Among the sights: an inspection in which a luckless seaman drops his trousers so a medic can examine his genitals with a magnifying glass. Mercifully, the correspondent is given a bunk to himself, but otherwise he sees, hears, tastes, feels, and smells everything the crewmen do. That means when one man comes off watch he climbs into the other man’s stink.” “Most bunks are shared by two guys,” the guide continues. The other head, his guide informs him, is being used to store food: “More space for eating, less to shit.” Directly next to the reeking functional head are the crewmen’s bunks. Given an initial tour of the vessel, he is shown its only functioning “head” (navy-speak for “toilet”). WorldWar II Magazine August 16, 2022ĭas Boot introduces filmgoers to this degrading world through the observations of a war correspondent-a proxy for the audience-as he accompanies the U-boat on an extended Atlantic patrol. We honor him via this piece from last year on the 1981 movie that launched his career. Wolfgang Petersen, the director of what's widely lauded as one of the best war movies of all time, "Das Boot," has died. An Iraq War veteran once told me a story, indelicate but pointed, about a young soldier on patrol in the broiling desert heat, without even a chemical toilet available within miles for a moment alone, who announced to his comrades that he could deny his libido no longer: he was going to masturbate, and they could watch or turn away he didn’t care. Every bodily function is public, including those where privacy is urgently needed. It sucks to be bereft of privacy, for weeks or even months. It sucks to be subjected to obscene, tedious, and interminable monologues about sex by the idiot in the bunk next to you. It sucks to find yourself soaked to the skin by a pitiless downpour-“If it ain’t raining, you ain’t training,” goes a familiar adage. By extension, the film conjures something that every veteran knows about military service but of which most civilians can scarcely guess: it sucks. So for me, the movie’s most compelling element is its emphasis on the physical discomfort and debasements of life aboard a submarine: 50 men crammed into a narrow iron tube, its stale air rancid with engine oil and body odor. These scenes are unusually well-done but nonetheless familiar to anyone who has seen a movie about submarines. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the German film was first conceived as a five-hour television miniseries (ultimately broadcast in 1984-85) but initially abridged for theatrical release in 1981.ĭas Boot features plenty of action, from torpedo runs to depth-charge attacks. Praised as one of the best war movies of all time, Das Boot is certainly the most realistic depiction of life aboard a U-boat during the Battle of the Atlantic, which claimed the lives of 75 percent of 40,000 German submariners. 'Das Boot' Provides an Unvarnished Look at the Battle of the Atlantic Close
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