Hacker Cinema
Das Boot
1981 · Film · 150 min
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.
20 positive5 neutralfrom 25 commenters
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25 comments on Hacker News
I guess the good examples where music could be an important driver to the movies popularity (or revival of popularity) might be: "Requiem for a dream" and "Das Boot". Also for me personally - "The Mission" as incredible score by Ennio Morricone has brought me tia film I'd rather ignore. Other (also personal) example is " The Spawn" with it's mind-blowing OST.
Some of my favourite movies are German - Das Boot, or Lola rennt. Also series, like Dark.
Easy disagree from me. I could watch a movie like Das Boot if it was twice the already lengthy 4+ hours. Not to mention the 4-part Count of Monte Cristo among other more obvious ones like LOTR.
Movies you watch in theatres are one thing. It’s uncomfortable, you can’t pause it, you can’t contemplate it, there’s people all around you. It’s not an immersive experience despite a big screen.
So not all movies are best seen in a theatre. And the ones that aren’t are probably not long enough.
I have onoy seen Das Boot once, it was the full version at midnight in a quiet neighbourhood, all lights off in the house, surround sound setup in the room (never met anyone with this since) it was terrifying and the hours somehow flew by despite being on the edge of my seat and alert for much of it. Definitely recommend seeing the movie in this context if anyone is lucky enough to get the chance.
>Sounds like the German film Das Boot is a winner (the German version of All Quiet on the Western Front is also amazing. Looks like the German film industry is doing well).
It is? By what metric?
Yes, Das Boot is a fantastic movie, but it came out around 1980; that's about 45 years ago now!
The new AQotWF movie has great reviews too. It just came out within the last year I think.
That's two great movies in a 50-year period. This is not what I would call "doing well".
There might be a few more examples of good German movies, but overall I would not call the German film industry world-leading by any means.
It was an absolute given that Das Boot would by far be the first movie mentioned by so many of them in this post. It was the instant first movie that came to my mind and nothing comes quite close, even today, decades later. An absolute masterpiece of serious film making.
Fun facts now: the cast of Das Boot was obliged to constantly stay indoors during the entire length of filming, forcefully as part of an effort to both give them a grossly pallid, sickly complexion like you'd expect from a WWII era submariner at sea for months, and to create a sense of claustrophobia that would percolate into more realistic acting.
Also, the mockup of the submarine's interior was built for maximum realism in its size and all usable physical details, with the actors rigorously trained to move through this space as naturally as possible (as a real German U-boat crew would)
The effort, along with the great script, fantastic cast and of course, memorable music, shows in pretty much everything, right down to the disgusting details of how they look and act after weeks at sea. One hell of a movie, and while my personal experience with submarines is zero, this is the one that feels like it should be absolute most realistic depiction of crewing a sub from that era. It fully deserves its rank as one of the most highly rated films of any kind on most movie ranking websites, like IMDB and etc.
I can also see why it's the most highly voted film among submariners. Even if modern nuclear subs are at a whole other level of comfort compared to anything from 85 years ago, certain basics stay the same: It's a claustrophobic, fully enclosed space with nothing but artificial lighting, observation almost entirely through instruments, and crushing, nearly inescapable, horrible death just a few inches of hull and a couple sudden mistakes away.
All this is the case in a way that just doesn't apply to the same degree with any surface vessel, where you can still somehow feel directly connected to and within reach of the wider, comforting world.
It probably has more in common with space travel than being out at sea in these characteristics.
Sounds like the German film Das Boot is a winner (the German version of All Quiet on the Western Front is also amazing. Looks like the German film industry is doing well).
My fave was the burb by Lieutenant Commander Jeff Vandenengel (U.S. Navy).
Let’s be real, the overwhelming majority of those 500 are straight up terrible. Netflix alone has produced well over 100 movies, and IMO at best some of them are worth finishing not that I can think of any off the top of my head.
Now I’m sure you’ve looked forward to many movies but off the top of your head list stuff you’ve either seen more than once and or actually recommend to someone that came our in the last 10 years vs…
(78) The Deer Hunter, Superman, National Lampoon's Animal House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (79) Apocalypse Now, Alien, Life of Brian, Mad Max, Escape from Alcatraz (80) The Shining, Star Wars: Episode V, Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, The Elephant Man (81) Raiders of the Lost Ark, Das Boot, The Evil Dead, Mad Max 2, Escape from New York, Time Bandits (82) Blade Runner, The Thing, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist, Conan the Barbarian, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Tron (83) Scarface, WarGames, Star Wars: Episode VI, Trading Places, The Evil Dead
Obviously not all great movies but that’s ~30 classic movies in just 6 years and I’m sure I’ve missed a few as kids movies are largely missing from that list.
It's interesting that ILM went with a smoke chamber to shoot the underwater scenes in this film. It was probably a lot easier than shooting underwater and less likely to screw up the models. Some of the time this method looks fantastic but, at other times, it looks like a model in a room full of smoke. I've always found the underwater model scenes shot for Das Boot[1] to be more convincing.
[1]https://theasc.com/articles/das-boot
I found that I actually only really like a movie or tv show if it is infinitely (aka a lot; more than 50x without getting bored) rewatchable (for me obviously); not many movies are. Some favorites which fall in that category; Alien, Aliens, The Thing, Das Boot, Cold Lazarus (the Dennis P one), ...
It is very personal as looking through what other people mention ; many of those I couldn't sit through once, but if friends tell me to give it another go, I watch 2-10 times to see if it grows. Rarely it does, but there have been cases. Notably everyone likes Pulp Fiction; I saw it at least 15 times and find it unwatchable.
Mind if I pick your brain? I enjoy compelling era pieces, though some fantasy or sci-fi is also great. I dislike identity politics and infantilizing exposition. By contrast I enjoy subtle metaphor and stories with nuance.
My favorite films would include Das Boot, I Claudius, and Seventeen Moments of Spring. For something more contemporary, I also enjoyed The Expanse. Any recommendations? Films or series in any language are okay.
It's almost completely gone in the US on Netflix also. I've had better luck watching older movies on Youtube 'Free with Ads' service, especially 80s and 90s movies, than I've had on Netflix. And there's no ads if you get Youtube's premium service (I currently don't, but don't mind the ads).
Currently on there is Wrongfully Accused (funny Leslie Nielsen movie), Glengarry Glen Ross, Robocop (1987), Ghost in the Shell, The Mask, License to Drive, The Neverending Story, Tombstone, Leon The Professonal, The Amityville Horror, Over the Top (some Stallone movie), Miracle on 34th Street, Con Air, Edward Scissorhands, Gone Fishin', Look Who's Talking, While You Were Sleeping, The Craft, Red Dawn, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Secret of Nimh, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Mad Max, Das Boot, Little Shop of Horrors, Hackers, .... okay, I'm just going to stop now, but t keeps going, I'm only a third of the way though the list.
My parents showed me that movie when I was maybe 9 or 10 and getting that boyish fascination with war (amongst a few other war movies like Das Boot). I didn’t understand the colonial subtext of the movie, which made it that much more impactful. It has absolutely stuck with me, both in terms of the absolute insanity of warfare, but also just how life in general can be a complete tragedy.
This is hilarious! I’m sure Elbert’s cutting wit and no-nonsense method of sniffing out true cinema mastery and creative rot saved dozens of eight year olds from watching this film, thus preserving their intellectual cinematic palate for better works, such as Das Boot.
Watch "Das Boot", the entire ship has one engineer and he commands respect in the movie.
Totally almost off subject but if you want some cool Gibraltar movie action check out Das Boot. And I watched Dunkirk right after if you really want to sob about the meaninglessness of war. The ending of Das Boot transitions well into the story of Dunkirk, in my opinion. And the ending of Dunkirk is one of the nobly beautiful things I've seen.
I'm not quite sure about most other European countries, but German cinema is famously bad. There is the occasional comedy that is at least watchable to pass the time if nothing else is on. But other than that, formulaic, badly acted drivel that is just produced to grab state film subsidies. The only German production I would call good is "Das Boot", and that is decades old by now. With lots of squinting maybe "Lola rennt".
As for German TV shows, there is a bunch of bad soaps and "Krimis", badly acted, formulaic criminal investigation stuff. Usually with the police as universal good guys working through some tough midlife crisis problems, a token dialect actor from the region that episode is supposed to be set and a story that makes your brain bleed. With a raised finger moral point du jour to educate the stupid plebs out there as to how they are misbehaving. You would have to go back to "Raumpatroullie Orion" to even get science fiction, not to mention any other genre that is popular with non-old-people (Yes, Netflix is definitely an improvement there).
Greyhound was such a disappointment for me (a huge Das Boot fan, submarine sim player). The subs in the movie acted like a bunch of horny teenagers in a girls' dormitory, surfacing at the stupidest moments, firing at everything that moves, taking a fucking destroyer head-on for some reason. Stopped taking the movie seriously halfway through, skipped through the second half for some cool shots that didn't look violently CGI. If it wasn't for Tom Hanks, it would've been a 35 % movie.
Been a while since I've watched "Das Boot", but IIRC, there's a scene in the movie where, initially on the surface, they have a taught string strung across the sub. Then, as they dive, deeper and deeper, the taught string relaxes giving a rather frightening visual insight into how much the hull of the boat is compressing.
I have most of the symptoms described by the OP, including a severe difficulty focusing on movies/books.
For me, it's basically that my mind wonders if I'm not very interested. It's my mind's default mode of operation that I think about everything related to the thing I just thought about. Comes in very handy when programming, but is kind of annoying when trying to get through some mediocre material.
Something worth noting is that my focusability seems directly based on how interested I am, not how action-packed something is. For example I have no problems watching the 1981 German classic Das Boot, where people just sit in a submarine for 3 hours. However something that is popularly belived to be made for ADHD people like The Transformers is excruciating for me even though there's so much going on visually every second.
Stimulants like Adderall make me even more focused on things I could focus on already sober, but also make me even less focused on things I don't care about. So basically just intensifying my natural tendendices, as opposed to changing them.
DAS BOOT!! I remember talking to a colleague about this movie at a former job, and a woman near me piped: "Who would want to watch a movie about a Boot?!" We were speechless and she was totally serious.
There was extreme media censorship (GUKPPiW 1946-1990), but directed almost exclusively towards dissident political statements and praise of western prosperity. You were still allowed to show foreign wealth as long as you showed for example how easily Polish creativity fleeced westerners out of it. Labelling everything as a comedy also helped, still for example 'Alternatywy 4'(same director as the clips below) spend 3 years being edited/censored. Those were prime time TV shows broadcast couple of years before fall of the Iron Curtain, maybe even slightly contributing to the growing unrest and eventual Polish exit from the Eastern Bloc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5MXX_n0pfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThD7AmKQkjg
https://youtu.be/_nmGi757fyo?t=5m1s
TV was not allowed to show anything celebrating western lifestyle. We didnt get Miami Vice, Wonder Years, MacGyver, A Team or Dynasty until ~5 years after kicking Russians out of our country. Instead foreign tv shows we had were 'Escrava Isaura' and some old chestnuts from the fifties like Zorro. Cinema was a lot better, scifi movies had little trouble with censorship, we got 'New Hope' in 1979, 'Empire Strikes Back' in 1982, 'Terminator' in 1985. Toho Kaiju movies came out same year as in the west. Of course you could get censored for something entirely not in the movie. 1984 'NeverEnding Story' was delayed into 1987 because of directors earlier work 'Das Boot'.
Das Boot taught me that war is nasty for all inside and that there are humans on all sides, abused into submission and dillusion by the war mongers. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Watch the longest version you can find, I prefer the mini series.
Sometimes unusual coincidences like that actually happen. Improbable doesn't mean impossible.
I'm reminded of the first time I watched Das Boot. I knew very little about the movie going in, aside from the fact that it was considered a classic. I enjoyed it a great deal, but thought they overdid it with some of the obviously artificial drama. Afterwards I was surprised to find that the stuff I thought was obviously fake had actually happened to the real submarine the story was based on.
Fight Club : A bit over the top, but works for me.
Cidade de Deus (City of God) : Overcoming adversity, based on real life story.
Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain (Amelie) : Beautiful movie about seeing the world in a different way. Love is worth fighting for. Don't be afraid to be eccentric.
Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives Of Others) : Even the harshest repressive regimes cannot re-educate and brainwash all the humanity out of people.
Das Boot : How I feel when I need to finish a project while the management throws "depth charges" (feature requests ;-) ) at me.
Hotel Rwanda : People are capable of both extreme violence and extreme kindness.
Zerkalo (The Mirror) by Tarkovksy : Nostalgia. Reminds me to keep connected to my parents and family. Eventually they'll be gone, with only dreams and memory fragments of them left.