3 hours in a metal pipe (Das Boot (Directors Cut) (DVD))

Member Name: HelenHancox

Product:	Das Boot (Directors Cut) (DVD)
Date:	05/07/02 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: acting, atmosphere, tension

Disadvantages: very long, very dark, very wet!

I think Das Boot is one of the best films made.

I'll state that at the beginning in the hope of getting my gushiness out of the way!

I first saw Das Boot only a couple of years ago on Channel 4 for a week around Christmas time. We were on holiday in Wales for a peaceful break and somehow started watching this at about 6pm in the evening. We were gripped! Transported immediately from a nice Welsh cottage with a roaring fire into a cold, smelly, dark metal pipe where each moment might be your last. The tension was incredible - even when it finished after half an hour and you had to wait till the next day for the next instalment.

As soon as I saw it was available on DVD I snapped it up - and have not been disappointed. It is now over three hours long with the Director's Cut inserts (although that's done seamlessly - I'm not sure what's extra and what's not) and the sound quality is fantastic. I'm a German speaker and originally watched it with subtitles (to help me along!) but the English language version is, I believed, dubbed by the same actors - their voices sound the same anyway.

I am interested in WW2 and this film is one of the few that I have seen from the German point of view, and I found it very helpful to understand their hopes and fears, what they felt etc. I can also recommend the book by Lothar Gunter Buchheim.

With regard to the acting - I thought it was excellent. Particularly the "old man", the commander of the sub - he spoke very little but was able to express so much just through his facial expressions. Also one of the characters goes mad, and he was excellent - how the actor managed the eye-popping stare I don't know! Overall I felt the cast were excellent, because you really believed they were submariners - they weren't actors.

If you're claustrophobic, perhaps this isn't the best film for you though!

Summary: