Posted on 08/17/2022 8:23:02 AM PDT by Towed_Jumper
Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic "Das Boot" propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career that included the films "In the Line of Fire," "Air Force One" and "The Perfect Storm," has died. He was 81.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxsanantonio.com ...
Most of the major stations in Europe have small theaters in them for killing time.
The next film shown was some pron.
If you saw it, you would remember it.
RIP.
Das Boot is an epic war movie which also has some of the best sound effects. When the scenes are in the sub, you often hear the dripping of water or the creaking of the ships steel plates. It all adds to the claustrophobic feel of being deep under the ocean with the force of the water relentlessly pressing in.
“Das Boot made you feel like you were in a submarine.”
Yep, very claustrophic. One of the most intense movies I’ve ever seen. I saw it when it was initially released at the old Garden Hills Cinema in Buckhead (Atlanta). Old fashioned single theater, a big screen with a red curtain. Everyone walked out kind of wrung out afterwards.
I believe they actually shot the scenes twice in ‘Das Boot’, once in German and again in English (as mentioned the main actors all spoke English),not much actual dubbing.
This was a point of contention in some of the home theater forums when it came out on DVD. Most movie fans (geeks) want to see the orginal language version of foreign movies with subtitles vs dubbed versions. In ‘Das Boot’ the English version was just as ‘original’ as the German version leaving the ‘orginalist’ geeks confused as to which was the correct version to watch..
“For me, my personal policy has always been to avoid getting into boats that are designed to sink.”
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Considering the average depth of the ocean is more than 2000 fathoms deep (1 fathom = 6 ft) and submarines generally have a 2000 feet crush depth, that’s a reasonable policy.
Srednik took his buddy, a young attack submarine officer, to see Das Boot. During the uncontrolled dive (dive planes jammed in down angle), the friend gripped my knee and begged “They hit bottom, don’t they!?” I let him stew a few more seconds and then gave a little nod. He relaxed back into his seat and was visibly relieved.
Reality check sat.
And I loved the skipper’s line, “Zeh devil held out a shovel full of sand . . .”
BTW - the author of the book was an acknowledged liar, but the movie actually made you feel sorry for the Nazi shlubs, even if only for a moment.
I also preferred the subtitled version. The movie just seemed more authentic when the actors were speaking in German. It was about a U-boat after all!
And wish I hadn't.
A real one.
RIP.
Apparently the movie is just excerpts from a German miniseries, which is why one version is so long. The actors would film a couple of weeks, and take off a couple of weeks off, so that the period of time taken to film matched the period of time that passed in the film/miniseries. The actors did not shave, or trim their hair, or beards the entire time, and they filmed the scenes in sequence, so that what you see actually is what each actor looks like with 3 days, 3 weeks, two months, growth of beard and hair.
One day an actor took a header off of the conning tower set. Another actor had the presence of mind to yell "man overboard" and the rest of the actors all looked down in unfeigned concern. Wolfgang thought the fall was acting and said "That's good! Do it again." But the actor was badly concussed, and had to remain in bed for weeks. That threatened the whole beard/hair thing. So Wolfgang decided that the actor suffered a head injury falling off the conning tower, and is now confined to bed for weeks. But I have that on film, so the character suffered a head injury falling off the conning tower, and is confined to bed for weeks. We either write around his scenes, or film them with him in bed. When they needed the actor he was brought to the set in ambulance, and filmed is scenes lying down.
I do need to see the director's cut of Das Boot sometime though. Sounds epic in scope.
Outbreak and AF One sucked.
John Malkovich's character oozes malevolence and is about on par with Alan Rickman's screen villains.
It’s does get long but is good.
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