NGC Das Boot!

[boatdetective]

Just a word out there to folks who are fans of the best submarine movie ever made. Hulu just release the first season of a series based on the movie. I've seen the first couple episodes and it is good! More of the same grim inside-a-sweating-tin-can action along with some intrigue.
Gripping stuff. The U-boat fleet suffered a 76% attrition.


 

[SmithSwede]

Thanks for the tip. I’m obsessed with WW2 era subs.   Have been since I was a kid.

Spent most of a day touring U-505 in Chicago Museum.   

[Gliderjohn]

Was a great movie. Extremely well done. Prescott, have you read "Iron Coffin"?
GliderJohn

[canuck750]

I loved that movie, especially the original version in German with English sub titles, the redubbed version seemed to loose some of the intensity.

I need to look into this series.

[boatdetective]

One interesting detail- the submariners are very young...which would be accurate. We've become used to seeing 30-40 year old actors in Hollywood war movies. It's refreshing for a director to choose "kids".

[Gliderjohn]

Speaking of very young...The person represented in "Iron Coffin" entered the U-Boat service as a 19 year old ensign. Finished the war as a U-Boat captain at at age 23. Cannot imagine.
GliderJohn

[rocker59]

I saw the German language version of Das Boot in the theater when it first made the rounds in The USA.

Fantastic movie!

[Knuckle Dragger]

Loved the original TV series, and the movie that Wolfgang Petersen cut from it (one of my top 20s).  Absolutely loathe & detest the new TV series.  Just a bit lightweight in my estimation.  The originals, according to a Scottish wartime submariner who was a friend's dad, left him with literal chills & frisson (& maybe vestiges of residual PTSD) from the realism re-created by Petersen.

The latter is more of a romantic melodrama/soap than an exploration of the Kriegsmariners' experience , and seems to pay mere lip service to any degree of historical authenticity.  Petersen actually commissioned construction of an authentic U-boat by Blohm und Voss using original blueprints to palpably provide the terrifying claustrophobic authenticity of interior shoots for his original series.

My ratings:  Das Boot (1981) Movie                10 stars.
                  Das Boot (1985-1987 TV Series)  9.5 stars.
                  Das Boot (2018) TV Series             6 stars.

[Rough Edge racing]

 I read Hiltler's U Boat War, the Hunters  by Clay Blair...This book is about the early days of the Atlantic U Boats before the Allies learned to hunt them...The book is very well detailed with endless statics of what sub sub what ship and so on..And U Boat tactics....
   I have on the hand a hardbound book, the second part of Hitler's U Boat War, The Hunted... this book describes how the Allies fought back and sunk nearly all the U Boats...If anyone wants this book, it's yours for free but you pay media mail shipping...You can Email me .... Tonetruck@gmail.com..
 An interesting statistic...At no point did Nazi subs sink more than about 7 % of convoy shipping from the USA to the UK. No convoys turned back.We're talking a lot of ships, about 3500 for the loss of about 730 U boats....But it was more or less acceptable losses meaning that 93 % made it safely...A Merchant Marine was a very dangerous job.....

 Edit, the book has been spoken for

[earemike]

I read Hiltler's U Boat War, the Hunters  by Clay Blair...This book is about the early days of the Atlantic U Boats before the Allies learned to hunt them...The book is very well detailed with endless statics of what sub sub what ship and so on..And U Boat tactics....
   I have on the hand a hardbound book, the second part of Hitler's U Boat War, The Hunted... this book describes how the Allies fought back and sunk nearly all the U Boats...If anyone wants this book, it's yours for free but you pay media mail shipping...You can Email me .... Tonetruck@gmail.com..
 An interesting statistic...At no point did Nazi subs sink more than about 7 % of convoy shipping from the USA to the UK. No convoys turned back.We're talking a lot of ships, about 3500 for the loss of about 730 U boats....But it was more or less acceptable losses meaning that 93 % made it safely...A Merchant Marine was a very dangerous job.....

Off the top of my head, didn’t his sub commander want more uboats before hostilities? As I recall (yeah I know) he had a plan for x subs v y in a convoy

[LowRyter]

Remember that Robert Mitchum movie, The Enemy Below?  It was a goody.

[redrider90]

Thanks for the tip. I’m obsessed with WW2 era subs.   Have been since I was a kid.

Spent most of a day touring U-505 in Chicago Museum.

I do not have many memories of my early youth but I remember my father taking me when I was 6 years old to watch them take the 505 out of the water so it could make the trip across Lake Shore Drive to the museum. I remember a giant hulking frame making all sorts of creaking noises as they tugged it. Off course as I grew up I got to see it after it was restored.

[Ncdan]

In NC we have a world war11 aircraft carrier, destroyer and sub in Charlestown NC. A few weeks ago I went with a few riding buddies to take the tour. My son and I went through the sub but two of my buddies could not deal with the close cramped quarters. I admit that when I saw how close the men were stacked in the sleeping quarters I was ready to get the heck out of the thing. I am sure that the men who were assigned to these boats had to have been sent to intense  psychological test before going out to sea. I don’t think I would have been a candidate for the job. My  admiration and hats off to those young fellas.

[Ncdan]

Which one is best to watch, at least first? The 1981 or the 85 four part series???

[Rough Edge racing]

Off the top of my head, didn’t his sub commander want more uboats before hostilities? As I recall (yeah I know) he had a plan for x subs v y in a convoy

  You mean Germany? Yes they wanted more... Some naval historians believe thet Germany knew they could not stop the convoys to the UK, so it was a delaying action hoping the US would not tolerate the losses...
 The Japanese had very good subs during WW2, their torpedos were the best....

[bad Chad]

The Japanese subs were very ineffective as offensive weapons

[Rough Edge racing]

The Japanese subs were very ineffective as offensive weapons

  The one that sunk the USS Indianapolis was used effectively ....

[SmithSwede]

Rough Edge.  I’d like the book if you are serious

[SmithSwede]

John, yes, I’ve read Iron Coffins.   Been a while.  I’ve read most all of them.

Apparently the joke back then was for the submariner to tell his anxious wife/girlfriend not to worry, because even if he doesn’t come back, she can take comfort in the fact he’s buried in a $6M coffin along with all his friends. 

[John Croucher]

Das Boot is what holds my carburetor on my Buell. Better than the factory set up.

[m13]

A few "old timers" here may be some of the few still alive that were stationed on one of these old boats. I was a machinist mate on SS-525 near her last years of U.S service .She got decommissioned and sold to Venezuela in 1973. It was cramped, hot (I was on her in the Caribbean) loud and smelly. An experience I'm glad I had ,but wouldn't want to do it again. No psychological testing, we were all crazy as bat S--t, ...was a requirement! HA!

[wavedog]

Das Boot, the book, was very good. The German language movie was very good , a bit poignant and gave good insight into the lives of those poor sons of the ill fated fatherland.
  I earned my fish when I was 19. I know quite a few guys who were DBFers and have a lot of respect for them.
 You don't have to be crazy to be a bubblehead but it sure helps. The crews that I served with were like a wild cross of mensa club and outlaw biker types. In port it was all about fun outrageous party like you would not believe, and at sea everybody took their job dead serious, but never missed a chance to have a laugh at someones expense.
 We always had each others back, either we all made it to the suface or none of us did. Never have I worked with a finer group of people in my life.

[blackcat]

We saw the original movie when it was released in a very narrow NYC theatre, about 7-9 seats. Around 25 minutes into the movie the theatre lost the A/C, adding even more intensity to the film.   It reminded me of John Waters SmelloVision, only without the scratch and sniff cards.

[Rough Edge racing]

Rough Edge.  I’d like the book if you are serious

  It's yours....

 

[fossil]

Which one is best to watch, at least first? The 1981 or the 85 four part series???

The Director´s Cut of the film on BlueRay. Very good restored version. Intense sound (use a good audio systen). This version is from 1997, is shorter than the series but longer than the original film. This version was intended as original film version, but was too expensive for that. It contains scenes from the series.