Rent Das Boot (1981)

Pressure, Depth, Repeat - Das Boot review by griggs

On rewatch, it’s even more suffocating. I remembered the tension, the torpedoes, the rattle of depth charges—but I’d forgotten the stink, the boredom, the hours of sweat-soaked monotony. It’s a war film stripped of heroics, where courage looks more like endurance and fear is just part of the job.

What struck me this time was how lived-in it feels. The crew’s banter, the cramped routines, the way they joke one minute and brace for death the next—it all feels grimly authentic. The claustrophobia is relentless, but so is the humanity. Petersen isn’t out to glorify anything; he just drops you in the tin can and shuts the hatch.

I used to think it was about survival. Now it feels more like a slow, rust-covered descent into absurdity. The sea doesn’t care who’s right. And by the time you surface, if you do, you’re not sure what home even means anymore.

On the Original Cut. - Das Boot review by Steve

In 1981, West Germany was known for arthouse directors like Herzog, Wenders, Fassbinder et al. This is different, a combat film set in WWII which was a success in global multiplexes. But which is relatively mute on Nazi politics. It takes a while to adjust to how empathetic this is to the German U-boat crew.

When they celebrate a hit, it is on allied ships. This is 1941 with the Kriegsmarine intent on sinking cargo in the Atlantic, to starve the UK to defeat. But events also illustrate why morale is so low in the German navy; whether the deluded commanders back in Berlin, or the usual grumbles about food and leave....

And most emphatically, the hardship of serving in a submarine crew, which we witness with astonishing realism via the excellent models and sound/visual effects. There are well staged action scenes, but much of the time we watch scared, homesick young men living in malodorous squalor and extreme danger.

There's isn't much of an overview, except an impression of the war going to hell. It's too long with hardly any plot, and aside from Jürgen Prochnow as the skipper, the cast doesn't give the crew much individuality. It's about experiencing the horror. This is widely reviewed as the best submarine war film ever made.