Das Boot

I rented the 1981 German film, Das Boot, the other night. The film is a detailed look inside the lives of a German U-Boat crew during World War II. Whats great about the film is that it never once glorifies war.

The fact that the crew are Nazis is such a clever device. It allowed the audience to forget about patriotism, glory, and many other typical war movie themes. Instead the audience is invited to focus on the cold realities of being on a submarine. Its claustophobic, lonely, boring, dirty, and most importantly... scary as all hell. Had it been an American boat or rather any Allied force, trying to destroy German boats and tankers, I think the story would have suffered. The simple fact that the audience hates the characters at the beginning allows us to bypass the typical war movie cliches.

Another theme that the movie shows is the emotional impact that war has on soldiers. In one of my favorite scenes, the crew has torpeodoed a British tanker and survived a retalliation from a Destroyer. After six hours of hiding, they resurface and find that the tanker is on fire but just won't sink. They fire one more torpedo to finish it off (which reminded me of Westerns where a cowboy will shoot an injured horse to end its suffering). At this point, the officers discover that the tanker's crew has not been rescued yet. No where to go, the crew jumps off the boat and into the cold North Atlantic waters to escape the sinking and burning ship. Their screams and cries for help can be heard by the Germans but they do nothing, because they don't have the capacity to help them both politically nor physically (no room on the ship). The climax of the scene is the reactions of the German officers. The Captain is furious because the Destroyer had not rescued the crew during the six hours they hid, others are awestruck, and one officer is so overcome with guilt he begins crying. Its an emotional scene that shows its one thing to fire torpedos at a tanker using a parascope but quite another when you witness the deadly ramifications of your actions. Its always easier when you don't see the results.

What I love best about the movie is that its not a happy ending and that makes it a perfect ending. War never has a happy ending because its war. War is cold, miserable, and furthermore the characters are Nazis. The ending scratches the topic of basic human existence. The audience hated the characters in the beginning but we hate to seem them suffer at the end. The great thing about the movie is that there isn't any true antagonist. The British and Germans are simply doing their jobs. Having no true antagonist allows the audience to see that the "enemy" is not always the enemy but rather sometimes just the opponent.