Can anyone confirm that the Director's Cut of Das Boot is not dubbed and has subtitles please? This is the DVD version.

Not sure, prefer the uncut miniseries

Like Paf mentioned, the uncut miniseries as originally shown on German tv is the best but failing that, the Director's Cut is most definitely NOT dubbed and it has subtitles. I know, I've had the Director's Cut dvd for a long time now. If I recall correctly, the Director's Cut is close to 4 hours. The previous DVD release in the US was only about 3 hours.

This one?

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Boot-Directors-...4498&sr=8-1

Has German and dubbed English language, and a variety of subtitles.

I'd recommend this version though:

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Boot-Die-Fernse...4498&sr=8-3

Same language options as above.

Why is the mini-series better?

282 Mins.
Its the "full-version" and it really makes a difference in my opinion.

Edit: Sound and picture not as crisp as the movie-versions though.

80 minutes of additional Das Boot awesomeness.



It's basically the complete TV series minus the flashbacks at the start of each episode. IMO it's the best version of the movie and the one closest to atmosphere of the book.

This brings back some fond memories for me. My introduction to "Das Boot" was back in 1990 when I rented it on VHS from my local "mom & pop" video store. Unfortunately it was the English dubbed version but I wasn't a discerning cinemaphile yet when I was in high school.

IIRC I first watched it in 1987 when it was aired on German TV in six parts. Had to persuade my parents to let me watch it. Started building a LEGO U-Boat with complete interior and movable torpedo doors after the 1st episode.

Did they think it was going to have a ton of hot naked babes involved in orgies or something?

You're kidding! Germany is very liberal. We used to go on holiday to Germany as a kid (the Rheinland, Black Forest) and I remember seeing a magazine called Stern and thought it was a porn mag Thought I'd struck gold lol.

Well, I was 13-14 and the movie isn't exactly family entertainment, cue Ario and Frentzen revelling in various sexual perversities...

Ah, you make a valid point.

I bough the book in the end. I have seen the film many times but never bought it on DVD, but thought I would try the book. Very different writing style with very short sentences but I like it. Going hand-in-hand with me playing SH5 at the same time

An old friend of mine, long departed for that great distillery in the sky, was once told by his wife that watching Das Boot was like watching paint dry.

Well, she would wouldn't she?

As she then went to watch one her oh-so-interesting and all-so-different chick flicks

Well it is a test:
Watch "Das Booot" in its original TV uncut version, with your girlfriend/wife.
If she's still your girlfriend/wife afterwards, there is something definitely wrong in your relationship

Saw it at the movies it was at an "Art Theater" in German w/ english subtitles. It was unbelievably awesome.


My 1997 DVD copy says " Das Boot: The Director's cut digitally redesigned and remixed soundtrack 60 minutes of extra footage"
run time is 209 min., wide screen w/ German, English or Spanish voices and a choice of subtitles on or off. Commentary, making of etc.

Has anyone here listened to the commentary? Jurgen Prochnow and Wolfgang Petersen are very entertaining and funny speakers.

I can't recall if I have. If not, I definitely need to dig out my copy and give it a watch.

I finally watched my copy last night. Damn that was a terrible movie!! Not the cinematography or anything, everything was top notch and had me gripping my seat, but the story.... then I guess that really was what happened anyway, yes? Did destroyers really have a field day with u-boats? And what, 3-4 ships sunk for the entire patrol and everyone dies at the end? Boy, I hope my SH5 campaign fares better!

It was the worst attrition rate:



Truly horrific way to die. Not that being torpedoed by them in the merchant ships was particular;y nice either! Mostly it was sheer boredom interspersed with sheer terror.

They were lucky - they got some kills, survived several attacks and some of the crew were still alive at the end... though not the boat or it's captain. Many died under the Atlantic.

In 1941 there were seldom more than 50 boats on patrol at once, and at the start of the year, this was nearer 20... yet 35 boats were lost.

Interesting site:
www.uboat.net

Absolutely. If a U-Boat was detected there was a very high chance they would be destroyed. Things started to go down hill from about mid way through 1942. In all I think nearly 75% of all German submariners were killed during WWII.

I know, I was aware of the gruesomeness of this part of combat and there was even a blurb about it at the start of the movie... I think I just expected this to be a movie about this l33t submarine crew and their uber-awesome captain like some Disney happy-ending movie. I was breathing a sigh of relief as they pulled in to port, I was 99.99999% sure they bought it outside Gibraltar. Then the air raid siren came on and I was "Oh you gotta be kidding me!" Even the part with the captain watching his ship go down and he spat out blood... I was hoping he'd be alive at the end. But nooooooo... he died too!

It's not usually a Hollywood thing to end a war movie on a depressing and poignant way but there are a few exceptions. There's no doubt that Das Boot would have been an inferior film in every way had it been made by a Hollywood studio.

Definitely! Look at U-571 for instance. Jon sodding Bon Jovi's in it!

Haha... I am not complaining of it being inferior, just expected a different ending!

Jon Bon Jovi wasn't the problem. The problem was the script. It was probably written by a 12 year old.

Some flaws though in the storyline, mainly for me the last scene bombing on the Uboat base (Lorient , IIRC), too far away for mono-engine british fighter-bombers, the mood of the captain, with his feelings about the old guard diseppearing at the profit of less experienced but fanatical officers. This episode takes place in automn 1941, surely with british ASW getting better and better with german losses becoming serious but still with a "great" year to come for 1942 .
The meeting in the storm with another U-boat is not fictionous, U-96 met accidently U-Hirsacker during a storm in the middle of the Atlantic.

Oh yeah I agree, and that they completely changed history, but I hate Jon Bon Jovi so had to get that in

According to this, that base didn't start getting bombed until 01/15/1943.

http://www.tutorgig.info/ed/Submarine_pen#The_Allied_bombing_offensive

Gotta love SimHQ. A site where even universally loved war movies like "Das Boot" get picked apart for their historical inaccuracies.

By the way, the quick shot where you see the British fighter bombers start their dive towards the U-boat pens is the only stock footage used in the film.

Yes, the movie has some problems historical-wise. Its because its story is a mix experiences from various patrols + fiction.
Nonetheless still one of my favourite anti-war-movies.

I do like films where the ending is ambiguous or downbeat - All Quiet On the Western Front, 84C MoPic, Das Boot, the 'waiting' episodes at the end of Band of Brothers etc...

Glory and Platoon immediately come to my mind.

this movie is one of the greatest of course.

btw. Buchheim wrote another two books where he meets the "Alte".

The first one is "Die Festung" where he decribes the escape from France and especially from the besieged Brest, where both escape with U-730 and der "Alte" again is the CO.

The last one playes in 1978, "Der Abschied", where der "Alte" is the Captain of the only German Nuclear merchant, "Otto Hahn".

So at least in the book "Das Boot" der "Alte" survives.

Lehmann-Willenbrock.

The three books "Das Boot", "Die Festung" and "Der Abschied" are not fiction though, he just wrote what he experienced on different patrols, into one novel - maybe except the last "Der Abschied". Buchheim himself was not so pleased with the film "Das Boot" though, just because of some inaccuracies (the popping rivets being one of the well known technical glitches, the pressure hull was completely welded) and the conduct and presenting of the crew was a bit different, which is why the film was also disliked by some of the former crews.

Three more books bei Buchheim which are not fiction at all, full of photos from his time as a war reporter, and with a lot of information on the "real thing", from daily duty to technical stuff, and a lot of critic towards the then high command:

"Die U-Bootfahrer"
"U-Bootkrieg"
"Zu Tode gesiegt"

(there are some others, but mostly condensed material from those three)

You get them from time to time here in Germany, sometimes dirt cheap.

Several books by Buchheim

Greetings,
Catfish

On the other hand Buchheims books were not really liked by the crews

But there wasn't a very high percentage left of the crews' opinions to go on really...

Speaking of historical inaccuracies with this movie: when the boat is ordered to the Med, the captain remarks that the Germans were losing North Africa. Umm...this movie was set in the fall of 1941, and the Americans weren't even in the war yet.

Yeah, the tide in North Africa didn't turn until after the second battle of El Alamein which was in October/November 1942.

Well i think America was not needed for England to win in North Africa ? Maybe support-wise ..

They brought hamburgers so were some help.

Operation Torch and the ensuing US operations in North Africa most definitely hastened the defeat of the Axis in that theatre since the DAK and Italians were essentially now fighting a two front war but yes, the UK and Commonwealth permanently turned the tide with their decisive win at El Alamein.

I compare it to the Normandy landings in June 1944. Germany lost the war well before Normandy but Overlord at least brought final victory that much sooner.

And...may I add some weird thing? I remember the 2nd watch officer screaming "Alaaarm !" to order an emergency dive when it should have been shouted " Fluten !- Flood (the tanks) !". "Alarm" is in no way an order to dive.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's correct. The alarm call (and the bell) was a signal for the crew to prepare for a crash dive (evacuate the conning tower, stand ready to switch to electric engines and stop the Diesels, all crew ordered forward to assist the boat in diving, etc..) while the actual command "Fluten" was only given once the conning tower hatch was closed.

You're probably right , so first "alarm" and then "fluten" .Looking in the few books I have on about Uboote.

In the film the inside of the boat in painted black or dark grey, when in reality the boats were painted white for better illumination.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=172105
a bit further down -
I'd say that a very light gray was the usual colour, later compartments had different colours for faster orientation.

"Alarm !" is perfectly right, e.g. when an outlook saw a plane. Then as soon as the alarm bells rang the whole crew would run to battle stations and prepare all for dive, and "Fluten !" would just be an order given in the central control room to the men at station there, meaning flooding the tanks by opening the upper tank's valves with the "christmas tree", so the air would be blown out by the incoming water from underneath.
Certainly, all actions has to be fine tuned by the whole crew like running to the bow, opening forward valves earlier so the the bow would cut under first and the propellors drive the boat down dynamically, helping in a fast emergency dive.
As well in an emergency situation the men in the engine rooms would already close the exhaust valves for the Diesel engines without waiting for the flooding command, often giving a last full speed ahead before shutting down.
With the buoyancy tanks already flooded for a fast dive and a well-trained crew, a type VII boat would be able to completely submerge in less than 30 seconds, even a bit faster than modern boats - only that modern boats are not supposed to spend much of their time at the surface ..