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: What are your most impressive scenes in 'Das B
Posted by:
Meg Rosenfeld
()
Date: January 06, 2004 06:28AM
<HTML>Hi Annox,
I think maybe this scene is powerful for me because I a m a "Mama." Cate (who is one, too) also loves it. Someone who probably is full of you-know-what said that women are particularly touched by this movie because the boat represents a womb and the men represent children who are going to be miscarried. I think this is utter nonsense, but still at my age it's especially sad to think of younger people having their lives cut short. (On the other hand, I'm not too old to find some of those actors a real pleasure to watch!)
You said a while ago (and I'm not going to be able to quote exactly, for which I apologize--hope I don't misrepresent your idea) that in Germany you've all been taught not to think of soldiers as heroes because the war itself was such a bad thing. Well, of course it was, but those young guys weren't responsible for starting it, they were just doing what they had to do, like all soldiers. Not heroes, not villains, just young people who should have been living ordinary lives, not dying the minute they reached adulthood. Das Boot really drives that idea home, which is one of the reasons it's such a great movie (and book.) The first time I saw it, I felt totally wrung out at the end, and only later it occurred to me that these characters I'd been so completely involved with were "the enemy"--except they could never something so faceless and abstract as "the enemy." Instead, they were the wonderful Kaleun and LI, reliable Kriechbaum, funny Pilgrim, big tough-guy Ario, the delightfully silly II WO, the annoying Bibelforscher,and so forth.
Studying can be boring, but I've been quite lucky in my teacher--same person for all three classes--she's a charming young woman from West Berlin, an excellent teacher though quite a slavedriver! Today I learned that through some miracle I got quite decent grades last semester, so I'm feeling very kindly towards everyone, and looking forward to new classes starting at the end of January.
The newspapers show Berlin being just a little colder than the average refrigerator. I bet it's dark, too, this time of year. Here in coastal Northern California it's warmer and lighter, but still definitely winter. (seven feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada in two days, last week.) Take heart! If it were warm and light all the time, we wouldn't really appreciate it.
End of sermon!
Best regards from "temperate" California,
Meg</HTML>
I think maybe this scene is powerful for me because I a m a "Mama." Cate (who is one, too) also loves it. Someone who probably is full of you-know-what said that women are particularly touched by this movie because the boat represents a womb and the men represent children who are going to be miscarried. I think this is utter nonsense, but still at my age it's especially sad to think of younger people having their lives cut short. (On the other hand, I'm not too old to find some of those actors a real pleasure to watch!)
You said a while ago (and I'm not going to be able to quote exactly, for which I apologize--hope I don't misrepresent your idea) that in Germany you've all been taught not to think of soldiers as heroes because the war itself was such a bad thing. Well, of course it was, but those young guys weren't responsible for starting it, they were just doing what they had to do, like all soldiers. Not heroes, not villains, just young people who should have been living ordinary lives, not dying the minute they reached adulthood. Das Boot really drives that idea home, which is one of the reasons it's such a great movie (and book.) The first time I saw it, I felt totally wrung out at the end, and only later it occurred to me that these characters I'd been so completely involved with were "the enemy"--except they could never something so faceless and abstract as "the enemy." Instead, they were the wonderful Kaleun and LI, reliable Kriechbaum, funny Pilgrim, big tough-guy Ario, the delightfully silly II WO, the annoying Bibelforscher,and so forth.
Studying can be boring, but I've been quite lucky in my teacher--same person for all three classes--she's a charming young woman from West Berlin, an excellent teacher though quite a slavedriver! Today I learned that through some miracle I got quite decent grades last semester, so I'm feeling very kindly towards everyone, and looking forward to new classes starting at the end of January.
The newspapers show Berlin being just a little colder than the average refrigerator. I bet it's dark, too, this time of year. Here in coastal Northern California it's warmer and lighter, but still definitely winter. (seven feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada in two days, last week.) Take heart! If it were warm and light all the time, we wouldn't really appreciate it.
End of sermon!
Best regards from "temperate" California,
Meg</HTML>
