Das Boot

Das Boot (English: "The Boat") is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as a theatrical release and as an uncut miniseries (1985), in several different home video versions of various running times, and in a director's cut version supervised by Petersen in 1997.

Synopsis
During World War II, the German U-boat U-96 and its crew set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It accurately describes the cramped living conditions on the German U-Boats.
 * 2) Gripping soundtrack by Klaus Doldinger that mixes classical music with a modern synthesizer.
 * 3) Unlike other submarine movies in general, this movie takes it rather seriously.
 * 4) The director lets the story shock and horrify the audience, not by forcing it, but by letting the story just tell itself.
 * 5) It spawned a better Director's Cut and an uncut miniseries.
 * 6) Awesome cinematography.
 * 7) It cemented a place as one of the best German films ever.
 * 8) Like the book this film is based on, the ending was made tragic (the U-Boat suffering massive causalities) unlike in reality, to expand on the film's anti-war message.
 * 9) Technologically accurate film-set designs, including the ports and buildings.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The crew overacts a lot. Something the author of the original book pointed out.
 * 2) English subtitles vary in quality depending on the version and are not always accurate.
 * 3) Most of the music played throughout the movie have the same motifs as the main theme and not anything else.
 * 4) Executive Meddling: After several attempts for an American adaptation of Das Boot had failed, original novelist Lothar-Günther Buchheim had provided his own script as soon as Petersen was chosen as new director. The film would have been a six-hour epic, which would later become the Original Uncut Version. However, Petersen turned him down because the producers were aiming for a 90-minute feature for international release, which led to the runtime being severely cut down to 149 minutes.
 * 5) Some historical inaccuracies. For example, the beginning and the end of the film occur in the port of La Rochelle, which does not correspond historically. The submarine base in La Rochelle was not functional before November 1941, and at the time of the film the port was dried up.

Reception
The film received highly positive reviews upon its release. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars. Prior to the 55th Academy Awards on 11 April 1983 the movie received six nominations. Cinematography for Jost Vacano, Directing for Wolfgang Petersen, Film Editing for Hannes Nikel, Sound for Milan Bor, Trevor Pyke, Mike Le-Mare, Sound Effects Editing for Mike Le-Mare, Writing (Screenplay based on material from another medium) for Wolfgang Petersen.

Today, the film is seen as one of the greatest German films. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 98% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 9.05/10. The critical consensus states "Taut, breathtakingly thrilling, and devastatingly intelligent, Das Boot is one of the greatest war films ever made." The film also has a score of 86 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 15 critics indicating "universal acclaim". For its unsurpassed authenticity in tension and realism, it is regarded internationally as pre-eminent among all submarine films. The film was ranked #25 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.

Novelist of the source book, Lothar-Günther Buchheim, expressed great disappointment with Petersen's adaptation describing Petersen's film as converting his clearly anti-war novel into a blend of a "cheap, shallow American action flick" and a "contemporary German propaganda newsreel from World War II". He also criticised the hysterical overacting of the cast, which he called highly unrealistic, despite their talent.