The last submarine
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The last submarine |
 | |
| Country of production |
Germany Austria USA Japan |
| original language |
English Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1993 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Frank Beyer |
| script | Knut Boeser |
| production |
Alfred Nathan ( ZDF ) Werner Swossil ( ORF ) Paul Coss ( ABC ) Kagari Tajima ( NHK ) Manfred Durniok |
| music | Oskar Sala |
| camera | Witold Sobociński |
| cut | Rita Hiller |
| occupation | |
| |
The last submarine ( DVD subtitle: Secret Mission Tokyo ) is a predominantly German television film , shot in English by Frank Beyer in 1993 . It is loosely based on the voyage of the German submarine U 234 with the destination Japan in 1945, but which is called into question by the German surrender en route.
action
Shortly before the end of the Second World War, a German submarine is loaded with secret cargo in Kristiansand, Norway, consisting of a large amount of uranium oxide, an aircraft engine and plans for missiles and radio measuring devices . An Air Force general, a military judge and two Japanese officers and engineers board the boat as guests. The destination of the trip is Tokyo . The cargo is intended to support the allied Japan, among other things, in building an atomic bomb .
On departure, the British fleet is briefed by a Norwegian seaman about his observation of a German submarine with Japanese passengers. A British destroyer is sent on a search. The US is later informed, and an American destroyer joins the pursuit.
There was soon a dispute between the higher-ranking submarine occupants about the sense of continuing the war. Lieutenant Gerber is aware of the impending defeat and is therefore tired of war. General Mellenberg shares this assessment and, after some time, reveals himself as an undiscovered participant in the attempted coup against Hitler on July 20, 1944, who escaped on the submarine at the last minute. The lieutenant captain received an order by radio to arrest him, but apart from the symbolic removal of the pistol, he did nothing and even wanted Mellenberg to escape when he reached Japan.
The opponent is the naval judge Beck, who as a fanatical National Socialist does not want to give up the fight under any circumstances. He tried several times to take action against the general and later also against the captain, but failed to achieve his goal due to lack of support.
In this tense situation the news of Hitler's death arrives. The lieutenant captain wants to keep it quiet for the time being in order to gain time for a decision. The cook, however, overhears the transmission and disseminates it among the team, so that after a short time everyone is discussing how to proceed. The lieutenant commander has no orders and he still feels unable to make decisions on his own according to his position. Therefore, he first gathers the German and Japanese officers for a round of debate. The expected positions are represented: the submarine officers are tired of the war and insecure, the resistance general demands that the war be abandoned of his own accord, the Nazi judge opposes it with slogans, and the Japanese want the war-essential materials and documents in it Bring land. Ultimately, there is no decision at all, the course will continue for the time being.
A few days later, the British destroyer tracks down the German submarine. After a long bombardment, the damaged submarine has to appear. After a new piece of news, this time about the German surrender, another large round of debates with a similar non-result is held. The submarine is caught by the pursuers, and the captain orders, as the situation is militarily hopeless, to surrender. In this situation the judge appears on the bridge with drawn pistol and hand grenade and calls for an attack on the British. The captain refuses and is knocked unconscious by the judge. The first officer Röhler, who was mentioned in the script with a conflict of conscience between loyalty oath and personal friendship with the captain, caught in a hectic rush between the threats of the hand grenade-wielding naval magistrate and the approaching British destroyer, leaves the latter with one - despite the hoisted white flag Sink torpedo as the submarine was previously shot at by the British destroyer.
In further rounds of debates, the actors discuss how to avoid the alleged lethal punishment for the war crime committed. The general recommends leaving for Argentina, the on-board doctor Dr. Falcon to the USA. For the first time, the judge has no opinion. Again, the captain does not make a decision, but tries to deceive the public listening in on the radio message by giving the wrong position and thus pushing the sinking of the British ship onto another, unknown submarine. The captain of the US destroyer sees through the deception and sets course in the right direction.
The Japanese officers, who are no longer able to fulfill their mission, damage their secret documents and after some wrangling they can get their way with their plan to sink the papers into the sea. They then commit suicide, despite a carefully laid out Japanese dagger with an overdose of sleeping pills. A last-minute rescue attempt by the ship's doctor with emetics is broken off after another debate with the dying Japanese about Japanese death traditions.
Finally, the American destroyer finds the German submarine, which can finally surrender with a taciturn "Roger". The submarine captain ends up in the destroyer captain's cabin, but does not accept the invitation to a cigar. In the final discussion it was agreed to sweep the illegal sinking of the British destroyer under the carpet with a coordinated false statement, in exchange for the secret cargo and cooperation with the US secret service. The trade is sealed with whiskey and toasts critical of the war.
background
This film is based on a true incident that occurred towards the end of the Second World War. The German submarine U-234 from the Type X should in March 1945 a secret cargo, consisting of a disassembled jet type Me 262 , blueprints, components of a rocket V2 , blueprints of the most important weapons development Germany, mercury and 560 kg of uranium oxide , Japan bring.
The radio operator, Wolfgang Hirschfeld , kept a diary during this voyage, despite the prohibition, and on this basis published the books “The Last Boat” and “Feindfahrten” in 1982 and 1989. However, the film makes no reference to the book of almost the same name in its credits.
Almost all of the film's dramatic entanglements are fictitious, only the suicide of the Japanese officers is proven. After the news of the end of the war, the commander of U 234, Kapitänleutnant Johann-Heinrich Fehler, decided of his own free will to head for the USA in order to avoid British-Canadian captivity. In doing so, he was indeed faking a false position so as not to have to go to the nearest port in Canada, and was eventually tracked down by a US destroyer. However, there were no combat operations or even threats.
criticism
"A television production by Frank Beyer [...], which is based on documents from archives, but which does not claim any historical reality."
DVD release
The film was released on DVD in 2010 by Pandastorm Pictures GmbH . In other language areas, the film was marketed as Das Boot 2 , alluding to the film Das Boot by Wolfgang Petersen.
Web links
- The last submarine in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The last submarine. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 9, 2017 .
- ↑ https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film317042.html