June 3, 2003
Requiem for a Boot
I'm over the Requiem for a Dream debacle and I've moved on to Das Boot. No, hang on a minute. I have to revisit Requiem one more time. I really liked it, but I was unprepared for the intensity of the ending. I felt more physically ill at the end of Requiem than after any of the Faces of Death films. Requiem is an incredible study in taking the pursuit of one thing to it's most extreme conclusion. The character's actions were logical and insane at the same time. This was a well-made film and I liked it. But it's still not a date movie.
Now Das Boot was equally disturbing subject matter treated in a less disturbing way. My dislike for war movies in general comes from a (perhaps ill-founded?) belief that they are all about gung-ho, back-patting heroics. The stuff of Rambo movies. I prefer to take a look at the details... the human effects of war. I want to feel the claustrophobia of submarine life and the stickiness of being in a hot metal can for months. I wonder what men did to occupy themselves when day dragged on and how they acted when life and death choices had to be made in seconds. Explosions are fun, but the human experience is the meat and potatoes that I crave in a war movie. Das Boot focused on details and not great roaring gun battles in the Atlantic.
Somehow I ended up with the director's cut which clocked in at just around three and a half hours. I've never seen the original version, so I can't speak for added scenes, but I will say that for a film made in 1981, the digital remastering kept it from looking like those grainy Sunday afternoon versions of Star Wars you see on TNT.
I switched between dubbed and subtitled versions because the English dubbing was quite well done. About halfway through I stuck with subtitles because the original German just sounded way too cool to miss. My only complaint was that it was hard telling all of those bearded Germans apart in the shady darkness of the sub.
Comments
My better half doesn't share, nor does she understand, my fascination with war movies. I don't dig on the Rambo-esque patriotic quai-heroics crap, though. It's movies like Das Boot, that show a more intimate, personal version of war, that I truly enjoy. Making the inhuman more human (and showing it for the ugliness that it is).
Since you enjoyed Das Boot, try on Black Hawk Down and When Trupmets Fade, two of my favorite war flicks.
Forrest, I saw Black Hawk Down when it first came out in the theatres, and it was awesome! What I really would like to do is to read the book, which I am sure gives us a greater perspective on the intensity of the situation.
Good suggestions, Forrest. I'll add them to the Netflix list. I found HBO's Band of Brothers engaging for the same reasons I liked Das Boot.