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: U-571 is morally better
Posted by:
Chris M.
()
Date: November 06, 2002 04:13AM
<HTML>I concur with Wachoffizier and add the following. U-571 is simply a victor's view of history, and a flawed view at that. Rather than paint a tale that is marginally plausible, the story goes out of its way to embrace the implausible, make the Americans the heroes, and demonize all honest German sailors as Nazis. While I am certainly glad that Nazi Germany was destroyed, even at a terrible cost, to say that U-571 achieves moral superiority is to say that the facts of history should be ignored to bouy up our own vainglorious patriotism.
As an American, I certainly love my country and the contribution it made to restore world liberty in the Second World War. But that does not blind me to the fact that the U.S. Navy, in seeking to vanquish Japan, more or less adopted the same techniques of the Kriegsmarine in sinking Japanese merchant shipping -- with the same attendant loss of Japanese lives, policy not to pick up or assist survivors, and the occasional tragic incident of machine-gunning lifeboats. Did this make the U.S. submarine sailors in the Pacific immoral? In the absence of deliberate atrocities, absolutely not. Even though such actions in the course of war pose moral quagmires, I respect both the American AND German sailors who served and did their duty as best they saw it. Neither side is served by a supposed historical tale that is so far gone from reality as to be pure fiction.
Although Das Boot presents only the German side, it tried to do so in a realistic way. Yes, I think Das Boot sidesteps some of the nastier issues presented by the Nazi regime. But by and large the U-boat force was apolitical, so the omission is not critical. It was a professional military tool composed of brave men who, unfortunately, were in the service of a megomaniacal dictator. U-571, by contrast, goes out of its way to machine gun lifeboats, something Doenitz expressly prohibited.
U-571 is neither morally inferior nor superior to Das Boot. It is simply historically and factually wrong. While a few historical liberities in the pursuit of the cinematic arts are forgivable, utter fabrication disserves the memory of those who fought and died. Das Boot tries to be even-handed in presenting a complex and occasionally troubling topic. U-571 does not. By being utter fabrication, U-571 cannot have any moral bearing on the true historical facts of World War II.
With all that said, I think the premise of U-571 isn't so terrible. And it does deal with a subject that has a strong audience appeal. But why invent historical details when the real history of the U-boat war is so fascinating on its own?
Chris M.
Miami, Florida USA</HTML>
As an American, I certainly love my country and the contribution it made to restore world liberty in the Second World War. But that does not blind me to the fact that the U.S. Navy, in seeking to vanquish Japan, more or less adopted the same techniques of the Kriegsmarine in sinking Japanese merchant shipping -- with the same attendant loss of Japanese lives, policy not to pick up or assist survivors, and the occasional tragic incident of machine-gunning lifeboats. Did this make the U.S. submarine sailors in the Pacific immoral? In the absence of deliberate atrocities, absolutely not. Even though such actions in the course of war pose moral quagmires, I respect both the American AND German sailors who served and did their duty as best they saw it. Neither side is served by a supposed historical tale that is so far gone from reality as to be pure fiction.
Although Das Boot presents only the German side, it tried to do so in a realistic way. Yes, I think Das Boot sidesteps some of the nastier issues presented by the Nazi regime. But by and large the U-boat force was apolitical, so the omission is not critical. It was a professional military tool composed of brave men who, unfortunately, were in the service of a megomaniacal dictator. U-571, by contrast, goes out of its way to machine gun lifeboats, something Doenitz expressly prohibited.
U-571 is neither morally inferior nor superior to Das Boot. It is simply historically and factually wrong. While a few historical liberities in the pursuit of the cinematic arts are forgivable, utter fabrication disserves the memory of those who fought and died. Das Boot tries to be even-handed in presenting a complex and occasionally troubling topic. U-571 does not. By being utter fabrication, U-571 cannot have any moral bearing on the true historical facts of World War II.
With all that said, I think the premise of U-571 isn't so terrible. And it does deal with a subject that has a strong audience appeal. But why invent historical details when the real history of the U-boat war is so fascinating on its own?
Chris M.
Miami, Florida USA</HTML>
