|
Review: 'Das Boot' even more grueling,
but worth it, in re-issueApril 18, 1997
Web posted at: 10:35 p.m. EDT (0235 GMT)From Reviewer Paul Tatara
(CNN) -- Ah, sweet revenge. Back in 1981 I was driving myself and six of my friends (in Dad's big ol' station wagon) from our hometown of Arab, Alabama, to nearby Huntsville. The goal was to see a movie, and I passionately cast my vote for the critically lauded German submarine adventure "Das Boot." Several of my buddies, hillbilly philistines that they were, vetoed me and we ended up seeing that classic study of the human condition, "Young Doctors in Love."
Which makes the current re-issue of Wolfgang Peterson's "Das Boot," easily the greatest submarine-based war movie ever made, a two-fold event for yours truly. Not only do I finally get to see this masterful film the way it should be seen, on a big screen, with big sound, but I also get to tell the world to hop in a big ol' station wagon and go see it immediately.
(1.3MB/29 sec. Small QuickTime movie)
"Das Boot" isn't your usual World War II adventure, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, this is not about glory, and the heroism is hardly trumpeted. "Das Boot" is about survival, plain and simple, about men who literally have the world pressing down on top of them, and how they bear up under the constant emotional strain that draws them as taut as piano wire. The movie is packed from beginning to end with the kind of desperate, horrified courage people show when they have absolutely nowhere to run to for cover.
That, of course, is probably the truest definition of courage, wartime or otherwise. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, anti-war art makes about as much sense as anti-glacier art. You're not exactly going to stop wars by making movies or writing books about them. You can, however, portray the basic illogic of war in the hopes that the misguided among us will at least stop glamorizing it. I would imagine that Vonnegut loves "Das Boot." Seldom before has the sweat, strain, and sudden, blinding fear of warfare been so vividly realized on the screen.
Wolfgang Peterson has gone on to make several more movies (including the Clint Eastwood hit "In the Line of Fire"), but this one serves as the real testament to his talent. The best moments in this film have a laser-like focus, an unflinching desire to stare terror directly in the eyes. At three and a half hours (an extra hour was added for this re-issue), the movie can occasionally be grueling in ways that are not intentional, but for those who are willing to take the plunge, it's well worth the time and effort.
Jurgen Prochnow plays the charismatic, never-named Captain, a stone-faced survivor who, as the war drags on, has seen it all. We can, however, detect in his tired eyes the horrible knowledge that in this line of work you can never really see it all, that the next moment could be an unassailable affront to your very existence. One minute you're alive, the next minute you're dead. Peterson expertly applies an old Roman Polanski device throughout the film -- after 20 minutes or so of lulling the audience into complacency, he suddenly, and unexpectedly, turns the tables and scares the holy hell out of them.
After days of drifting through the turbulent Atlantic, the sudden bursts of frenzied activity when the sub stumbles upon British ships is like an electrical charge. Peterson's adrenaline-pumped portrayal of the simultaneous horror and excitement of war makes other films of this ilk seem like child's play. Steven Spielberg once said that the pursuit of the seldom-seen shark in "Jaws" transformed that film's "horror" story into a Hitchcockian thriller. The same can be said of "Das Boot's" German U-boat/British destroyer deadly games of cat-and-mouse.
The most harrowing sequence (out of several nail-biters) is when the submarine is being attacked with depth charges and is forced to dive far deeper than logic would suggest taking an aging, war-torn heap of metal and bolts. As the water pressure becomes unbearable, the metal starts to give, and the sub begins groaning and screaming from the weight. Suddenly, those aging bolts are being blasted through the cramped interior like close-range pistol shots. The opening scene of the film shows the gung-ho, first-time crew at a party the night before they leave port. Considering what they go through during their journey, it's no surprise to see these same sailors being ground into quivering wrecks after just a few months at sea.
The enclosed setting (very little of the film takes place outside of the sub) is milked by Peterson and his ingenious cinematographer, Jost Vacano, for all it's worth. There is another interesting Spielberg parallel in the camera work. Due to the shape of the submarine, Peterson is forced to utilize the depth of the frame (as opposed to its edges) in ways that are practically a Spielberg signature. The camera is forever bolting through hatches, chasing down the crew members as the rattling ship tosses them about. Men are forever jumping aside or being pushed against walls as the sailors flee for their battle stations. Possible viewers who tend towards claustrophobia need not apply.
At the beginning of the film, there is a written prologue stating that, out of the 40,000 men who served on the U-boats, only 10,000 made it back alive. Peterson is careful from the onset to display the Captain's weary lack of allegiance to the Reich's animalistic politics, and this may be something of a cheat. An apolitical war movie is bound to be problematic, but this opens the film up as a tale of self-preservation, which, especially during wartime, is universal indeed.
Related site:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
- Das Boot Sony Pictures
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
Tell us what you think!
You said it...
© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.