Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 30-October-05
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Das Boot (1997 Director's Cut)

I have to say up front that it's weird to watch a movie that makes you root for Hitler's sailors as "Das Boot" does. I don't know if this was an issue when it was first released to the States in 1981, but judging by the fact that it garnered multiple Oscar nominations and elevated Wolfgang Petersen to Hollywood prominence, I'm guessing American audiences dealt with it. As they should have, because this is a whale of a yarn.

The crux of "Das Boot" is neither political nor historical; it's mostly about human strength. Of the few dozen men aboard "The Boat" (a German submarine launched 1941), only one is emphatically a Nazi (and gets razzed for it) while the others simply have a job to do by virtue of fate or long-standing vocation. The opening scene reveals that most of the crew are young men in search of adventure, with the notable exception of the captain (the splendid Jürgen Prochnow) and his chief engineer (Klauss Wennemann). These sea dogs know that war isn't all glory and combat isn't all excitement. After a while everyone else comes to learn this, too.

The story unfolds through the eyes of a correspondent appointed by the German navy to record the deeds of its U-boat heroes (Herbert Grönemeyer). One of the first things he discovers is that life aboard a submarine is uncomfortable, smelly, and tedious. The 1997 director's cut devotes over an hour to capturing this life in painstaking detail, and, surprisingly, it's quite interesting. Stalking British convoys in the Atlantic apparently involved a lot of time sleeping, eating, getting on shipmates' nerves, and feeling horny and homesick, and the only relief from this routine was the prospect of imminent death.

The men see some action after a few weeks, which rattles them enough to get serious, and then (two and half hours into the film) they arrive at their ultimate challenge. Ordered by high command to attempt the impossible task of slipping through the Straits of Gibraltar unnoticed, they sustain severe damage from Allied bombs and sink to the bottom of the ocean. There, with oxygen diminishing and the boat threatening to burst at the seams, they battle their fears and test the limits of their endurance while working for one chance at escape.

It would be impossible not to root for so doughty a crew and so stalwart a captain at this juncture, and in fact the film contrasts their bravery with war's waste of such excellence at the end. What the correspondent learns most of all is that real heroism is persevering when everything is working against you, including panic, enemies, and the fact of war itself. The director's cut of "Das Boot" takes its time leading to this realization, but it's a rewarding experience which captures the texture of certain circumstances and pays homage to the spirit they convey.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.