UKReb
Command Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2007
- Messages
- 2,436
Like-I'm sure-most of you guys on here I love this movie and have had a DVD copy of it for some years. But when I saw this BR edition (released only a couple of months ago) in a local shop for a fiver I realised I hadn't watched it for maybe six or seven years and bought it. The running time is slightly longer than any previous release but the quality of the HD picture is a knock-out.......and the sound? Well... utterly incredible.
Watching this version the other night only re-inforces my original thoughts that this has to be one of the most outstanding and authentic modern war-films in movie history. You all know the story of U-96's single mission into the Atlantic and it's disastrous attempt to penetrate the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar but the picture and sound of this disc brings home to the viewer the terrifying absurdity of life in a WWII German U-boat.
This truly is a brutally honest portrayal of once proud German wolf pack hunters who sank thousands of tons of Allied shipping but are now faced with a war that is turning very much in favour of their enemy. The good days are well and truly over as the prologue states:- 40,000 German sailors served in U-boats during WWII-30,000 never returned. Petersen's movie delivered a stunning evocation of the tensions and fear suffered by a U-boat crew. Constantly paralysed by fear these gallant doomed young men-aged by their ordeals in such untersee warfare- are shown in this movie not as arrogant Nazis or super beings but rather just ordinary frightened individuals-yet who still manage to retain a desire to do the best they can for their comrades and their country.
The cinematography by Jost Vocano is really top notch especially when using- I assume- a small steadicam as he literally runs immediately behind the crew as they race forward through the full length of their metal tube to increase the dive-angle when crash-diving to escape an Allied destroyer closing fast-Absolutely riveting cinema and the best darn fiver I've spent this year.
Reb
Watching this version the other night only re-inforces my original thoughts that this has to be one of the most outstanding and authentic modern war-films in movie history. You all know the story of U-96's single mission into the Atlantic and it's disastrous attempt to penetrate the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar but the picture and sound of this disc brings home to the viewer the terrifying absurdity of life in a WWII German U-boat.
This truly is a brutally honest portrayal of once proud German wolf pack hunters who sank thousands of tons of Allied shipping but are now faced with a war that is turning very much in favour of their enemy. The good days are well and truly over as the prologue states:- 40,000 German sailors served in U-boats during WWII-30,000 never returned. Petersen's movie delivered a stunning evocation of the tensions and fear suffered by a U-boat crew. Constantly paralysed by fear these gallant doomed young men-aged by their ordeals in such untersee warfare- are shown in this movie not as arrogant Nazis or super beings but rather just ordinary frightened individuals-yet who still manage to retain a desire to do the best they can for their comrades and their country.
The cinematography by Jost Vocano is really top notch especially when using- I assume- a small steadicam as he literally runs immediately behind the crew as they race forward through the full length of their metal tube to increase the dive-angle when crash-diving to escape an Allied destroyer closing fast-Absolutely riveting cinema and the best darn fiver I've spent this year.
Reb