they relieve Liam Neeson of command because he won't obey orders, but place him as the XO? Nyet. There's a fair bit of Hollywood horseshit in the movie, to develop dramatic tension (e.g. The reactor was heading for meltdown, and a whole bunch of crewmen were heavily irradiated (many fatally) whilst repairing the reactor. But it's based on a true story, at the height of the Cold War, when a first generation Hotel-class Soviet boomer really did develop a major reactor fault. It did poorly at the box office, and given Kathryn Bigelow's rather foolish decision to spend over $100mill making this sucker, it seems to have pretty much taken her career down into the Marianas Trench. What's the NEXT best sub film?As touched upon over in THIS thread, I rate K19 very highly indeed. So, for the sake of discussion, let's pretend that Das Boot has already won the poll. This series, coy as it may be about its status as a reboot, is an extremely capable addition to the canon.It's a bit unfair putting Das Boot in the poll, because - let's face it - it would most likely just trample everything else under its authentically German seaboots. There have been plenty of films and series that purport to show the grim reality of war, not least Das Boot’s forebears. It is gripping enough for me to see why it may. The first is now available in full online, if the prospect of binge-watching such a taut and gruesome thriller appeals. A combination of the success of European dramas and Netflix ushering in an age of increasingly globalised viewing means more productions are being designed to appeal to more than one national audience it is exciting to see it being done here with such elegance.įollowing a successful run in Germany, a second season of Das Boot has already been commissioned. This is a co-production across a number of countries, with dialogue switching between English, German and French. The cast is enormous – Masters of Sex’s Lizzy Caplan and Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser both make appearances – and it has the self-assurance to introduce a complex world without oversimplifying or making it impossible to follow. It is handsome, but unflinchingly grim a brief shot of a blood-soaked tooth on the floor does plenty to convey the extent of the torture unfolding before us. It has the swaggering certainty of a blockbuster movie it gives the impression it would work as well on the big screen as it does on the small. The battle scenes are stifling and seem to take viewers far beyond the point of comfort, which is apt. Even without outside forces, the U-boat is a combustible space for such conflicts and extremely effective at building a sense of impending doom.ĭespite its second world war setting (or perhaps because of it), this is ultra-modern television. His conflict-hardy first officer particularly resents the hierarchical imposition, as he resents Hoffman’s bluffing attempts to approach war by the book. Hoffman, the fast-tracked son of a famed war hero, struggles to impress even the slightest bit of authority on his crew. Photograph: Sky Deutschland AGįrank’s boat, meanwhile, is captained by the inexperienced yet flashy Klaus Hoffman, whose crisis of confidence comes early on, when he condemns a man to death by firing squad. The U-boat is extremely effective at building a sense of impending doom. The Americans responsible for its annihilation reflect on the scene: “Fuck ’em.” But this is no gung-ho good-versus-evil story it is far too clever for such easy trappings. A U-boat finds itself under attack, under water, and the crew’s terrified realisation that the game is up dissolves into near-unbearable tension. The opening scene is breathtaking, awful and a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare, all panic, yelling and flashing red lights. We join the action in 1942, by which point the Enigma code has been cracked by the allies, but the Germans are not yet aware of the enemy’s advantage. (For those who haven’t seen the original, or whose German extends to counting to three or asking for directions to the swimming pool, it is “The Boat”). This allows the thrilling show to stand on its own two feet – and it does so with impeccable taste and self-possession. New story,” tweeted its production company – Bavaria Films, the same one that made Petersen’s original – in October. The makers of Das Boot (Sky Atlantic) let viewers know early on that it would not be a do-over of Wolfgang Petersen’s classic anti-war film, nor the series that followed it.
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