Friday, August 17, 2018

Das Boot

And this week's Friday night movie has been.....Das Boot!


Original image located here. Accessed 17th August 2018

From the director of The Never-Ending Story...

Let me say this up front: Tense does not BEGIN to describe this movie. I was dreading a three and a half hour movie would be a slog to get through but this wasn't the case. It was gripping, it was never dull and one gets the feeling that this is as real as one is ever going to get with a German U-Boat. Furthermore, one gets the impression this is quintessential submarine movie: the one where everyone has been trying to replicate ever since.

But I think the greatest achievement of this movie is to make me root for a cast of Germans in a World War 2 movie. I found the rising of the sub in the last half hour genuinely inspiring and the conclusion a real punch in the gut. Seeing as people like a clear distinction between Good-guys and Bad-guys (if the Facebook debates I've seen are anything to go by) one would have to be insane to try and give Germans in a WW2 movie some humanity but here it works - largely through a committed cast.
Mind you, at least i now know where that joke from Disney's Aladdin originated...

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