Das Boot

Wolfgang Petersen’s early 80s submarine actioner was a surprising hit in America, netting six Oscar nods and much bigger audiences than would normally have turned out for a brooding German drama with an unhappy ending. While sub thrillers had been around long enough for cliches to stick like unwanted barnacles, Petersen found something fresh by combining nailbiting battle sequences with a documentary-like depiction of what serving underseas was like. Namely, claustrophobic and often monotonous, punctuated by moments of exhilaration and terror during combat. Especially in the 3.5-hour director’s-cut version here, Boot remains unsinkable. No sub movie since has been able to top it, and all have quoted from it. Especially effective are the sound effects, ratcheting up tension and transforming the ship itself into a character, its pressure-battered hull creaking and moaning like an angry whale.