Stratospheremodels Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) I had watched this more than 20 years ago, and i am surprised i had forgotten how good this movie is. This is one of the best tension scenes i have seen, and one of the best of the movie. It is best watching this scene in a quiet environment, such as at night, or with headphones to really get the most out of it. Life conditions aboard a small U-boat must have been quite miserable, with the bad weather, wet clothes, rotting food, the constant humidity and diesel and oil smells, not to mention poor hygiene, compared to the modern giants that are most of today's submarines. This is probably one of the best movies about what it was to be at war and to patrol at sea. It's also impressive when you remember that the basic U-boat design of WWII was more of less the same as the ones already used earlier in WWI. Impressive to see how fast we went from sailing ships to diesel and electric underwater boats that are so technical. I had also forgotten how good looking the photography was (those colors in the control room). When i first saw parts of it again 1 month ago, i thought they had really gone far for the sets, looks very real to me... but one minute... wait, these are not sets (!), looks too real to be just sets ! After watching the later parts of the movie, I realized that they had used a real U-boat in the port scenes (i had no idea there were still 'functionnal' U-boats, maybe they towed that one for the scenes. So i am pretty much sure they used the real U-boat for the interior scenes. Stephane Stratosphere Models Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels Email: stratospheremodels@yahoo.fr Edited April 28, 2012 by Stratospheremodels Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nerdling Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Nope they were sets. The film crew made a full size mock up of a Type VIIC. It was powered by a small engine. They also made a full size mockup of the interior that was basically just a big tube. If you can find it try and watch the Original Uncut version of the movie. Interesting fact though. The mock up was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here is some more info for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot. This is the version I am talking about also http://www.amazon.com/Das-Boot-Original-Uncut-Version/dp/B0001XAOLQ It fills in some of the backstories for the crew. One of my favorite movies as well. I watch it every few months. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stratospheremodels Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) Nope they were sets. The film crew made a full size mock up of a Type VIIC. It was powered by a small engine. They also made a full size mockup of the interior that was basically just a big tube. If you can find it try and watch the Original Uncut version of the movie. Interesting fact though. The mock up was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here is some more info for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot. This is the version I am talking about also http://www.amazon.com/Das-Boot-Original-Uncut-Version/dp/B0001XAOLQ It fills in some of the backstories for the crew. One of my favorite movies as well. I watch it every few months. That's what i also thought for a moment when i looked at some of the camera angles used to film the crew in the control room, and at least one of the technical pieces of equipment in the sub looked like it might be a prop to me, but everything else looked so real that i thought they had either stripped a real U-Boat and naval scrapyards for parts of real subs or had used the real thing. Thanks for pointing that to me, it means that Wolfgang Petersen and the studios spent a lot more efforts and money to recreate the story of U-96 than i thought. So that explains one of the scenes that i just saw (with the U-boat in Really heavy sea-weather which was impossible to have been filmed with a miniature model (no matter how large). After 20 plus years, what i remembered most about it was how the Captain always asked his radio-man to play that French song for him on his portable record player, the drunken celebrations before their departure, plus that record depth dive near Gibraltar, and that brutal ending, i am still surprised i had forgotten how good it looks and how well made it was. I also watched it in German, without subtitles for some scenes. You don't need a traduction, it is more interesting that way in particular for that scene. I kept trying to guess the role and grade of each crewmembers, it is not too difficult to figure out (having read many submarine and navy novels in my teenage years, and already being familiar with many aspects and equipments of navigation (my father having been a merchant navy Captain and teacher of navigation, meteorology, radar and other navigation equipments). I'll really have to see the inside of one of the original U-boats one of these days, as i believe they have at least one (perhaps one of the boats that served in the French Navy after WWII) that is kept at a museum at one of the ex-U-boat bases at Lorient or LaRochelle. Stephane Stratosphere Models Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels Email: stratospheremodels@yahoo.fr Edited April 27, 2012 by Stratospheremodels Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dmk0210 Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) That movie is a classic. A good example of how movies should be done. I went aboard the USS Growler moored next to the USS Intrepid museum in NYC. That was a much bigger boat, yet still seems so cramped. I can't imagine going to war in such a vessel. Edited April 27, 2012 by dmk0210 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChesshireCat Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Nope they were sets. The film crew made a full size mock up of a Type VIIC. It was powered by a small engine. They also made a full size mockup of the interior that was basically just a big tube. If you can find it try and watch the Original Uncut version of the movie. Interesting fact though. The mock up was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here is some more info for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot. This is the version I am talking about also http://www.amazon.com/Das-Boot-Original-Uncut-Version/dp/B0001XAOLQ It fills in some of the backstories for the crew. One of my favorite movies as well. I watch it every few months. I read where they actually used either the U-96 or U69 for filming that great movie gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
daywalker Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 After walking through the U-505 in Chicago (which is the larger Type IX) I was claustrophobic for a week! I can't even imagine what it would have been like for those men. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 (edited) If any of you are PC gamers, grab a game called Silent Hunter III. You are commanding a German u-boat. Add in all the mods to make it as realistic as possible and then try to complete a single patrol in late 44 or early 45. It's next to impossible. These guys pretty much were going out on suicide missions towards the end of the war. Really gives you some idea of what they were up against. Das Boot is one of my favorite movies. Edited April 28, 2012 by 11bee Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ixgr1 Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Have always 'loved' this movie (even in German). It is one of the few war movies that does nothing to glamorise itself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nerdling Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 (edited) I read where they actually used either the U-96 or U69 for filming that great movie gary The story was based loosely on a story about the U-96. Here is a link from uboat.net with some more info. http://www.uboat.net/special/movies/item/1 I have that Silent Hunter 3 game as well. Great game but man it is difficult to do much of anything in it. Edited April 28, 2012 by nerdling Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Y The story was based loosely on a story about the U-96. Here is a link from uboat.net with some more info. http://www.uboat.net/special/movies/item/1 I have that Silent Hunter 3 game as well. Great game but man it is difficult to do much of anything in it. SH3 is incredibly accurate, especially with all of the mods added on. In the early days, you pretty much kick butt and can rack up huge tonnage scores without a care in the world. By early 45, you feel like a hunted rat from the minute you leave port. Forget about getting any kills, if you can simply get to your patrol location and return without being killed, that is a major accomplishment. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChesshireCat Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 After walking through the U-505 in Chicago (which is the larger Type IX) I was claustrophobic for a week! I can't even imagine what it would have been like for those men. U-Boats were not made for fat boys for sure, and they earned their nicname "stink boat." gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Definitely in my Top 5 movies! 'Tiefenmesser 180'? Howzabout when it rocks off the scale at 260?? "God tossed a shovelfull of sand under us!" (Won't put a spoiler in here just in case...but man, that ending!) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stratospheremodels Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 (edited) During the war, one U-Boat captain pushed the audacity as far as landing in Gaspé, province of Québec, to buy bread. The town is about a 100 km from where i was born. There were big long range guns on the coastline at Forillon up a cliff (they are still there today and the bunkers can be visited), however they couldn't fire low. The Germans knew this and would surface close to the coastline and be untouchable by the guns. They sunk many ships in the St-Lawrence River. I wonder if there are any wrecks of U-Boats in the Gulf estuary, but given the legendary murky green waters of the Gulf, i doubt any diver would be able to record much on camera (and would see very little). I'll do a bit of research to see what i can find. Stéphane. Edited April 28, 2012 by Stratospheremodels Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stratospheremodels Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 (edited) You know, i've just found information about an important U-Boat operation concerning my native region and an area very close to where i have family in New-Brunswick (just the other side of the Bay of Chaleur): Operation Kiebitz. I had never heard about that story before, but it is fascinating. It involved an escape plan of some of the most successful U-Boat commanding officers who were held as POW in a town in Ontario. The 4 U-Boat captains were to escape and be picked up by U-536 on the coast of the Gaspé peninsula (the other mention of this story that i just found in a book mentions the location of Maisonnette, actually on New Brunswick province's side of the Bay. I know well the area, i have swimmed at that beach when i was a teenager (and saw two screaming CF-101 Voodoo fighters pass VERY low over the sea right next to the beach only moments before). The beach is really nice in that area, with lots of high sand dunes and some sand dune grass (unlike on the Gaspé coast where it is mostly rocks and 'galets' and just a little sand). The attempt was foiled and the Canadian Navy was waiting in the Bay of Chaleur to ambush the German sub. But another German captain did manage to escape and after a 1400 km trek nearly made it to the submarine (only to be captured at the last moment). The U-Boat managed to escape the trap. It would make a great war movie. http://uboat.net/books/item/67 Edited April 29, 2012 by Stratospheremodels Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stratospheremodels Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 (edited) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowmanville_POW_camp 'Skull fractured by a thrown jar of jam'... Probably one of the strangest battle of WWII, fought with sticks, baseball bats and water hoses. The German U-Boat officier POWs in Bowmanville seemed to have had an exceptionnally comfortable stay there, 'they had a pool, tennis court, a garden of vegetables and flowers, were able to purchase beer as well as items from the LaBaie catalog and receive and spend money from their families'. Again, i am discovering more things i didn't know that happened in my backyard. Absolutely fascinating stories. Stéphane Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels Email: stratospheremodels@yahoo.fr Edited March 6, 2013 by Stratospheremodels Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rpeck Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 One of the best war movies . Read the book also it is just as good.The first part was a little boring but after I read it I thought that is what the writer was getting at. From boredom to terror. One thing I know I don't think I could have done it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stratospheremodels Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 (edited) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSDYOdQ9YiQ An very good documentary on the Typhoon, the biggest nuclear submarine in the world and what it's like to live on board that ship. When i compared it to the other contemporary US subs i kind of prefer the look and atmosphere in the Typhoon submarine (the US subs look way too modern for my taste with all the LCD screens everywhere), it also kind of reminds me of the German U-Boats as like them it have an interior that have lots of wood paneling, machinery that kind of remind me of the old U-Boats (except for the control room), but of course the interior is much bigger and they seem to have a lot more comfort than either the U-Boats or even the US subs, even a sauna and their own indoor pool ! But some areas look crude, like inside the conning tower. Their emergency respiratory equipment also looks like it was directly taken from the Germans in WWII, except for the full face mask and another component, it look pretty much identical. It's also a bit crazy when you think this is a sub that was designed during the 1970's and built during the 1980's. I always thought that these things and other modern subs were made of titanium, but several documentaries i saw make it clear they are made of steel (a client of mine who was a submariner once told me how they cut up his boat after it was decommissionned and each crewman got a square piece of the titanium hull as a souvenir. Forgot to ask him what type of sub it was). Surprising to see all the rust on that sub and all those old style openings on the sides of it for the air and ballast water, like on the old U-Boats. I also wonder why they went back to the old trick of using rubber on the outside of their sub, like the Germans had used to cover their snorkels with "stumpf" during WWII. The captain of the sub is interesting, he looks the part as a submarine commander. I maybe have not seen too many of them in the documentaries, but when i compared with the US sub captains i saw, i somehow felt he 'fits' the part better than they did. Just my opinion anyway. I was surprised that he was wearing the same blue "factory" work uniform as his men, a throw back to the old Soviet Union. But the last part of the video is kind of bitter, especially when you see the sacrifices they have to make with their private lives because of their job and the kind of place where he have to live. You can tell his real life is on his ship. Some are more lucky though, like his chief mechanic. Stephane Stratosphere Models Email: stratospheremodels@yahoo.fr Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels Edited August 15, 2012 by Stratospheremodels Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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