DVDs

Das Boot

Region 1

Region 4

By Richard Moore

During World War II, the 40,000 men of the German submarine packs hunting down transport ships came closer to winning the war for their country than any other arm of the military. By 1941, Britain's lifeline - the convoy routes across the Atlantic from America - were being strangled by the success of the German U-boats in sinking merchant ships.

Millions of tonnes of vital supplies were destroyed and the Battle of the Atlantic was looking bleak for the Allies.

Then, with new sonar and anti-submarine techniques, the struggle turned in the Allies' favour and it was the turn of the U-boat packs to suffer.

And suffer they did. Trapped in their cold, diesel-fume-filled cylinders, the submariners found themselves on the wrong end of technology and, by war's end, had lost 30,000 of the 40,000 who went to sea.

The fear, claustrophobia, carnage and sheer terror of the submarine war has never been more graphically shown than with Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot.

You follow the sailors as they sail, fresh-faced and eager, from La Rochelle, through their savage blooding at the hands of Allied destroyers and into the very gates of Hell as they are depth-charged almost out of existence.

The photography and sound effects in Das Boot are stunning, with each discipline trying to outdo each other as to which succeeds better in conveying the rising tension within the besieged crew.

Detail on the U-boat is remarkable. Petersen boasted that every single screw in the submarine was accurate. The set itself was created high up on a platform so that it could be dropped at 45 degrees and shaken around to represent the force of exploding depth charges and huge waves.

It is easy to see why Das Boot is the highest-grossing German language movie of all time and it is a stunning portrayal of men at war.

Conclusion:

Movie: 90%

DVD Extras: 50%