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Das Boot - 2-Disc Collector's Set - Blu-ray Sony Pictures Home Entertainment - 2011 Written & Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
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Wolfgang Petersen does an amazing job of telling this human story by focusing on the many varied characters, while still delivering world class action and suspense. It's obvious that he had a directorial handle on the material and a brilliant production team and cast to go along with him on this white-knuckled journey. Amongst the massive scale that is both World War II and the Atlantic Ocean, Petersen is able to laser beam focus on the soldiers and the boat (the Submarine). All the tiny details that range from character traits and props to everything within the submarine is captured and given importance so that when the tension mounts, you feel every pulse pounding second of it. Most of us will never experience what it is like to live in a submarine carrying out death defying military missions. DAS BOOT will give you the closest feeling of experiencing it. I also think because this is a German story made by an all German film team, nobody could have made this movie better. All the specifics and texture are genuine and the movie feels real because of this. The entire cast of actors is excellent with all sorts of outstanding performances that bring the movie to life with courage, fear and bravado. JÜrgen Prochnow leads the team as the Captain and his portrayal is heartfelt and career defining. I'm not surprised this film jettisoned him into Hollywood. He has a very distinct look & voice which jell beautifully with the movie. Jost Vacano's cinematography is superb. He has many different lighting scenarios within the submarine to make you feel the heat, suspense and explosive drama. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in combination with Director's Cut Producer Ortwin Freyermuth have nearly outdone themselves with the Special Features on this Blu-ray. It was very neat to see Wolfgang Petersen - Back To The Boat which is an 3/4 of an hour-long documentary showing Peterson & Prochnow actually going back to Bavaria Film Studios to see the submarine sets and artifacts that are still present at the studio to this day. Petersen, Prochnow and many of the other people key crew members reflect back to the making of the movie, which is a cinematically rewarding experience and I loved every second of it. The submarine looks almost the same as when the film was shot a quarter of a century before. The Perfect Boat - The Director's Cut ended up being a marriage between the Theatrical Version and the much longer TV Version. Ortwin Freyermuth and Petersen tell the very engaging story of how difficult it was to pull off getting the Director's cut made. Not only financially connecting two movie studios from different parts of the globe but making use of the sound tapes that had been stored in Bavaria Studios, where a flood had taken place. They had to bake the tapes in a one shot try to see if that would allow them to access what was on them. The effort and the amount of work to make this all happen is mind boggling. Going Deeper: Maria's Take is 10-minute featurette where Petersen's wife Maria recalls what she went thru with her husband back on this important movie, which forever changed their lives. She was the 1st Assistant Director on DAS BOOT and we get to see all kinds of photos and footage of them working on the movie. Great stuff. Captain's Tour - Inside The Boat is very cool as JÜrgen Prochnow takes us back to the boat now and we get to go into each room to see how it looks now. There are two featurettes that make up a section entitled Historical Material; Behind the Scenes (1981) and The Battle of The Atlantic (1983). Behind the Scenes is 1-hour long and has tons of behind the scenes footage to show how the movie was made. The Battle of The Atlantic is about the actual war and has real footage and German narration to tell the story of the real boat the movie was based on. Plus you get a super informative Audio Commentary from Wolfgang Petersen. The quote used on he back of the Blu-ray is actually accurate and hard to argue against; "...One of the best movies ever made." |
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