Das Boot

A man-made sea monster as a claustrophobic war machine: after exuberant celebrations, a German submarine sets sail in the midst of the chaos of war in 1941, and the drama takes its course in the belly of the steel monster. Heroic world war dreams are crushed between oppressive confinement and total boredom, until finally storms and air raids drive the crew into mortal fear. This character study of a submarine crew is based on the novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, in which he processed his experiences as a war correspondent. In this director's cut, Petersen was able to include scenes that had no place in the first cinema version: ‘Now that we could work without commercial pressure, we very quickly came up with my dream version.’ It is probably also thanks to the reworking of the sound that the gruelling lack of space and the nerve-wracking fear of the men can almost be felt physically. (Tom Waibel)

Photo: Österreichisches Filmmuseum