MovieChat Forums > Das Boot (1982) Discussion > Overblown and overrated

Overblown and overrated

posted 11 years ago by piotr2009
62 replies | jump to latest

This "subsploitation" movie (or "submarine exploitation" as a war movie sub-genre) has aged badly. It's way too long, to start with.

Second, there have been many better renditions of submarines either at a time that was closer to the war (1940s, 1950s and 1960s movies) or more recent movies.

Why does all the crew look dirty from the start? The Navies, all over the world, have strict codes. Scraggly beards and long hair, tolerated in the German navy? I don't think so. Facial hair is tolerated in the Navy all over the world, sometimes only for officers, under the condition that it's kept clean and trimmed. Hair is still supposed to be short, even more so in Nazi Germany. Lack of hygiene and cleanliness, especially under tough circumstances, was considered as lack of discipline.

The film suffers from the start from the fact that it's hard to side for 1940s German U-boats (whose job it was to sink anything, including civilian vessels, in the Channel) and feel sympathetic to them (how do you think you got advancement and were given the rank to command a ship under the third Reich?)... Starting from that, the movie should really try to make us like the characters, but it really fails.
I don't understand the high ratings at all. There are a lot of other movies, including depicting the "enemy side" that are better and more gripping.

[–] violentauntie 10 years ago

Quite simply a case of pearls before swine methinks, and so I'll be going with Sailors option B please.

[–] the-fearless-america 10 years ago

who the hell care for their hygiene, facial hair, or lack of discipline ? or the other things related to the real fact. why we must care for the crew that feel sympathetic ? you must be joking. then you call these reasons to conclude this movie overrated ? damn smart.

besides from meaningless opinion you said. this movie was excellent also greatly made. you see how the direction and the tension that made. you see how good the sound mixing, cinematography, and editing ? or maybe you cant differ which one greatly made or not ?

 maybe i think you only care about their cleanliness, lack discipline, or other *beep* stuff that not related to categories that made a movie become a beautiful art.

[–] fudbot-137-204912 10 years ago

I don't think WW II era submarines had the luxury to carry enough water for petty personal hygiene like shaving. I would say it was used for drinking and cooking.

[–] seanhimdb 10 years ago

Rented this expecting a gritty tale of an abusive Irish childhood like Angela's Ashes. Full of character actors and dark Irish humour. Surprisingly, it was all about Germans in a submarine. How come they called it "Da's Boot"?

[–] dbudelsky 9 years ago

Only to comment on:

Scraggly beards and long hair, tolerated in the German navy? I don't think so. Facial hair is tolerated in the Navy all over the world, sometimes only for officers, under the condition that it's kept clean and trimmed. Hair is still supposed to be short, even more so in Nazi Germany. Lack of hygiene and cleanliness, especially under tough circumstances, was considered as lack of discipline.

Here some war time photos of Heinrich Lehmann Willenbrock (The real Alte):
https://dokuwiki.noctrl.edu/doku.php?id=ger:350:2011:winter:wichtige_figuren_des_filmes_das_boot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Lehmann-Willenbrock
http://i50.tinypic.com/mrtfuc.jpg
And these kind of images were not suppressed back then, just the opposite: The bearded men were shown as hard time fighters making the U-Boot Korps an elite formation which ever got enough volunteers regardless of the highest loss rate of all German forces. Several things can easily be verified now in the internet. The pictures were not hard to find.

Best regards

Dietmar

[–] cooler56 9 years ago

I agree. This film has not aged well. This film does offer a historical perspective, but people who say that this is their "favorite" film are probably very dull people.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] SSteveL 9 years ago

The film suffers from the start from the fact that it's hard to side for 1940s German U-boats (whose job it was to sink anything, including civilian vessels, in the Channel) and feel sympathetic to them

Similarly, the Royal Navy continued to blockade Germany after the cessation of hostilities in 1918, causing mass starvation.

It's also hard to side with bomber crews--of any side--when they targeted cities and civilians.

But your point doesn't devalue the film; if anything, it make it more interesting. It shows that average people will commit evil under the "right" circumstances (cf. the Milgram experiments).

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[–] Jason-Y 9 years ago

That's an interesting comment about beards and uncleanliness, considering the current late western 2010s trend in beards. At my American campus, it seems 2 out of 3 guys have a beard, some even long.