The boat (film)

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Movie
Original title The boat
The boot.svg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1981
length Cinema version: 143 minutes,
Director's Cut (DVD): 208 minutes,
Director's Cut (Blu-ray): 218 minutes,
TV film version: 282 minutes,
TV series: 309 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Wolfgang Petersen
script Wolfgang Petersen
production Günter Rohrbach
music Klaus Doldinger
camera Jost Vacano
cut Hannes Nikel
occupation

Das Boot is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Lothar-Günther Buchheim and directed by Wolfgang Petersen in 1981. The film takes place during World War II in November and December 1941 and describes the experiences of the crew of a German submarine on an enemy voyage during the submarine war of the Atlantic Battle .

There are three versions of the film: the original theatrical version, a multi-part television version from 1985 and the director's cut from 1997. The duration and cinematic character of the versions differ considerably from one another.

The boat was for German films - even by today's standards - at 32 million DM (converted and inflation-adjusted today 31.5 million €) a very complex and expensive production. Among other things, in addition to several other models of different sizes, the entire interior of a historic German class VII submarine was faithfully reproduced. The film had great international success; He was nominated for six Oscars , a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award , and he has also won numerous German film awards. It was one of the cornerstones for the later move from director Petersen to Hollywood , and for many of the actors the film meant a career boost or a breakthrough in the film business.

action

The film is set in 1941. The German submarines are tasked with sinking merchant ships in the North Atlantic that are supplying Great Britain with war essentials. The battle is getting tougher as these ships are protected more and more effectively from destroyers .

In this situation, the German submarine U 96 , stationed in the submarine bunker in La Pallice , received the order to sail. The crew celebrates the last evening ashore with a hearty feast in a French brothel in La Rochelle . The commander , like most of his officers, has no name in the film, but is only addressed as "Mr. Kaleun ". For the crew he is simply "The Old One". The war correspondent, Lieutenant Werner, is also on board during this voyage , from whose point of view the plot is largely viewed.

At first there is no contact with the enemy, and gradually boredom and frustration arise. Werner gets to know the crew, learns about private backgrounds, and observes different ideological attitudes. The dialects make the extremely different origins of the occupation clear, including regions remote from the coast such as the Ruhr area or the Ostmark . A large part of the crew has long since got to know the reality of the war and sees things accordingly soberly, whereas younger crew members still believe in the regime. Personal tensions arise in particular between the commanding officer and the first officer on watch ("Eins WO"): While the Kaleun, cynical and hardened, criticizes the military leadership openly, the officer on watch remains unwaveringly committed to the regime and remains true to the line and stiff. Lieutenant Werner is not taken seriously by the ranks of the crew and is viewed as an additional foreign body in the boat due to the already cramped conditions. An oil-soaked cleaning rag is thrown in his face when he photographs the crew while they are waiting for the torpedoes , which annoys everyone .

But then the situation changes. A torpedo attack on a solo destroyer fails, and U 96 is attacked with depth charges for the first time on this patrol . After that, the submarine got into severe storms. You have to dive again and again because the boat can hardly maintain course over water. An exact location determination is not possible. The captain's joy at meeting his old friend Lieutenant Captain Thomsen with his boat out here only lasts for a short time. Because this encounter is a sign that the locations of the other submarines are also incorrect and that there are large gaps in the surveillance chain.

Ultimately, U 96 managed to approach an enemy convoy , scored three hits with four torpedoes and sank two ships. After that, however, U 96 was heavily attacked with depth charges for hours, but was able to escape the enemy ships damaged. After surfacing, there is still a burning wrecked tanker with a broken keel on the surface of the water. The commander fires a torpedo to sink the tanker. Contrary to expectations, there are still seamen on the ship who were not rescued by the other ships. When the tanker finally begins to sink, they jump off the burning ship, scream desperately for help and swim towards U 96. The commander gave the order to reverse the engines and left the shipwrecked to their fate (the Laconia order was only issued in September 1942), since he saw the admission of the sailors as a risk to the boat. This scene leaves its mark on everyone who followed it from the bridge, including Lieutenant Werner.

After the commander decided, under the impression of this sinking, to return to La Rochelle, U 96 received a new order from the commander of the submarines (BdU): The boat had to replenish its supplies in Vigo, Spain , and then set course for La Spezia in To take the Mediterranean Sea to protect the supply lines of General Rommel , who operates in Africa . To do this, the Strait of Gibraltar has to be crossed, which is almost impossible due to the numerous ships of the British Royal Navy that secure the strait and is tantamount to a suicide mission. Since the chief engineer's wife is seriously ill, the commander decides to send him home beforehand and get a replacement. Lieutenant Werner is also supposed to disembark in Vigo and accompany him, since two men would get through neutral Spain more easily than one. The decision of the commander is also a sign that he sees little chance of getting safely through the Strait of Gibraltar. However, on board the supply ship "Weser", the commandant in Vigo received the message from the BdU - brought by an employee of the German consulate (Seewald) that the two had to stay on board.

The commander tried with a trick to maneuver his boat unnoticed through the Strait of Gibraltar. He wants to get as close as possible to the English safety chains over water and in the dark, then dive and let an underwater current pull the boat noiselessly through the strait. However, the submarine is still discovered over water by an aircraft that already has a new radar device and is under fire and badly damaged as if from nowhere. Chief helmsman Kriechbaum is shot on the bridge and seriously injured. "The old man" then lets the boat head straight for the African coast at full speed in order to get into shallower waters and possibly put the boat on the coast. This maximum load causes engine damage to one of the two diesel engines. The English security ships open fire and a British destroyer finally forces the ailing boat to dive alarm , although it is unclear what damage the enemy fire caused. Only after the dive does it become clear that the forward depth rudders have been damaged and are jammed in the lower position, causing the boat to get out of control. When all bilge pumps finally fail, the boat can no longer be held in spite of all the ballast tanks being blown and sinks to a depth of 280 meters, where it collides with an underwater ridge and comes to rest. Due to the enormous water pressure, numerous seals and connectors give way and severe water ingress occurs, which can only be stopped with difficulty. The crew is struggling to survive, as numerous repairs have to be carried out in the severely damaged boat and the water pumped out before there is even a possibility of bringing the boat to the surface. Since there is a risk of death by suffocation , potash cartridges are given to the crew to keep the carbon dioxide content of the air low. After more than 15 hours, during which the engine room crew gave everything under their "LI", the boat was brought back to the surface and both diesel engines were started.

Since the enemy ships assumed that the submarine has sunk, it and the crew can escape the strait and return to La Rochelle. During the disembarkation from the boat, a heavy air raid on the submarine port begins , in which part of the crew is killed. Lieutenant Werner is one of the survivors who can still escape to the safe submarine bunker. In the final scene, he and the wounded commander observe how U 96 - hit by bombs - slowly sinks into the harbor basin. At this sight the commandant collapses dead and Werner stays behind in despair.

Literary template

The underlying plot in the novel Das Boot takes place in the Second World War on the submarine U 96 , which set sail from Saint-Nazaire in 1941 . In the book, the author Buchheim processes his personal experiences as a war reporter and describes the situations of the submarine crew with great precision. The novel was published in 1973. It took Buchheim over 25 years before he was psychologically able to sift through his diary entries and writings from 1941 and to start writing the novel.

The novel is mainly based on the experiences Buchheim was able to gain on two patrols. As a war correspondent, he accompanied the 7th patrol of the U 96 belonging to the 7th submarine flotilla , which lasted from October 26th to December 7th, 1941. On board the U 309 , he took part in two further trips, one of which was probably just a transfer trip.

Different versions

The boat is available in three versions, some of which differ considerably from one another: the cinema version (1981), the television series (1985) and the director's cut (1997).

The first published version is the cinema version from 1981. It premiered on September 17, 1981 in Munich and was shown in German cinemas the next day. It started in the USA on February 10, 1982. This version had a duration of 149 minutes (with PAL acceleration 143 minutes) and is also the one that was nominated for the Oscars. Lieutenant Werner's narrative comments are missing here. In the fall of 1982 the cinema version was released on VHS cassette and shown several times on television instead of the actual television series in the following years. It was then unavailable for more than 20 years until it was released on Blu-ray Disc in 2011 as part of an anniversary edition .

In October 1984 the television series was broadcast in the UK by the BBC in its original language with English subtitles. It was published in Germany in 1985. It was first broadcast there from February 24, 1985 as a three-part series (two times 105, one time 98 minutes) and from April 27, 1987 as a six-part miniseries (six times 52 minutes) on ARD and has (including a review and preview at the beginning and end of each Partly) a playing time of over five hours. Between the episodes there is always a narrator who looks back on the previous parts. This version contains occasional, off- screen, diary-like comments from Lieutenant Werner.

In 1997 the Director's Cut was released in cinemas, in the USA on April 4, 1997, in Germany on December 11, 1997, and then as one of the very first titles on German DVD and in 2010 on Blu-ray Disc . The Director's Cut consists of the complete first cinema version and also contains scenes from the television series . The quality of the picture and sound material has been significantly improved: In addition to a new mix of the soundtrack in multi-channel sound with effective subwoofer use (5.1 and 7.1 SDDS ), this version offers a well-restored picture; the running time is 208 minutes (PAL: 199 minutes). According to director Petersen, this version should have been released in 1981, but this was not possible for commercial reasons.

The Blu-ray Disc of the Director's Cut also contains a documentary about the shooting of the film ( Die Feindfahrt von U96 , approx. 60 minutes) as well as the documentary The Battle of the Atlantic (approx. 39 minutes, accompanying program of the television broadcast).

In 2004 the television series appeared on two DVDs. In this version, the individual episodes are linked directly and seamlessly; the narrated summaries that were shown on television at the beginning and at the end of the individual parts and formed a flashback to the previous part or a preview of the next part have been removed. Lieutenant Werner's off-screen comments on the ongoing plot are included. The running time is now exactly 282 minutes (PAL). The image and sound quality of the Director's Cut is not achieved, however.

In 2014, the television series was finally released on Blu-ray Disc in significantly improved quality. In contrast to the DVD version, the series was not put together into a continuous film, but is, as originally shown on television, in six individual episodes including flashbacks and preview (just under 52 minutes per individual episode). The total running time of all episodes is 308 minutes.

Differences in content between novel and screenplay

Submarine bunker in the port of La Rochelle (2007)

action

The entry and exit scenes are different. In the novel, the boat departs from Saint-Nazaire , a large submarine port on the Loire estuary. In the film, the boat leaves La Rochelle . Only when the fuel runs out towards the end of the first venture in the novel does “the old man” consider heading for La Rochelle (see submarine bunker ).

In the film (all versions) three ships are sunk: two during the attack on a convoy and a little later a shot ship, in which the old man reverses because of the people on board. In the novel, on the other hand, four ships are sunk: the three ships that can also be seen in the film, and another lagging behind (that is, a straggler) from the convoy who was shot. When you arrive at the end of the film you can see four white pennants for the sunken ships, just like in the novel.

U 96 operates in the novel under the identifier UA . In the novel, the escort from which the UA sank the three ships is also attacked by other German boats. From the perspective of the people on UA, who hear the radio messages, listen around and see more firelight, the attack is shown a lot bigger in the book. The film focuses on the shooting of the torpedoes and the subsequent pursuit by two English combat ships.

In the context of the battle over the convoy, Buchheim describes further encounters with shipwrecked people who are still alive and who are not picked up by the boat. There are other descriptions of encounters with rafts on and around which sailors who have already perished are floating, illustrate the importance of this issue. The novel and the film deal in slightly different ways with the depressing effect that this encounter has on the crew - including the people in the boat who did not experience the sight of the doomed and the dead themselves. While this topic is taken up over and over again in the book (starting with conversations in the establishment on the evening before departure), in the film it is concentrated on a single scene.

A hit from an unexpected (because nocturnal) aircraft attack off Gibraltar seriously injured the chief helmsman Kriechbaum in the film. There are scenes in which the radio operator Hinrich takes care of the bleeding and screaming head helmsman as a medic . In the novel, Hinrich also has to take care of the wounded. However, this will happen at a later date.

After the arrival - shortly before the air raid in the harbor - you can see the injured creep tree being brought out of the boat on a stretcher.

On the march back and shortly before arriving in La Rochelle, Buchheim describes other events that were not included in the film. First the boat stops a Spanish passenger ship. This only escapes a successful torpedo through a defective torpedo and the subsequent discovery of an error in the identification of the ship. UA later encounters another German submarine that is standing in front of the port of La Rochelle and waiting to be escorted. The other submarine hits a mine and is sunk by an English plane shortly afterwards. The wounded that Hinrich has to take care of come from this boat. Immediately after arriving, both in the book and in the film, there is a concentrated attack by bombers and fighters on the flak positions and bunkers in the port. This attack is shown in the film in a very strong form. The superiority of the English in the air, the randomness of being hit or surviving, the hopelessness of the entire "enterprise" that is looming, and the catastrophe of war are equally clear in the novel and in the film - symbolized in the figure of the "old man", who at the end of the long patrol at the bombed jetty sinks in front of the wreck of his own boat.

people

In the film, “the old man” has the leading role. He is never mentioned by name, but from Buchheim's records it is known that whenever Buchheim went on the U 96, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock was the commander. This is important insofar as "the old one" probably dies at the end of the film, but his fate is left open in the book. In the sequel to the novel, in which he is alive, it becomes clear that he did not die in the bombing. In fact, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock survived the war and died in 1986. He was also present once during the filming of “Das Boot”.

At thirty, “the old man” is one of the oldest members of the crew. The age difference between the thirty-year-old commanding officer and the eighteen to just over twenty-year-old crew members is discussed in both the book and the film. The actors in the film are and sometimes seem older than twenty or thirty years.

The film shows a detailed scene between August Johann - the "ghost" - and the "old man", in which Johann apologizes for having left his battle station contrary to orders during the depth charge. In the dialogue of this scene, the court martial is discussed, which can be called upon for this military offense. This scene does not exist in the book, but immediately after the incident the "old man" railed that he would have the person "locked up". The relevant crew member in the book is not Johann, however, but the diesel chief engineer Karl Franz. The person Johann is also in the book; the film summarizes here.

The I. WO (first officer on watch) is presented as over-correct and particularly true to the line. This happens in different ways: The film emphasizes the line loyalty of the I. WO within small scenes outside of the battles. The I. WO can be seen in the background, for example, giving ensign lessons and uttering slogans about military decency. In the novel, however, the I. WO commits a fatal mistake: In contrast to his other correctness, he fails to search the ship's register for the stopped passenger ship (see above). He wrongly classifies the ship correctly listed in the addendum as not reported. This and the long overdue reaction of the other crew leads to “the old man” mistaking the passenger ship for a covert US ship from which other warships are secretly called for help. He has it torpedoed, but the torpedo is defective - probably due to damage caused by the depth charges off Gibraltar - and does not work. Just in time for further torpedo shots, it turns out that it is a Spanish and therefore neutral ship on the way to Buenos Aires. Only chance prevented a catastrophe here. This whole process is missing in the film.

The odd captain lieutenant Philipp Thomsen had a real role model in Korvettenkapitän Karl Thurmann .

Media and linguistic aspects

Most of the dialogue has been rewritten for the film; H. they don't appear like that in the book. In addition, several characters from the novel were occasionally combined into a single role in the film for the cinematic dialogues. This can be explained by the shortage of time that arises from the fact that the film compresses around forty days into a few hours. However, some significant dialogues that determine the theme of the novel and the course of the plot appear almost verbatim in the film.

Other things, on the other hand, were embellished in a cinematic way, i.e. represented more effectively through the medium of film, especially the events during the depth charges. The simultaneity of explosions and their visible and physically experienced consequences such as vibrations, failure of lighting, sparks, rivets bursting, water ingress, screams of horror and shouted commands can be experienced more directly and more clearly in the film than in descriptive language.

The main difference is that the novel is written from the perspective of the first-person narrator, which is therefore always subjective and reflects the feelings of the narrator (Lieutenant Werner). The cinematic perspective, on the other hand, is determined by the camera work; it can also quickly switch between different locations. The difference between the two perspectives is particularly evident in the Gibraltar episode: In the novel, the reader experiences the sinking and being stuck on the seabed from the perspective of Lieutenant Werner, who is mostly in the middle part of the submarine and only with great effort controlled panic, portraying his hopes and attempts to control his thoughts in the uncertain situation. The events in the other rooms of the boat only reach his consciousness as distant reports. In the cinematic perspective, on the other hand, the viewer is led directly to the affected locations and sees for himself the bursting of pipe connections, the penetration of water and the desperate attempts at repair.

In the book, on the other hand, there are more detailed representations of the different environments inside and outside the boat. In the film, pipes, lines, valves, measuring instruments etc. can be seen excerpts and in the background; in the book they (and with them the entire boat as a technical unit) are explained in detail. In the language of the book, the difference between the surroundings - on the one hand the narrowness and the hygienic problems caused by staying in the boat for weeks, on the other hand the vastness of the sea - is emphasized even more clearly. This applies in particular to the detailed depictions of the hull in the sea in different weather conditions and at different times of the day. The description of the colors and the movements of the sky and the water, the sunrises and sunsets, the dawn and dusk (especially in the chapters "Gammel 1" and "Gammel 2") show the author's literary skills; Buchheim was a painter and draftsman and carefully observed his surroundings.

In his novel, Buchheim deals in detail with the lack of privacy and the forced sexual abstinence of young men. Most of all, they talk roughly about their sexual fantasies. Such sexualized dialogues are scattered throughout the novel, they serve to suppress the permanent threat. Buchheim later also expressed himself critically about some scenes in the film. He said that the scene in which a sailor with make-up and only wearing bananas around the belt performs a dance (a precise quote from the Banana Skirt Song by Josephine Baker from 1926) would never have been possible on a German submarine. The scene, however, is based on a novel in which a sailor dances naked in the bow space of the submarine to the amusement of the other sailors.

A scene - which shows the harsh, anarchic climate on board - was reinvented for the film: When Lieutenant Werner was photographing the torpedo maneuvers in the bow space, a seaman, hidden in the turmoil, threw an oil-smeared rag in his face. The perpetrator does not respond when asked, the action has no consequences. In fact - and Buchheim also pointed this out in the interview quoted above - such a physical attack on an officer would have led to a court martial in the last years of the war, and if necessary to a collective punishment.

Awards

The boat was nominated for a total of six Academy Awards at the 1983 Academy Awards. The nominees for Das Boot :

Other awards:

Nominations (selection):

Further information

actor

  • Many of the actors made their breakthroughs in the film business through this film. Until then , Heinz Hoenig , Uwe Ochsenknecht , Jan Fedder , Martin Semmelrogge , Claude-Oliver Rudolph , Ralf Richter , Oliver Stritzel , Klaus Wennemann and Herbert Grönemeyer were mainly theater actors. Otto Sander and Jürgen Prochnow had also been known in the film business for a long time. Only Hubertus Bengsch didn't get any big roles. But he is one of the busiest German voice actors , among other things as a standard speaker for Richard Gere .
  • Almost all of the original German actors were used as voice actors for the English version of the film.
  • Otto Sander's role as Kapitänleutnant Thomsen is described in his introductory scene as "Sailor of the old guard ... just drunk". According to the director Wolfgang Petersen's statement in the audio commentary on the director's cut DVD, Sander was said to have been really drunk during the recording of this scene.
  • Jan Fedder was originally supposed to play a sailor from Cologne. The native of Hamburg, however, refused. Since the question of the origin had no influence on the representation, he was finally allowed to make this change.
  • In the storm scene in the observation tower, Jan Fedder was hit by a wave and broke several ribs. His role was then shortened.

Production and shooting

Financing of the film "Das Boot"
source DM
Bavarian Film Fund 2,000,000
Project film commission of the FFA 700,000
additionally from the Federal Ministry of the Interior 250,000
WDR and SDR 1,500,000
Neue Constantin Film (distribution) 1,700,000
Société Francaise de Production 2,000,000
Other sources 1,850,000
Bavaria Film 10,000,000
Together 20,000,000
  • Bavaria had acquired the film rights after the novel was published and originally planned to shoot the film in cooperation with an American production company and with an American cast. The script prepared for this by Ronald M. Cohen was rejected by Buchheim, as the US version was supposed to turn out to be (US-American) “patriotic” and, above all, was much more focused on action .
  • The production of the five-hour version of the film cost Bavaria Film 32 million DM (with today's purchasing power this would be around 30 million euros). The WDR and the SDR took on costs of ten million DM. The television versions result from this participation.
  • Filming took over a year. It was almost always done in chronological order, except for the scenes that take place in La Rochelle. This also includes the scene in the bar. These were filmed at the very end of the shooting. In contrast to the rest of the port facility, the scenes inside the submarine bunker were filmed on original locations in La Rochelle.
  • The film was shot at many locations. Some scenes were filmed in La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast , e.g. B. in the submarine bunker La Pallice . These include the exit and entry scenes. In addition, outdoor scenes were filmed on Lake Constance , storm scenes on the North Sea and in the studios of Bavaria Film in Munich, all indoor and underwater shots.
  • The film was produced without a steadicam , also because the system could not be used in the narrow setting. While alluding Jost Vacano gyro stabilizers ( gyroscope ) for the hand-held camera as he as early as 1973 for " supermarket had used".
  • The backdrop of the boat stood in the studio on a hydraulic stage with which the up and down movements and the tilting could be simulated. The gyro stabilizers gave the camera an artificial horizon. Because of the engine noise of the hydraulic stage and the bad acoustics of the metal backdrop, the entire film had to be shot and dubbed without the original sound .
  • The actors received special conditions from Petersen: They were no longer allowed in the sun in summer to prevent suntan, and ten days before the shooting of the late scenes began, they were no longer allowed to shave . In the Navy, especially among the submariners, it was customary not to shave during an enemy voyage in order to save drinking water.
  • For reasons of cost, the final scene of the bombing raid in the harbor was shot in one take . The two planes are French planes that were converted for the film.
  • Bernd Eichinger won a Porsche 911 from Wolfgang Petersen in the course of a bet , as Eichinger estimated the number of viewers for “Das Boot” to be higher and therefore better than Petersen.

Furnishing

  • Replica of the interior of U 96 in Bavaria Filmstadt
  • Bavaria Filmstudio Das Boot 1.jpg
  • Bavaria Filmstudio Das Boot 4.jpg
  • Bavaria Filmstudio Das Boot 5.jpg
  • Bavaria Filmstudio Das Boot 6.jpg
U 995 , a type VII C / 41 boat , at its exhibition location in front of the Laboe Naval Memorial
An Enigma-M4 as seen in the film
  • The prop master Peter Dürst was responsible for the detailed film equipment.
  • For the film, a model of the submarine was recreated on a 1: 1 scale in Munich. This model was dismantled into three parts and transported to La Rochelle, where it was put back together. This backdrop had a drive and was controlled by one person, but had no other interior fittings. While filming the storm, the boat broke apart and sank in the port of La Rochelle. This incident nearly ended production. The boat was then reassembled from individual, recovered parts and wood, but without a drive. It was pulled for further recordings with this boat. There was also a remote-controlled, submersible 11-meter model for outdoor scenes, a 5.50-meter model for underwater recordings in the Bavaria-Bassin and other different ship models from one to three meters in length.
  • The only existing original of the U-boat type VII C , U 995 , is in the Baltic Sea resort of Laboe near Kiel .
  • The interior of U 96 was recreated in great detail by Bavaria Film and is 55 meters long. An original of this type of submarine is 67 meters long, but only the inaccessible bow and stern tips are missing in the replica because they were not needed for the filming. The scenery is exhibited in the Bavaria Filmstadt and is accessible to visitors.
  • In several scenes an Enigma key machine  (picture) can be seen, which is used to decrypt received radio messages . When the Enigma appears for the first time (in the 282-minute long version after 53 minutes), the war correspondent, Lieutenant Werner, looks over the shoulder of the II. WO (Second Watch Officer) while the latter decodes a radio message using an Enigma-M4 . The voice of Herbert Grönemeyer can be heard as a comment: "It is only through the key machine that the confused letter sequences slowly make sense." Historically, the use of an M4 (with four reels) in this scene is not entirely correct, as it was only used on 1 February 1942 was put into service while Das Boot in Roman und Film carried out its patrol in the autumn and early winter of 1941. Thus, an M3 (with three reels) should have been shown correctly .

music

The film music was composed by Klaus Doldinger . Exceptions to this are the song J'attendrai (sung by Rina Ketty ) and It's a Long Way to Tipperary . Numerous other pieces of music that are not part of the official soundtrack are played in the entry and exit scenes ( must I then, must I then go to the city center and the Archduke Albrecht March ) or used as background music in the film, where it usually has one Form part of the radio program heard on the boat. These include La Paloma and Red Poppy by Rosita Serrano , Heimat Your Stars by Wilhelm Strienz , Capriolen by Peter Kreuder , as well as various soldiers' marches and submarine driver songs, some of which were taken from the " Request for the Wehrmacht " concert .

In October 1991, the Hamburg DJ and producer Alex Christensen released a techno version of the title theme under the name U 96 , with which he was able to establish himself at number 1 in the German single charts for 13 weeks between January and April 1992.

reception

  • The film Das Boot is one of the ten most successful German films, with 5.8 million viewers in Germany. In the USA , the film ranks second behind The Neverending Story, with grossing US $ 11,487,676 . See also: List of the most successful films .
  • On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the cinema version, the German Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main presented the exhibition DAS BOOT Revisited from September 19, 2006 to January 7, 2007 .
  • For the same reason, the film was awarded the Golden Camera in 2007. Herbert Grönemeyer did not take part in the award ceremony, Klaus Wennemann had already died in 2000. Otherwise it was the first meeting of the entire film crew after filming was over.
  • The exhibition Das Boot took place in the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn from November 16, 2007 to February 24, 2008 on the history of the making of the film . History - Myth - Film instead.
  • Because Clint Eastwood knew Das Boot and valued it as a “wonderful film”, had also seen Death in the Mirror and did not want to direct it again immediately after Merciless , he asked Wolfgang Petersen whether he would like the film In the Line of Fire - The second chance wanted to direct. For Petersen this meant the final breakthrough in Hollywood.

The boat in other films

  • In 1980, Steven Spielberg borrowed the 1: 1 and remote-controlled model for two submarine sequences in his film Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark from Bavaria Film .
  • In the television series Der Fahnder , in which Klaus Wennemann (LI) played the main role, some actors he played with in Das Boot had a guest appearance, mostly as criminals. Among them were Heinz Hoenig, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Martin Semmelrogge and Ralf Richter. In the episode “Booty gets legs” you can also see scenes from the film in the background on TV while a girl is playing in the living room. In addition, a video cassette of the film lies on the floor in this episode.
  • In the English-speaking world, the film was shown under the German original title, which leads to the pronunciation [bu: t] (like English boot , boots). This is how the parodic title of the Simpsons episode “The Bus” should be understood. Marge Simpson also borrows a porn movie called The Butt in one episode .
  • With U-900 , director Sven Unterwaldt shot a parody in 2008 with Atze Schröder in the lead role.
  • The film Abbuzze! The bath salt film by the comedian duo Badesalz from 1996 contains an approximately 5-minute parody with Ottfried Fischer as captain lieutenant.

continuation

In June 2016, a sequel in the form of a TV series for 2018 was announced. This comprises eight episodes of 60 minutes each. The production was realized by Bavaria Film and Sky Deutschland with a budget of 25 million euros. Novels by Lothar-Günther Buchheim serve as the basis for the plot . The sequel was directed by Andreas Prochaska . The sequel begins a year after the events of the predecessor and stages the first war experiences of a young submarine crew while the emerging Resistance is forming in the port of La Rochelle.

Reviews

On the Rotten Tomatoes website , Das Boot has a 98% positive rate. As the overall tenor of the criticism, Rotten quotes Tomatoes:

"Taut, breathtakingly thrilling, and devastatingly intelligent, Das Boot is one of the greatest war films ever made."

"Tight, breathtakingly exciting and stunningly intelligent, Das Boot is one of the greatest war films ever made."

Roger Ebert praised Petersen's unpathetic and superbly crafted work and gave the film four out of four stars.

“Unfortunately, the film seldom manages to arouse real concern for the fate of men. An equipment film with a remarkable team and outstanding individual achievements, including Jost Vacano's camera and Klaus Doldinger's music. "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier , Berndt Schulz : Lexicon Films on TV

“Elaborate and perfectly staged war film. The attempt, already questionable in the three-part TV version, to win an anti-war tendency from the authentic material , fails completely in the cut theatrical version. Here only the martial bang effects of the drama, which is interpreted brilliantly as an actor, turn the anti-heroism of the original into its opposite. The high technical production standard nevertheless brought the film a great success. "

- Lexicon of international film

“(...) a trivial snout, the technical effects of which made the ' great white shark ' 'our boat'; whose acting performance was 50 percent exhausted with a hard male look and iron cheek muscles, if one wasn't staring through binoculars; whose political quality - in other words: non-quality - outraged me. A war film on the verge of glorification. "

- Fritz J. Raddatz : The time

literature

  • Lothar-Günther Buchheim: The boat . Piper, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-492-02175-1 .
  • Lothar-Günther Buchheim: The fortress. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-455-00733-3 .
  • Lothar-Günther Buchheim: The farewell. Piper, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-492-04273-2 .
  • Michael Salewski: On the Reality of War: Analyzes and Controversies on Buchheim's “Boot”. 2nd edition, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-423-01213-7 .
  • Das Boot - In search of the crew of the U 96th series of publications by the German Film Museum Frankfurt am Main, cinematograph No. 21. Henschel, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89487-550-3 .
  • Wolfgang Petersen, Lars Bardram, Bent Lantow: The boat. Gjellerup & Gad, København 1989, ISBN 87-13-03629-7 . (Contains the script for the theatrical version (1981), plus a glossary and explanations.)
  • Linda Maria Koldau : The submarine myth. Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09510-5 . (Contains a comprehensive chapter on the novel and the film Das Boot as well as Klaus Doldinger's film music.)
  • Katja Eichinger : BE . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-455-50253-4 , chapter "The magical channels of the rental business - Das Boot", p. 174 ff .

Web links

Commons : Das Boot  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: The Boat  Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Das Boot Director's Cut . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 52635-a / V). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ "Cursed Orlog" . Der Spiegel, 44/1977.
  3. ↑ Peter Dürst. In: Tim Heptner; Hans-Peter Reichmann Das Boot: in search of the crew of the U 96. , Deutsches Filmmuseum, 2006, p. 144.
  4. ^ German Filmmuseum - Frankfurt am Main .
  5. ^ Eastwood interviewed: Clint on Clint . In: Empire Magazine . November 2008.
  6. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: War film classic: “The Boat” sets sail again. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved June 23, 2016 .
  7. ↑ kae: Continuation of "Das Boot": Successor for Wolfgang Petersen found. In: Spiegel Online - Kultur. February 23, 2017. Retrieved August 22, 2018 .
  8. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/das_boot/
  9. ↑ The boat . In: rogerebert.com . April 4, 1997.
  10. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier , Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" . Extended new edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 102 (Rating: 2½ stars = above average.).
  11. ↑ The boat. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 16, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  12. ^ Fritz J. Raddatz : The boat is empty . Objection to a politically questionable heroic epic. In: The time . No. 11 , March 8, 1985, ISSN  0044-2070 ( online [accessed March 16, 2016]).