пʼятницю, серпня 10, 2007

Das Boot- a superficial review.

Yeah... I'm really selling my review here by the title. It's one of those movies that you almost have to watch in multiple sittings and my brain is telling me that I haven't really finished cogitating where it's concerned, but oh well. If I don't write this now, I'm not sure when I will, so here goes:

It's a wonderful/awful movie. It's hard to explain. It's like watching someone you don't particularly like go out for a walk on what looks like a moderate, sunny day. Only you have this vague presentiment that they're going to get hit by a car or something. But because you don't particularly care for them, you're... not exactly concerned. More like curious to see whether or not your dire prediction comes true. And then bad things start to happen to them. Not the car hitting them yet, but other bad things- a dog chases them, their wallet gets stolen, it starts to rain and they lose their railcard. And then you start finding out that you really do care a bit about them- even if they've got some dumb/bad habits or even serious character flaws. Because you start thinking that they aren't so very different from you. And now you don't want them to get hit by that car after all, and you get more and more sure that they are going to get hit by that car... and you'd really rather they didn't. Yet, it's sort of like historical imperative, they're going to... Argh. This is a really bad analogy. Please forgive it.
Anyway, the movie is great. I'd say it's a must see, but I recommend seeing it all in one go. It's one of those weird movies where watching it is almost though not quite like penance. Weird imagery, right?
It's really weird to be rooting for the Germans. Especially if you've actually lived in England and heard stories about the war from people who survived it. You know you really should be cheering for whoever ends up sinking them, NOT for the wolves who are attacking supply convoys. But that little bit of text at the beginning is kind of haunting- out of the 40,000 German naval personnel who served on U-boats, only 10,000 saw the end of the war. That means that approximately 3 out of 4 people died. I started thinking about that in terms of the size of my class and it was rather sobering.
It kept you on the edge of your seat to the end. And the director was right for a change- it was not a movie about Nazis, or Germans, it was a movie about people.


SPOILERS BELOW!!
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I mean it!









You have been warned!





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As you may have guessed, this is not a happy movie. Everyone we care about except for one person dies. It seems horribly unfair, yet oddly enough you sort of know it's going to happen. I guess it's a typical tragedy. Hm. I think at a later date in time I may go around seeing how exactly that sets up from a literary point of view. I mean, some people you know are going to die because of the movie conventions- never show anyone pictures of your family or tell them about your girlfriend, etc. But the manner of their death. Well, everything ends where it starts... Very symmetrical. I would really love to make a music video to this, although I don't know what music I would use... I succumbed to buying not only the Prague orchestra's rendition of the main them, but also U-97's techno/elektronica mix. Perhaps the Last War of the Wolves? Now all I need to do is buy it, rip it and get to work... But I'm OT. The music is good if a bit 80s in places. The accuracy as far as I can tell is very good. There are a few very unnecessary points from my (prudish) POV- the whole bar scene in the beginning and the rear nudity throughout are quite unnecessary. I long to make myself a properly edited copy of the whole movie. Or perhaps find the original release version, so I can compare it to this director's cut one.
Familiar faces include the first officer (who I swear has played a Nazi in every movie that requires a vaguely handsome, arrogant young Nazi officer), Martin May as Ullman (see how my brain remembers some things really well and not others? I mean, how random is that? He's a fairly minor character), and of course the war correspondent is familiar to us though I forget his name too. Likewise the Captain who played Leto Atradies (sp?) in the old version of Dune.
Technical notes- All I can think of is that the subtitles needed help. There were too many times where there was just random shouting in German. A simple translation of "What's happening?", "We're all going to die!", and/or "Quick- pass the wire." would have satisfied me. It's just irritating to have nothing to read as there are various things being said.
Well, that is all I have for now. If I think of more, after my brain chews on it for a bit, I shall amend this post.