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Das Boot
1985 · TV series · 52 min episodes · 1 season
Created by Wolfgang Petersen
Based on an autobiographical novel by German World War II photographer Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, Das Boot follows the lives of a fearless U-Boat captain (Jurgen Prochnow) and his inexperienced crew as they patrol the Atlantic and Mediterranean in search of Allied vessels, taking turns as hunter and prey.
4 positivefrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
I should mention that all of the programs that I mentioned are things that I watched for the first time about 7 years ago at most. So in my case, nostalgia doesn't play into it. There aren't many things that I watched as a kid that I'd consider brilliant today. The (original) TV series of Das Boot comes to mind and Todesspiel, a docudrama about a crisis situation with the RAF aka Baader-Meinhof group, of the eponymous effect ;)
With so much attention on Das Boot, I would also recommend the DVD version of the TV series.
The TV version shows the monotony which transports the relief when finally making enemy contact a lot more. In the DVD versions the individual episodes are cut together into a continuing movie of more than 4 hours.
The director's cut however has improved visuals and sound, also worthwhile if you don't have the time for the big thing.
Modern subs, especially the missile ones, are way more comfortable than subs back the day. What I was told by someone who served on German navy subs in the 2000s so is, that the depiction of sub life shown in the movie "Das Boot" (I recommend the 7 (?) hour long mini series) is actually not too far of the mark. Better sanitation, but other than that, it is pretty much the same experience. They did have great food so!
Dark was terrific. Time travels and parallel worlds. Deutschland '83 (in particular) but also '86 and '89 were quite decent - about a young German becoming a Stasi superagent of sorts.
Oh, and while you're at it, get Das Boot if you haven't already, also available as a TV miniseries.
As for movies, you could do a lot worse than picking up a few Wim Wenders movies - say, Der Himmel über Berlin or Alice in den Städten.
Oh, if you pick up Der Himmel über Berlin, consider picking up In weiter Ferne, so nah! as well. Same universe, but more run-of-the-mill than Himmel über Berlin, which is probably the most poetically beautiful movie I have ever seen.