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Starring
Jurgen Prochnow, Herbert Gronemeyer, Klaus Wennemann

Director
Wolfgang Petersen

Year
1981

Genre
War

Synopsis
Directed by Oscar nominee Wolfgang Petersen and receiving a record six Oscar Foreign Film nominations, this German production rarely leaves the claustrophobic interior of a WWII U-boat whose mission is to torpedo an Allied convoy. The anti-Nazi crew and captain, played by Jurgen Prochnow, face horrors above and below the surface brilliantly captured by the hurtling Handy cam of cinematographer Jost Vacano.

TRIVIA:
Specifications for the original Type VII-C U-boat were found at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The plans were taken to the original builder of the subs, who was commissioned to build a full-sized, sea-going replica, their first such assignment since the war ended; to help his actors convey the claustrophobic conditions found on a real U-boat, Wolfgang Petersen insisted on filming within the actual confines of the ship; the submarine models built for Das Boot were also the ones used in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); in the scene in the La Rochelle bar, Otto Sander (Thomsen) was really drunk; the real Pilgrim (played by Jan Fedder) took his own life a couple of days after the movie was released.

Other titles in this Genre
Das Boot
Missing In Action