. The actor was washed from the tower onto the reilings, and actually broke a rib, I think.
There are so few films that execute tension as well as "Das Boot". It is a master class in atmosphere, and the main ingredient in that atmosphere is tension.
One of the high water marks of German cinema post WW2. I remember seeing it as a kid as a 2 night miniseries ( which I believe is the 3 hour cut ). With the exception of the 2 old guys all the actors were virtually unknown and all broke through with this move and to this day ( if still alive ) are still huge tv and movie stars in Germany. The exception would be the actor who plays Werner , he is , and already was at that time , a massively popular singer and has now legendary status in Germany speaking countries.
Most of them are still around. Jan Fedder (Pilgrim) died in 2019. A very well known actor, especially in his home town of Hamburg.
They go deep with underwater bombs, because the deeper you dive, the water pressure weakens the explosions.
I remember seeing this movie in theaters. I was a bit too young for it. It was a shock at the beginning how disorderly the sailors were. This was an eye opener for a kid who had watched John Wayne type war movies before this. Then I saw Gallipoli and that one made me cry.
Yep, Gallipoli is one of the best war films ever made.
The ending of Gallipoli is absolutely devastating. Haven’t seen anything like it before or since.