|
Millions of tonnes of vital supplies were destroyed and
the Battle of the Atlantic was looking bleak for the Allies.
Then, with new sonar and anti-submarine techniques, the struggle
turned in the Allies' favour and it was the turn of the U-boat
packs to suffer. And suffer they did.
Trapped in their cold, diesel-fume-filled cylinders, the
submariners found themselves on the wrong end of technology
and, by war's end, had lost 30,000 of the 40,000 who went
to sea.
The fear, claustrophobia, carnage and sheer terror of the
submarine war has never been more graphically shown than with
Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot.
You follow the sailors as they sail, fresh-faced and eager,
from La Rochelle, through their savage blooding at the hands
of Allied destroyers and into the very gates of Hell as they
are depth-charged almost out of existence.
The photography and sound effects in Das Boot are stunning,
with each discipline trying to outdo each other as to which
succeeds better in conveying the rising tension within the
besieged crew.
Detail on the U-boat is remarkable. Petersen boasted that
every single screw in the submarine was accurate. The set
itself was created high up on a platform so that it could
be dropped at 45 degrees and shaken around to represent the
force of exploding depth charges and huge waves.
It is easy to see why Das Boot is the highest-grossing German
language movie of all time and it is a stunning portrayal
of men at war.
Conclusion: Movie: 90% DVD Extras: 50%
Continued:
DVD details at a glance >
|
