Movies and Films
This is the forum for Movie and Film discussions. Again, our topic is naval warfare in WWII for the most part.
Re: The appeal of Das Boot
Posted by:
cate
()
Date: August 28, 2002 09:05PM
<HTML>Keith, where does one start?
Why is it such a good movie? Well, for one thing it was pretty faithfully adapted from such a brilliant novel. For another, the director Petersen had a clear vision and real feel for his material, and wasn't hassled into turning it into box-office pap by greedy studio execs. The cinematography is excellent, and for their time the special effects stunning. As far as possible they aimed at an authenticity and attention to detail hardly seen before in war movies. Yes, they got a few things wrong, and it's fun teasing those out, but they did way better than most films.
Also, they didn't try and sell it on big name stars. Petersen assembled a quite remarkable cast of superbly talented and dedicated actors who believed in the project, worked them on an ensemble basis and gave them space to rehearse scenes and develop their characters as you would in the theatre. But they were pretty much unknown at the time and did it for peanuts really, so he could spend most of the decent but not lavish budget on the technical realisation and look of the film. And finally, of course, there was Prochnow, who was simply magnificent. He is a truly great actor at the height of his powers in this movie.
Favourite parts? So many. All the action sequences are terrific for a start. But I'll chuck in for starters the scene early on where IIWO (Martin Semmelrogge) is winding up Werner, the war correspondent (Herbert Gronemeyer) about how deep the boat can go. Beautifully done, all with looks and glances around the control room, and very funny. Like so much of that film, it's all done with eyes and faces. You learn a lot about the characters that way in this film.
If you like talking about this stuff in detail, why not visit Gretel's 'My Tribute to Das Boot' site? We yak about this topic endlessly on her forums, and your contribution would be most welcome. The address for anyone interested is [pub70.ezboard.com]
See you there maybe
Cate</HTML>
Why is it such a good movie? Well, for one thing it was pretty faithfully adapted from such a brilliant novel. For another, the director Petersen had a clear vision and real feel for his material, and wasn't hassled into turning it into box-office pap by greedy studio execs. The cinematography is excellent, and for their time the special effects stunning. As far as possible they aimed at an authenticity and attention to detail hardly seen before in war movies. Yes, they got a few things wrong, and it's fun teasing those out, but they did way better than most films.
Also, they didn't try and sell it on big name stars. Petersen assembled a quite remarkable cast of superbly talented and dedicated actors who believed in the project, worked them on an ensemble basis and gave them space to rehearse scenes and develop their characters as you would in the theatre. But they were pretty much unknown at the time and did it for peanuts really, so he could spend most of the decent but not lavish budget on the technical realisation and look of the film. And finally, of course, there was Prochnow, who was simply magnificent. He is a truly great actor at the height of his powers in this movie.
Favourite parts? So many. All the action sequences are terrific for a start. But I'll chuck in for starters the scene early on where IIWO (Martin Semmelrogge) is winding up Werner, the war correspondent (Herbert Gronemeyer) about how deep the boat can go. Beautifully done, all with looks and glances around the control room, and very funny. Like so much of that film, it's all done with eyes and faces. You learn a lot about the characters that way in this film.
If you like talking about this stuff in detail, why not visit Gretel's 'My Tribute to Das Boot' site? We yak about this topic endlessly on her forums, and your contribution would be most welcome. The address for anyone interested is [pub70.ezboard.com]
See you there maybe
Cate</HTML>
