Das Boot (DVD)

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The acclaimed "Das Boot", directed by Wolfgang Petersen, requires fans to become quasi-historians in order to figure out what they're watching. In 1981, a 149-minute version debuted in West Germany. The 149-minute version began playing in the U.S. in 1982, and it was nominated for six Oscars the following year (Oscars are given out in the spring of the year after the nominated movies are released). In 1985, a mini-series (six fifty-minute episodes) was shown on West German TV. In 1997, a 210-minute "Director's Cut" was released.

"The Director's Cut" was one of Sony's first DVD releases when it appeared in stores in December of 1997. In 2003, Sony released a SuperBit edition of "The Director's Cut". Now, in 2004, Sony has released "Das Boot: The Original Uncut Version" on DVD. To the best of my knowledge, the 149-minute version was made available in the United States only on VHS tape and LaserDisc.

"Das Boot" is based on a semi-autobiographical novel written by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim. (He's played by Herbert Gronemeyer, as "Lt. Werner", in the movie.) It begins with a German submarine crew celebrating its last night on land before setting off for a months-long at-sea assignment during World War II. Everyone is really young. Even the Captain (Jurgen Prochnow) is no more than thirty-years-old. Once the sailors sets out for sea, they don't see land until the devastating finale.

I never saw the 149-minute version of "Das Boot", but being an admirer of submarine movies like "The Hunt for Red October" and "Crimson Tide", I eagerly bought a ticket for a showing of the 210-minute "Director's Cut" at Cornell University. The movie expertly conveys the claustrophobia, the fears, the hopes, the camaraderie, the jokes, and the political views of men forced to endure difficult circumstances together. By the end of the movie, I was in tears. Yes, the Germans were the "bad guys" of World War II, but in the same way that "Black Hawk Down" focuses on the brotherhood of military men, "Das Boot" is interested in how a military unit functions as a family after a while. Yet, unlike "Black Hawk Down" and like "We Were Soldiers" and "Saving Private Ryan", "Das Boot" never loses sight of the big picture. The movie quietly observes that Nazism is something that will destroy Germany, and the movie also portray's the submariners' mission as a lost cause.

An early offering from Sony, "Das Boot" is spread across two sides of one dual-sided disc. The length of the movie basically precludes it from being presentable on one DVD side without a noticeable loss in quality, though Sony has since wised up to consumer dissatisfaction with flippers and is offering the SuperBit and mini-series versions of the movie as two-disc sets. Also, because early flippers only had single layers on each side (as did most single-sided DVDs), the technical quality of the DVD is not impressive in today's world.

Video:
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image doesn't look very good. There are a lot of muddy underwater shots, and they sometimes look awful on this DVD. The low bit-rates used for the video compression don't help matters, and the less-than-pristine print (filled with dust, scratches, and excessive grain) that was used for the transfer was not a good way to start "Das Boot" on its DVD career. Colors are not as sharp and vibrant as they are with later editions of the movie.