For most people, "The Director's Cut" is more than adequate in terms of understanding director Petersen's vision.
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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 set 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.
I am a bit dissatisfied with the SuperBit edition of "The Director's Cut". The SuperBit has a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround English track that could've been dumped in favor of the audio commentary track found on the non-SuperBit DVD. Therefore, the 1997 disc could've been discountinued, but it's still on the market. Admittedly, I don't often listen to audio commentaries from start to finish, but since there is one for "Das Boot", it feels wasteful to have it be available only on the least technically-satisfying DVD version.
Video:
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image requires one to make distinctions between transfer quality and overall quality. The transfer is very good since there are no hints of compression artifacts, shimmering, pixellating, etc. Everything looks sharp and clear. However, the print that was used for the transfer is not entirely clean. There are several scenes that have lots of dust, scratches, or excessive grain. Therefore, the image is an excellent transfer of a faulty source (kind of like "Star Wars: Episode II"). Since, at the end of the day, a transfer can be only as good as its origins, I can give the DVD only an "8" for its Video.
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[release]12022[/release]