The Boat

If only one submarine movie were ever made, and it was this one, it would be absolutely enough. Nothing else would need to be addressed, and nothing much else could even be added. This works incredibly well and manages to create exactly what it should - a claustrophobic atmosphere, fear, terrifying moments, but also compelling fates. And the Germans are really good at this, even in terms of acting. The running time doesn't seem excessive at all. Visually, it is fantastic. (26/11/2015)

It’s a good few years since my dad and I, still a little nipper, watched the original cut of Das Boot together. It was on an old, scruffy VHS and we watched on a Tesla tube, maybe four-color TV. I remember to this day how I for some time after I would avoid using the aged, creaky elevator in our block (just in case, you never know, do you?), which gave out almost dangerously similar sounds as the U-boat did under crushing pressure of the mass of water above it. To this day, I carry with me the impressions I got from the first movie I ever saw that told me that war is a bitch that impacts most regular people and that not all Germans are necessarily baddies. Many, many years later I purchased a DVD with a new, almost three and a half hour cut. And for a long time I resisted sinking into the salty waters of the Atlantic. I had a sort of foreboding that this might sully my untainted memory of this movie. And unfortunately I was right. The new version is of course outstanding, but it doesn’t seem nearly as intense as the original. In places it even starts to drag on. But maybe that is because of my nostalgia. But maybe not. Ping.......Ping.....Ping...Ping.Ping.Ping...Ping.....Ping.......Ping Original cut: 5/5, Director’s cut: 4/5, Special edition: ?/5 (01/04/2008)

Das Boot is the pinnacle of the war genre. Taking German cinema by surprise, it made a successful tour around the world and received a warm reception by audiences and critics. The scenes where the submarine tries to avoid depth charges are riveting and I definitely don't recommend them to the claustrophobic. And while the submarine didn't sink, the charismatic Jurgen Prochnow drowned his promising career in B-movie waters, which is a shame. (11/05/2003)

One of the greatest war films of all time and certainly the best submarine film the silver screen has ever seen. Petersen masterfully transfers emotions to the viewer – distress, fear, panic. This is not a glorified Nazi submarine fleet, but a disillusioning view beneath the surface of the war. Both the acting performances and the conclusion of the film, which is miles away from the pathetic finale of many war films, contribute to the suggestiveness... As I've written before: a film like this says a lot more about the horror of war than all of Saving Private Ryan and his dead brothers. (15/02/2004)

This is one of the few films where the overlong runtime is justified. If it hadn't been for the time I spent with the crew of the German submarine, I would hardly have been able to fully empathize with their plight. As time went on, I felt like I was in the bowels of a submarine with them, and I admit that it made me very uncomfortable more than once. I was even more impressed by the last dramatic minutes of the story, which were filled with absolute despair and doom. (80%) (30/08/2021)