That Other Symbolic Scene

After mentioning some of the various double-meanings in my last post, I've been reminded of another such scene. At one point during the movie, after a successful attack on a tanker (primarily what these wolf packs went after at this point in the war), the majority of the U-96 crew got the *chance* to see the direct consequences of their actions in the faces of the many crew-members from the tanker diving into burning water (remember, it's a tanker that had been torpedoed) from their burning ship. The men are all horrified. This most clearly is another symbol of the German struggle and the rude-disillusionment that much of the country went through: the sudden realization of what had actually been going on for so long and what *they* had been entirely responsible for without truly understanding it. I again, hearkening back to my earlier post concerning the "innocence" of Germany, don't think this was a way for Peterson to try and acquire sympathy, but to truly portray how much of the nation most likely felt as things unfolded under Hitler over the course of the war (and more). Perhaps this is another moment in which Peterson is attempting to disconnect the SS from the regular German military (the officer doesn't react at the crew does).

The Symbolic Scene

While there are countless undertones, exclusive double-meanings, and hidden truths throughout Das Boot, the scene most interesting to me is the break-down of the engine man that eventually goes insane.

Das Boot is a movie solely based on the terrible nature of war, the horrible things which occur that never had to, and the terrible atrocities committed in the name of whichever country each character may be from (this case, clearly Germany). It is NOT about the specific problems that plague submariners. Since each aspect of the film carries more meaning that at first glance: the constant quasi-claustrophobic feel the camera/viewers gain from watching represent the choke-hold of war and the way in which people/nations are strangled by their "alliances," the loosening bolts/screws being the loosening bolts/screws of the war machine/effort--this film is depicting the first round of declinations of the famous wolf packs (submarine patrols). Here we are shown the mindset that seems to have been common (figuratively) among the German common-folks (engineers). Peterson is portraying the common sentiment held by the German people of the 1980's about how the war unfolded and the impact of it being a nation-wide catastrophe had on the masses as compared to the SS officers and higher-ups that are commonly the only ones shown having to deal with repercussions.

A Shared Persective

In Nick's latest post about the common view of the War taken on by the Third Man and Das Boot relates closely to another point mentioned earlier regarding the way in which the actual politics were represented in each of our films.

In The Third Man and Das Boot, politics were specifically avoided because the producers of both films were making statements about war itself; not the regime, but the horrible atrocities that can be brought on by such regimes. And most likely not simply by happenstance, these were the two films which created (and concluded with) the solely grim and dark mindset. In contrast to The Bicycle Thief, where the mindset is on the other side of the spectrum, as is the take on politics.

A First Look at the "Class" Struggle in Das Boot

The separation between ranks of power in Das Boot is drawn perfectly clear. The primary figure of the "elite" would be the cliche SS Officer who, throughout the movie, is doing his job representing the Führer and spreading the, now common, dribble of the Nazi party among the shipmates. This is where we see the strong dissasociation between the two social groupings in the sub.

The officer is constantly mocked by the rest of the deckands and sailors, reinforcing our idea of the dissociation of the two sides. This could be representing how out of place the Nazi officer was, in an attempt to clear the German conscious or some such thing since the regulars appeared to have beter morals and cordiality, but more likely is that Peterson simply used him as an icon for which the audience (and Germans themselves) to recognize the disparity between rank and file and the Germans' "brass."

Who suffers the most?

While Das Boot is without a doubt, a critical commentary of war as a concept in and of itself, Peterson clearly focuses almost entirely on the German point of view of the conflict. Most would expect the portrayal to be of huge success, but after viewing the film, the suffering endured by the Germans is almost inconveivable when compared to that of the Allies (the few portrayals of their ships...no negative/difficult circumstances are presented), while in reality, of course, their lives were not that much better.

This portrayal is a good represntation of the German sentiment of the 1980's. While they have moved away from the bitterness felt towards their conquerors, they begin to categorize the war as solely a wrecking ball, creating sorrow with each sweeping strike. However, in their hard look at the concept of war and what it brings, they all the same maintain that certain German nationalism: the power, the capability, the resoluteness through great. But, not all of the crew was drawn with the same courgagous, awesome characteristics. This raises the question: is Das Boot also making a commentary about the "classes"? In the film, they would be portrayed through rank and after some more analysis, I'll be back with my thoughts on the topic.

Das Boot

Erhalten Sie unten!!! But, seriously: how epic is this?

Das Boot is an awesome film because of it's incredibly epic "battle" (cat-n-mouse) scenes, but even more interesting because of its anti-war message and german production. While it does far from chronicle the atrocities of war commited by the German side, but it's message is still brilliantly clear: no war is a good war.

The entire presentation of the specific conflict being documented was carefully laid out to breed the inner-most, debilitating stress. The film was almost exclusively filmed inside the vessel, forcing the claustrophobic circumstance upon the viewer--no more than 5% of the film is "out-of-sub."

The film is a journey through the life of U-96, a german "unterseeboot" with extraordinary marks for tonnage sunk--aproximately 230,000 tons destroyed over the course of 11 patrols, having not lost a single crew member. Thus, it is a revealing decision of Wolfgang Petersen to choose this topic and present it in this manner for his film.

Eltsy and Gorby

In August of 1991, Russia went through a ginormous transition and President Gorbachev and Russian President Eltsin gave a very interesting presentation at the Duma session following the coup attempt. While their shpeel appeared incredibly caring, honest, and chivalrous in their dealings with the "plotters," it does not appear that they actually say anything.

Let me defend that statement a bit; the reforms promised are incredibly moving and make us think of happy freedom-lovers, but much of what follows their proclamations is less transparent. First, they repeatedly use the phrase "legitimate way" like that actually carries weight. What's more, the phrase is used as hedging in response to one of the audience-asked questions: "I repeat, however, that everything should be done in a legitimate way." Second, the *massive* amounts of appointments being given out. After a huge chunk of the government had just been forcefully removed from power, the ones left in power are given the full responsibility of *choosing* the successors? They even try to justify this notion by the argument that they had been voted into power by the people and are thereby representative. There are two things wrong with this statement. Good thing all of those officials had been the best of the best...oh, wait. It's the same group of people voting for the successors. Second, no way the public can have faith in their government at this point (currently, nothing had been done about the rebels yet, either and the criminal organizations hadn't even been shut-down).

The whole of the "new" platform appears to be based on transparency and true democracy, yet they continue to sway away from it and back into the bloated, foggy governmental cesspool that had just caused all the problems. Now, I'm not sure why they went in this direction--as at this point, I'm unaware of any gains they'd, well, gain--but it clearly is fairly hippocritical, if not only poorly planned.

The honesty about not having read any of the notes leading up to the Duma's session was quite refreshing though.

Picture for the lolcats (THE RUPPIES--Russian Hippies)