Re: Das Boot - Thomsen's Character - Book and Film
Posted by:
Meg Rosenfeld
()
Date: March 09, 2007 07:15PM
From what I've read, and heard from other people, the character in the movie really was closely based on real life. There's a section in the book (based on a real event) which didn't make it into the movie, in which the IWO made a stupid error which would have resulted in the blowing up of a neutral passenger vessel, except that--as often happened in less fortuitous situations--the torpedo was a dud! He transferred to another U-Boot after this patrol, probably accompanied by "Good riddance!" from the crew. In the movie he doesn't seem quite so stupid, and he actually has a fairly human moment when they're stuck on the bottom of the Strait of Gibraltar and, for the first time, looks disheveled and scared.
He did have very annoying table manners, at least according to Buchheim; he would pick his food to pieces, even using his knife and fork to remove the skin from sausages, so that he ended up with a plateful of discarded stuff and very little food.
He did have very annoying table manners, at least according to Buchheim; he would pick his food to pieces, even using his knife and fork to remove the skin from sausages, so that he ended up with a plateful of discarded stuff and very little food.