Das Boot full commentary
Added 2024-05-28 15:00:07 +0000 UTCWelcome to our last May exclusive! This one comes to us via request by DroidC, and I hope I got the right version! This is a long one but very good, the sound and cinematography are excellent, and it's a very impactful message. Hope you enjoy!
Comments
Yeah not a lot of Uboat movies about ww2 which makes this one pretty good. Great movie that is worth seeing at least once.
Solain
2024-05-30 04:52:54 +0000 UTCthanks for all the great info! There's a lot I don't know about WWII, especially from the other side. It was very different to have a movie where like you say, they're humanized. With that war in particular it's very easy to demonize all the Germans when many people really didn't have a choice and were doing what they had to in order to survive.
Rhetorical Thrill
2024-05-29 07:09:56 +0000 UTCVigo is a Spanish port on the Atlantic, just north of Portugal. In WWII Spain was ruled by an ultra right wing government under General Franco. Although they were not officially fascists, they were seen as being loosely allied to Hitler. Gibraltar is an island fortress on the Straits of Gibraltar, a choke point where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic. It has been controlled by Britain since the 18th Century (in fact it used to be said that "to save a Rock we lost a continent" referring to how Gibraltar was given military priority over North America) Even today it is still a point of contention with Spain, who in the early 2020s tried blockading tourists and supplies. Many, many British servicemen have been posted there over the years (including my Dad, briefly) In WWII it was a very tough nut for U Boats to crack. A narrow corridor of very shallow water with many anti submarine nets and cables, heavily patrolled by the Royal Navy. It's little wonder that the U Boat crews ended up with 75% KIA. This movie acts a companion piece to "The Cruel Sea", a book and movie from the British perspective. Covering the entire war from 1939 it is about sailors who perform the most unglamourous job, trying to protect convoys from the U Boat peril in tiny Corvettes. As the war goes on things slowly improved for them, with many tragedies and backward steps.
Michael Nolan
2024-05-29 06:39:18 +0000 UTCThis is a great movie. I actually read the novel years before seeing the movie, and it does a great job of humanising the Germans. Even the senior officers on the crew openly despise their committed Nazi colleagues (like Number 1, the transplant from Mexico) Their main issue with Command is that they are being ordered to make stupid and wasteful attacks that uselessly spend their lives for no return. The young sailor who is secretly engaged to a florist is concerned about "Partisans" - specifically in this case the French Resistance. Even by 1941 the Germans had made themselves hated in Occupied Europe. A half German bastard (along with his mother) would be a typical target for assassination. The German friends I have today are very much opposed to anti democratic thinking and actions. My Dutch, Danish and Polish friends are forgiving of modern Germans, much less so of old school Nazis. I only know personally a couple of Finns, their whole history during WWII is tragic. Invaded early on by the Russians, they were forced to ally with Germany, which did not end well for them. My Irish born grandfather was a British Army paratrooper in WWII and actually fought the Waffen SS when he jumped into Arnhem in the Netherlands. He made the distinction between those guys and troops he fought on D-Day and later. Killing was a job that he had to do - except when facing actual Nazis. Then he saw it as his humanitarian duty to exterminate them all. (He never changed his mind about that.) This movie is about the turn of the tide in the Battle Of the Atlantic. Old school U Boats (which ran on diesel fueled engines) could only be run on the surface, and depended on battery power for running submerged. They could only do this for a few hours before running out of power and air. (technology advanced during the war, leading U boats to be able to use "schnorkels" to have a pipeline to the surface, allowing the main diesel engines to run while submerged,) During the period that this movie is set the RN in particular was rapidly advancing it's own technology, particularly sonar and airborne radar. Trying to stave Britain rapidly became a suicidal endeavour - not that Corporal Hitler ever admitted his genius strategy had been overtaken by events. Even after the invasion of Britain was roundly defeated in 1940 Hitler still wouldn't admit it and pretended that Operation Sea Lion was just slightly delayed,
Michael Nolan
2024-05-28 22:38:06 +0000 UTCOr anytime really π©
Rhetorical Thrill
2024-05-28 20:25:20 +0000 UTCThis is a great movie. Really shows the terror of being on a submarine during WW2.
Mark Ultimatemusings
2024-05-28 15:13:37 +0000 UTC
