Das Boot

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Das Boot (pronounced [das boːt], German for The Boat / The Submarine) is a 1981 feature film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, adapted from a novel of the same name by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as a consultant, as did Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96.

The movie has a strong anti-war message. One of Petersen's stated goals was to guide the audience through "a journey to the end of reason" (the film's German tagline), showing "what war is all about." Petersen heightened suspense by very rarely showing any external views of the submarine unless it is running on the surface and relying on sounds to convey action outside the boat, thus showing the audience only the claustrophobic interior the crew would see. The original 1981 version cost DM 32 million^[1] (USD$21.9 million in 2007 dollars) to make; it was at the time the most expensive film in the history of German cinema. The director's meticulous attention to detail resulted in an extremely realistic and historically accurate movie.

[edit] Story

The movie is the story of a single mission of one World War II U-boat, U-96, and its crew. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country. The story is based on an amalgamation of the exploits of the real U-96, a Type VIIC-class U-boat commanded by Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, one of Germany's top U-boat "tonnage aces" during the war.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer), who has been assigned as a war correspondent on the German Submarine U-96. He joins its Captain (Jürgen Prochnow), who is only named as der Alte ("the Old Man") or Kaleu (short for his rank of Kapitänleutnant) and they drive to La Rochelle, France. Their car is intercepted by drunken sailors who urinate on the automobile: in fact, it was the U-96 crew, "christening" the officers with a "fireboat drill."

We then see most of the U-96 officers, including the "2WO" (the Second Lieutenant, played by Martin Semmelrogge) drinking in a cabaret, which seems to be an Officer's Club. Kapitänleutnant Phillip Thomsen (played by Otto Sander), celebrating his Ritterkreuz award, gives a crude drunken speech in which he mocks Adolf Hitler, much to the anger of some onlookers (he quickly shifts to mocking Winston Churchill instead). Werner meets the "1WO" (the First Lieutenant, played by Hubertus Bengsch), an ardent Nazi, and the "LI", the quiet Chief Engineer (Klaus Wennemann), who is tormented by the failing health of his wife back in Cologne. The night gets extremely chaotic, as all the officers are now drunk, and Werner retreats to the restroom. Meanwhile, Cadet Ullman has a tearful goodbye with his French fiancée Françoise, who is pregnant.

The next morning, the Captain, the LI, and Werner board the U-96 in the massive submarine pen. As they sail out of the harbor to cheering crowds and a band playing "Muss I Denn", Thomsen (now sober) sends them off by saying "Hail and victory and sink 'em all!" When the U-96 reaches the open sea, Werner is in awe and takes a lot of photos of the submarine and its crew. During this early time of the cruise, the Captain suggests it would be better to take photos of the crew upon their return to port, when the crew will have full beards, so as not to shame the British by showing how young U-boat crews really are. Werner gets to know the rest of the crew, and bunks in Petty Officer country. He marvels when the submarine makes its first dive to 160 metres (525 feet) and survives an attack by a British fighter. But time passes, and he begins to realize the routine of being crammed together with forty people in a small space. There is an unhealthy undercurrent of sweat, filth and boredom, fueled by the fact that there is no combat most of the time. Werner has no one to talk to either. He cannot relate to the battle-hardened Captain, the quiet LI, the Nazi 1WO, the cynical 2WO or the tough crew; Werner is able to make friends with Ullman, and sympathizes with his problem (as the French partisans might kill Françoise if it is revealed her child is half-German). To pass the time, the crew loudly sings "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", much to the chagrin of the 1WO.

The cruise is decidedly boring as the U-96 fails to make contact with the enemy. Eventually, they receive contact that U-32 has sighted a convoy only ten hours away. They arrive at the location, but a thick fog blocks their view and they receive no further contact from the other boat's commander (Berthold) or headquarters. They dive to check the hydrophones, hearing what appears to be a depth charge attack. U-96 surfaces to investigate. But then the U-96 sees a British destroyer, much to their dismay, and they dive again. The Captain calmly tracks the enemy vessel, but their periscope is spotted, and they barely escape being rammed. The U-96 dives, but is found by the destroyer's ASDIC, hit by depth charges, and takes damage—most notably water leaks. The crew quickly patches them up and resurfaces safely.

A huge storm hits and towering waves slam into the submarine, sending it reeling. A crewman is almost washed overboard and is badly injured. Werner nearly goes insane while helping with watch duty. After a week of the relentless storm, with little rest or sleep, even the sea-hardened crew is pushed to the limit. Suddenly, the U-96 sees a friendly German submarine: Thomsen's boat! Though initially overjoyed to see his comrade, the Captain becomes irate, because two submarines in such close proximity means that a huge part of the sea is unpatrolled. Additionally, the waves are hitting the boat so hard that they are unable to move while surfaced. The misfortune of the U-96 — no kills, totally out of position, horrible weather, a crabs outbreak, and learning that Schalke lost at the quarter-finals — sends the crew's morale to a nadir.

After 23 days, the storm finally ends. The U-96 encounters a British convoy and, with support from several U-boats in the area, launches torpedoes at the convoy before a destroyer sights them and they are forced to dive. Underwater, the crew listens as their torpedo attack sinks two ships out of three torpedoes launched. Two escorts attack the submarine and use their ASDIC systems to pin her down. They are forced to dive deep to escape their pursuers, causing bolts in the pressure hull to fail and shoot off in the manner of bullets at around 240 to 250 metres.

Johann, the mechanic, has a mental breakdown and has to be restrained when he attempts to escape the U-Boat. Despite heavy damage, in which the submarine nearly implodes, and after six hours at silent running, the crew escapes and manages to resurface safely in darkness. They see one lone tanker, burning brightly on the horizon. The Captain decides to give a "coup de grâce" and fires a torpedo into her. The crew are stunned when they see burning British sailors jumping from the tanker they thought empty. They notice that the surviving merchant marine sailors are swimming desperately towards them. Following standing orders not to take prisoners (see Laconia incident for details on this policy) the Captain gives the command to abandon the doomed sailors and backs the ship away. The events are registered on the boat's log books. Johann apologizes to the Captain for his actions, and is forgiven in consideration of his several tours of duty. Despite a radio message about another convoy contact from Kupsch and Stackmann, U-96 is low on diesel fuel and has to return home immediately.

The worn-out U-boat crew look forward to returning home to La Rochelle in time for Christmas, but the High Command has other ideas. The boat receives secret orders that they make their way to La Spezia, Italy, meaning the U-96 must pass through the bottleneck at the Straits of Gibraltar - a zone crawling with British patrol ships which is almost certain death for a U-boat crew. U-96 has been assigned to help secure General Rommel's supply routes, as his force is losing in Northern Africa.

Before going to Gibraltar, U-96 makes a secret night rendezvous in neutral Vigo, Spain with the Weser an interned German liner that clandestinely resupplies U-boats with fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies. The officer meeting takes place under an eerie atmosphere. After months in the filthy, cramped submarine, living on canned food and moldy bread, they walk into a luxurious suite fit to serve royalty. The U-96 officers meet pampered, decadent Nazi officers who believe German propaganda about the glorious life of the "grey wolves." Ironically, the 1WO (the only officer to wear his proper uniform for most of the film) is briefly mistaken for the Captain when they are introduced. The following sumptuous meal has many features of a Henkersmahlzeit, the final meal before an execution.

The captain desires Lt. Werner and the LI leave the submarine to spare their lives, but this request is overruled by the High Command. The captain's plan is to approach the seven mile (11.2 km) wide Straits at nighttime, take advantage of the surface current, float silently with engines off, and only submerge at the latest possible moment. Near Gibraltar, the U-96 silently slips past patrol boats; however, as they prepare to dive, the boat is spotted and attacked by a British fighter plane, with the Navigator receiving serious wounds and the deck cannon is destroyed. All crewmembers don their rescue gear and prepare to abandon ship. The captain sends the boat south, towards the African coast, at full speed; however she is forced to dive, and with steering and engines heavily damaged, starts to sink to her doom.

Rivets and bolts start to go off like gunfire once again, the hull groans as the pressure builds and the crew seems doomed. Just before the hull collapses while sinking to greater depts, the submarine is lucky to catch on a shelf, "a shovel of sand from God" says the Captain. The U-96 is 280 metres (918.7 feet) deep and numerous hull breaches occur. Seawater floods in through damaged pipes, and major damage has to be repaired before they can even try to resurface. With the carbon dioxide level increasing, the crew barely manages to fix the many problems before they would all pass out and die. They are just able to surface, and the U-96 returns under cover of night to its home base in La Rochelle.

Their return to La Rochelle on Christmas Eve is a little less triumphant than their sailing. They now resemble pale old men on a battered boat rather than eager young sailors on the flagship of the 3rd Submarine Flotilla. The port looks a little worse for wear as well. The wounded navigator is taken ashore to a waiting ambulance. But as soon as the fleet commander comes aboard for an inspection, British planes bomb and strafe the facilities. Several crew members are killed along the docks, among them Johann, Ullmann, and the 2WO. Werner, the enlisted sailors, the 1WO, the Chief Bosun, and the LI take refuge in the secure U-boat bunker, though most of the men are wounded. After the raid, Werner is horrified when he sees the dead crewmen and finds the Captain bleeding from the mouth, watching U-96 sink at the dock. When the captain collapses after the conning tower disappears, Werner rushes to his side. The final scene of the captain collapsing gives the impression that he dies from injuries, which was the director's intention. However, the real captain actually survived and visited the submarine set and met with Jürgen Prochnow during filming.

[edit] Reception

The movie drew high critical acclaim and is seen as one of the greatest of all German films, along with Nosferatu by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Metropolis by Fritz Lang and Der blaue Engel with Marlene Dietrich. It is regarded as significant among the subgenre of submarine movies.

[edit] Criticism

In the movie, there is only one ardent Nazi in the crew of 40, namely the First Watch Officer (referred to comically in one scene as Unser Hitlerjugendführer or "Our Hitler Youth Leader"), with the rest of the Officers either indifferent or openly anti-Nazi (the Captain). The enlisted sailors and NCO are portrayed as apolitical. In his book "Iron Coffins", former U-boat commander Herbert A. Werner states that this selection amongst naval personnel loyal to the party, only occurred later in the war, when the U-boats were suffering high casualties. At this stage in the war, morale was declining and this degree of skepticism may or may not have occurred. (In support of Das Boot on this subject, noted U-Boat historian Michael Gannon maintains that the U-boat navy was one of the least politically Nazi divisions of all German armed forces.)

Even though the beginning and the end of the movie occur in the port of La Rochelle, it does not correspond historically. The submarine base in La Rochelle was not functional before November 1941, and at the time of the movie the port was dried up.^[2] Moreover, none of the British fighter-bombers of late 1941 - early 1942 had the range to bomb La Rochelle. While Lorient was the base used in the novel, the film was changed to La Rochelle because its appearance had not changed to such a large degree.

Buchheim himself was a U-boat correspondent. He has stated that the following film scenes are unrealistic:

• In the film, an unidentified member of the crew throws an oil-stained towel into Lt. Werner's face. As a Lieutenant, Werner would have commanded special respect and in reality, the culprit would have been court-martialed and received a hefty sentence.
• After surviving a bombing, the crew celebrate loudly in their bunks, even with a sailor dressing up as a woman in a red-lit room.
• The crew behaves far too loudly during patrols; the celebrations after getting a torpedo hit were described as unprofessional. Still, this is highly plausible, as many crews did celebrate such occurrences.

[edit] Criticism by novel author Buchheim

Even though overwhelmed by the literally perfect technological accuracy of the film's set-design and port construction buildings, novel author Lothar-Günter Buchheim expressed great disappointment with Petersen's adaptation in a film review^[3] published in 1981, especially with Petersen's aesthetic vision for the film and the way the plot and the effects are, according to him, overdone and clichéd by the adaption, as well as the hysterical over-acting of the cast he called highly unrealistic while acknowledging the cast's acting talent in general. Buchheim, after several attempts for an American adaptation had failed, had provided a script detailing his own narrative, cinematographical and photographical ideas as soon as Petersen was chosen as new director that would have amounted in full to a complete 6-hour epic, however Petersen turned him down because at the time the producers were aiming for a 90-minute feature for international release. Ironically, today's Director's Cut of Das Boot amounts to over 200 minutes, and the complete TV version of the film to roughly 5 hours long.

Buchheim attacked specifically what he called Petersen's sacrificing of both realism and suspense in dialogue, narration and photography just for the sake of cheap dramatic thrills and action effects (for example, in reality one single exploding bolt of the boat's pressure hull would have been enough for the whole crew to worry about the U-boat very likely being crushed by water pressure, while Petersen has several bolts loosening in various scenes).

Uttering deep concerns about the end result, Buchheim felt that unlike his clearly anti-war novel the adaptation was "another re-glorification and re-mystification"^[3] of German WWII U-boat war, German heroism and nationalism, and he called the film a cross between a "cheap, shallow American action flick"^[3] and a "contemporary German propaganda newsreel from World-War II".^[3]

[edit] German regional accents

The movie features characters who speak German with a regional dialect. Johann speaks with a strong accent from Austria (as does the sailor who receives a pubic lice inspection), Pilgrim talks with the dialect of Hamburg, and Schwalle with the one found in Berlin. Director Wolfgang Petersen states in his DVD audio commentary that young men from throughout Germany and Austria were recruited for the film. He wanted faces and accents that would accurately reflect the diversity of the Third Reich circa 1941.

[edit] Music

The characteristic lead melody of the soundtrack, written by composer Klaus Doldinger, took on a life of its own after German rave producer Alex Christensen created a remixed techno-version under the title U96 in 1991. The song Das Boot later became an international hit.

Two very prominent songs of the film were not included in the official soundtrack: "J'attendrai" sung by Rina Ketty and "It's a long way to Tipperary" performed by the Red Army Chorus.

[edit] Versions

Several versions of the film and video releases have been made: The first version to be released was the theatrical 150-minute (2½-hour) cut, released to theatres in Germany in 1981, and in the United States in 1982. It was nominated for six Academy Awards (Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Writing).

The movie was partly financed by the WDR and the SDR, and much more footage had been shot for the film than was shown in the theatrical version. In 1985, a TV miniseries of Das Boot was shown on German and Austrian television. Aired in three parts, it had a runtime of almost five hours.

Petersen then oversaw the editing of six hours of film, from which was distilled Das Boot: The Director's Cut, 209 minutes long (3 hours, 29 minutes), released in 1997, which combines the action sequences seen in the feature-length version with character-development scenes contained in the mini-series.

The uncut miniseries version, running 293 minutes (4 hours, 53 minutes), was finally released to DVD on June 1, 2004, as Das Boot: The Original Uncut Version. In addition to the "Director's Cut" DVD, a Superbit version, with fewer additional DVD features but a higher bit-rate (superior quality), has been released by Columbia Pictures.

[edit] Dubbings and subtitles

• In the U.S. DVD there are no German subtitles. English-speaking students of German wishing to read the German while listening in German will need to obtain an appropriate European region code DVD, such as the French version "le bateau", which also includes American English subtitles and soundtracks.
• Cabaret scene: In the U.S. DVD there is a minor background comment during the drunk hero captain's speech ("He'd better watch his mouth!") that is not subtitled in English with the German sound track but which is heard in the English dubbing.
• All of the main actors speak fluent English as well as German; when the film was dubbed into English, each actor recorded his own part. The German version is actually dubbed as well; the film itself was shot "silent", since in any case the dialogue spoken on-set would have been drowned out by the gyroscopes in the special camera developed for filming.
• In the U.S. release of the Director’s Cut, there are some notable differences in the translation of lines between the English audio dubbing and the on-screen English subtitles. For example, when the Chief/LI is doing a crossword puzzle, the subtitles show him asking for help in determining a four-letter word that means “innermost affection”, the answer to which is “love”. However, the audio dubbing of the same line has him asking for help in determining a word that means “a desert animal with two humps”, the answer to which is “camel”.

[edit] Special effects

[edit] Sets and models

Several different sets were used. Two full-size mock-ups of a Type VIIC boat were built, one representing the portion above water for use in outdoor scenes, and the other a cylindrical tube on a motion mount for the interior scenes. The mock-ups were built according to U-boat plans from Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

The outdoor mock-up was basically a shell propelled with a small engine, and stationed in La Rochelle, France and has a history of its own. One morning the production crew walked out to where they kept it afloat and found it missing. Someone had forgotten to inform the crew that an American filmmaker had rented the mock-up for his own movie shooting in the area. This filmmaker was Steven Spielberg and the movie he was shooting was Raiders of the Lost Ark. A few weeks later, during production, the mock-up cracked in a storm and sank, was recovered and patched to stand in for the final scenes. Contrary to what some may believe, the full-sized mock-up was used during the Gibraltar surface scenes; the fighter plane and rockets were real while the British ships were models.

A mock-up of a conning tower was placed in a water tank at the Bavaria Studios in Munich for outdoor scenes not requiring a full view of the boat's exterior. When filming on the outdoor mockup or the conning tower, jets of cold water were hosed over the actors to simulate the breaking ocean waves. During the filming there is a scene where actor Jan Fedder (Pilgrim) falls off the bridge while the U-boat is surfaced and lands in the front and breaks several ribs. This scene was not scripted and during the take one of the actors exclaims "Man Overboard" in order to draw attention to Fedder. Petersen, who at first did not realise this was an accident said "Good idea, Jan. We'll do that one more time!". However since Fedder was genuinely injured and had to be hospitalised this was the only take available and eventually Petersen kept this scene in the film. In this scene the pained expression on Fedder's face is authentic and not acted. Petersen also had to rewrite Fedder's character for the remainder of the film so that the character was portrayed as bedridden. For his scenes later in the movie Fedder had to be brought to and from set from the hospital since he suffered a concussion while filming his accident scene. A ⅓ sized full hull operating model was used for underwater shots and some surface running shots, in particular the meeting in stormy seas with another U-boat. The tank was also used for the shots of British sailors jumping from their ship; a small portion of the tanker hull was constructed for these shots.

The interior U-boat mock-up was mounted five metres off the floor and was shaken, rocked, and tilted up to 45 degrees by means of a hydraulic apparatus, and was vigorously shaken to simulate depth charge attacks. Petersen was admittedly obsessive about the structural detail of the U-boat set, remarking that "every screw" in the set was an authentic facsimile of the kind used in a World War II U-boat. In this he was considerably assisted by the numerous photographs Lothar-Günther Buchheim took during his own voyage on the historical U-96, some of which had been published in his 1976 book, U-Boot-Krieg ("U-Boat War").

[edit] Special camera

Most of the interior shots were filmed using a hand-held Arriflex of cinematographer Jost Vacano's design to convey the claustrophobic atmosphere of the boat. It had two gyroscopes to provide stability, a reinvention of the Steadicam on a smaller scale, so that it could be carried throughout the interior of the mock-up. Vacano wore full-body padding to minimise injury as he ran and the mock-up was rocked and shaken. The gyroscopes used to stabilize his rig were very noisy, and the entire film had to be dubbed as the location sound was unusable.

Throughout the filming, the actors were forbidden to go out into the sunlight, to create the pallor of men who seldom saw the sun during their missions. The actors went through intensive training to learn how to move quickly through the narrow confines of the vessel.

[edit] Production

Production of Das Boot took two years (1979–1981). Most of the filming was done in one year; to make the appearance of the actors as realistic as possible, scenes were filmed in sequence over the course of the year. This ensured natural growth of beards and hair, increasing skin pallor, and signs of strain on the actors, who had, just like real U-boat men, spent many months in a cramped, unhealthy atmosphere.

Production for this movie originally began in 1976. Several American directors were considered, and the Kaleu (Kapitänleutnant) was to be played by Robert Redford. Disagreements sprang up among various parties and the project was shelved. Another Hollywood production was attempted with other American directors in mind, this time with the Kaleu to be portrayed by Paul Newman. This effort primarily failed due to technical concerns, for example, how to film the close encounter of the two German submarines at sea during a storm.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Das Boot as a career boost

Several of those involved with "Das Boot" went on to even greater success:

• Wolfgang Petersen established himself as a long-standing fixture as a Hollywood director and producer.
• Jürgen Prochnow became one of the few German actors to establish themselves in Hollywood.
• Herbert Grönemeyer became one of the most popular German singers.
• Klaus Wennemann became lead in a successful German detective series, Der Fahnder (the Investigator).
• Heinz Hoenig became one of the most sought-after character faces in German movies.
• Jan Fedder became lead in a successful light-hearted German police series, "Großstadtrevier".
• Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ralf Richter, Claude-Olivier Rudolph and Martin Semmelrogge had successful German movie careers, too.
• Hubertus Bengsch became one of the most successful dubbing artists, providing amongst others the German voice of Richard Gere.

[edit] Exhibition

In the autumn of 2007, there was a well-visited exhibition about the film "Das Boot", as well as about the real U-Boat U96, at the Haus der Geschichte (House of German History) in Bonn. About 3,000 people visited the exhibition during its four-month run.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
• Aces of the Deep
• Submarine films
• All Quiet on the Western Front {Anti-War Film}
• Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945)

[edit] External links

• http://www.dasboot.com (Movie Web site)
• Das Boot at the Internet Movie Database
• Das Boot review by Roger Ebert

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