Das Boot (The Boat)

History is written by the victors. This phrase, usually attributed to Churchill, is no less true to war movies.  Common sense amongst hollywoodian movies, germans are often shown as selfish, completely insensible, or even clumsy.  This is not a matter of taking sides on past conflicts, but about a movie which is more even tempered with facts,  which characters are capable of fear, anxiety, and, ultimately, apathy with themselves.

Wolfgangs Petersen’s masterpiece portrays a german U-Boat, its crew and its captain, on a usual mission throughout the Atlantic during World War II, at a time when the allied were already using their deadly sonars. Thus, the movie is more about survival then praying, although “wolfpack” naval tactic is more than hinted during it. The director was very successful on creating a true claustrophobic  ambience, using a hand-held Arriflex camera, as the viewer seems to be thrown into the submarine with the rest of the crew. Although shot in the early eighties, Das Boot has very convincing special effects, even if compared with modern computer generated productions. Better still, the best feature is that Das Boot imposes an authenticity right from the first scene, when the captain is being driven to a cabaret at night, prior to sailing the next day. It is as if the actual seriousness of the past events were accurately reproduced. Nothing seems to have been left behind: the binge drinking in anticipation of missions, the brief and uninspiring speech preceding sail, the daily Enigma dispatches, the elusive enemies ships under the periscope, and even the meals, taken on a tight stretch of corridor.

The film relies on the known and often used newbie approach, when someone alien to the process is put on the plot. This allows the spectator to get hold of the story, just as the novice character is being introduced to the métier. In this case the war correspondent Werner is sent to join the crew and report to the Reich about the naval campaign. What begins as an adventure unfolds into a fight against the allied cruisers, and also into psychological endurance of the harsh environment. There is not much dispute amongst egos, but Wolfgang Petersen made sure to include different colors of soldiers, ranging from the ardent nazi to rather practical and even critical officers. 
 

There are no particular lessons of grandeur.  Survival and accomplishment of duty were the only motto at times when life was a zero sum game. Possibly the best war movie ever made, and, surely, the definite war submarine film.