![]() All the incidents portrayed in Das Boot are said to have happened. The version in the original German is by far the more effective. Two television versions were actually produced: one in the original German, with English subtitles, the other dubbed into English. The 'director's cut' of this movie was eventually converted to a six-episode TV serial. This masterpiece by director Wolfgang Petersen, based on the novel of the same name by Lothar-Guenther Buchhelm, started life as a movie. This was probably the first time that many people saw WW2 from a German perspective. There follows a desperate and eventually successful race to effect emergency repairs, and the U-boat eventually limps back to base. The submarine is badly damaged in the attempt, and is left on the sea bed, with only emergency power, and oxygen running out. U-96 is eventually ordered to the Mediterranean, a mission which Captain and crew regard as suicide, as they have to negotiate the heavily guarded Straits of Gibraltar. It is plain to see that the crew are deeply affected by this. The grim reality of war is further depicted when, having sunk an allied cargo ship, they are unable to pick up survivors, and are forced to leave them to drown. He is eventually forced back to his post at gunpoint. The strain is too much for Johann (Erwin Leder), who, suffering from shell-shock, emerges from the engine room and staggers to the bridge. The story really comes into its own when the U-boat is attacked with depth-charges: first with the crew racing to 'battle stations', tracked through the narrow corridors and bulkheads by a hand-held camera then, the desperate struggle to maintain silence with popping rivets and bursting seals all around them. The war-weary, cynical Captain is played by the exceptional Jurgen Prochnow, a perfect choice for the part. When U-96 puts to sea, the claustrophobic life on board is brilliantly portrayed, as are the long days of boredom while the Captain awaits orders. This firmly establishes the 'them and us' attitude of the U-boat crews to the Nazis. So drunk he can barely stand, he delivers a speech liberally littered with a tirade of abuse against the Nazi hierarchy, much to the amusement of the submariners, and the obvious disapproval of the Party Members. The latest hero, a captain of one of the other U-boats, is paraded by Nazi Party Workers. One of his first experiences is in a seedy beer hall, where the crews of all the U-boats have gathered to have one last night of pleasure on the eve of another mission. Werner (Herbert Gronemeyer), a war reporter whose assignment is to report on life with a U-boat crew. It is told as seen through the eyes of Lt. Of the 40,000 Germans who served aboard U-boats, only 10,000 survived.ĭas Boot is the story of the crew of U-96, one of the submarines in the infamous 'wolf packs' that attacked convoys in the Atlantic. They eat, drink and make merry like there's no tomorrow, and for many, there won't be. In German-occupied France, a youthful submarine crew gathers for one last night of drunken revelry before they take to the high seas. Hoffmann appears to have inherited some of his father’s thoughtfulness-to those who resent him, that signals weakness.The year is 1941 and it's the height of World War II. He won’t succeed in winning his men over, thanks to crew members who see in him a person of privilege and, worse, a commander lacking militance. The ceremony, which takes place in the German-occupied port city of La Rochelle, France-where the Resistance cell operates-suggests something of the status the young Hoffmann will have to live up to. Klaus Hoffmann (Rick Okon), son of a much-honored U-boat captain, has been appointed captain of a new sub. The series begins roughly where the 1981 film “Das Boot,” based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s novel of the same name, left off. Their setting is dry land, the battle steeped in the tensions of life for a hard-core group of Resistance fighters, not to mention those in the lives of the Germans hunting Resistance members. Those additions, to be sure, are nothing less than a whole new dimension of the war-one far from the confines of a German sub. The possibilities of the U-boats’ fate are borne home eloquently in the opening scenes of “Das Boot” (Monday, Hulu)-a phenomenally gripping, assured and elegant series, no small achievement for a reboot with additions, which is what it is. They’re vulnerable targets now thanks to the cracking of the Enigma code, allowing Allied cryptographers to read the German naval signals. It’s 1942 and the war is no longer going well for the German “wolf-packs”-U-boats, tasked with sinking Allied supply ships.
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