Wolfgang Peterson's Das Boot: War from the Other Side

Das Boot is an interesting war movie. In the tradition of All Quiet on the Western Front, it delves into stories from the other, and more demonized side of a conflict. In this case, it is from the side of the Germans during World War II. Through skillful handling of the claustrophobia and miniature society a submarine provides, director Wolfgang Petersen delivers a very potent movie about the terror and hopelessness of war.

The movie follows the course of a German U-Boat crew during the days of World War II when the tide was turning to the Allies. Under the command of a captain more loyal to his crew and homeland than to the schemes of the Fuhrer, the submarine patrols the Atlantic. After many brushes with Allied battleships, the hunter becomes the hunted, and it is unclear whether or not the U-Boat crew will survive long enough to see the war’s end.

Das Boot does not focus on the glory of war for much of the course of the film. The submarine is peppered with nationalistic soldiers of the Nazi state, but they are soon obscured by the grim realities of the conflict. Here we see the grunts of the War, in one of the grimiest and sweatiest places imaginable. The men are soaked through with oil and diesel fuel, infested with lice, and the horror of being hundreds of feet underwater inside a temperamental metal cylinder. Yet their camaraderie is what keeps them alive through the terrors of evading attack.

The biggest strength of the movie is its ability to employ subtle elements to create tension. The creaking of the hull as the submarine dives is eerie; a sound of foreboding that can signal the end at any moment. The rumbling explosions of proximal depth charges and the noise of sonar all lend a spine-tingling sense of grim anxiety. More often than not, it is the silence that produces the most tension, as we’re pulling for the silent crew. There is no escape when you’re locked in a prison of metal and ocean.