Ouch! Why would you even bother with war after seeing this one.
The characters aren't so important. The life, the excitement and the action are what's important. The fact that this is a Nazi submarine that we are being shown is not important. Very little mention of politics enters into this film. For a German film, I guess that is to be understood, and its good for our purposes as well. There are other wars than the Second World War.
>> I'm just going to spoil this one!
Of course, I don't really know much about German war movies. I've only seen one other. Unlike other war movies this sub is out for adventures and for glory. The martial -teutonic - virtues seem alive and well, and they deserve them. Ahh, but we forget that life is a tale told by an idiot. The message is: why bother? The things we value get destroyed.
Das Boot tells us that war is cruel and unjust, it destroys the things we love. How can anyone argue with this. Coming from the Germans who ought to know. This is undeniable. The crew and the ship go through so much together. They suffer, find salvation and survive together, only to be kicked in the groin.
The visuals are spectacular. You feel as though you are on the sub. The sea is a truly awesome force, and you feel its strength, its infiniteness and its brutality. For the visual experience alone this is a film worth seeing. If you like submarine movies this one is the mother of them all. U-571, Crimson Tied, The Hunt For Red October are all judged in comparison with this one. But this is a war movie. I will judge it as such.
As a war movie, it is cannot transcend the German perspective. Not all wars are as futile as this one was for this particular sub-crew. This was a stunning movie, but still it doesn't say it all.
On the official Chris' Choice scale Das Boot gets four stars.
****
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