Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: German
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: February 21, 1995
• Run Time: 150 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302739624
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,118 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

VHS tape. In the midst of World War II, as the tide turns against the Axis, a German U-boat crew is sent out to patrol the Atlantic and fire at Allied ships bringing supplies to England. The submarine also carries a press correspondent, there to report from the front lines of nautical warfare. Meanwhile, the crew's captain (Jürgen Prochnow) is becoming disillusioned with the Nazi regime and with war in general. What starts out as a routine mission is soon livened up beyond the crew's expectations when their boat's surprise attack on a convoy is thwarted by a fast-moving destroyer. Battered by depth charges, the crew must pull together to survive the attacks of their unseen enemy.Widely considered to be director Wolfgang Petersen's best film and one of the finest German films ever made, The Boat (Das Boot) is stunningly realistic in its portrayal of the cramped conditions aboard a German submarine. Based on a novel by Lothar G. Buchheim, it is a striking example of an intelligent antiwar film clothed in the guise of a military thriller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING, December 11, 2002

By 

Kelly K. Dunn "quadzero" (the Heartland of the United States of America) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boat [VHS] (VHS Tape)

There is no doubt in my mind DAS BOOT will be regarded as one of the outstanding war movies ever. Wolfgang Petersen masterfully shows us the horrifying experience of WWII naval warfare. This epic shows what it was like to roll around in the North Atlantic on a 67.1-meter Type VIIC Kriegsmarine unterseeboot. Jurgen Prochnow's superior performance as the veteran captain of the U 96 is enhanced by Herbert Gronemeyer, Lieutenant Werner the German War Correspondent, Klaus Wenneman, U 96's Chief Engineer. Technically, this movie is very realistic; the actors were kept indoors during the filming of the movie giving the crew a real pale look that submarine crews were subject to being out to sea for lengthy periods of time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate WW2 drama., November 11, 2001

By 

Marc Russell (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boat [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Do not be misled by some of the ad copy which described this excellent film as "the other side of WW2". It does not attempt to convince the viewer that the Nazis were maybe not so bad, but is merely a gripping drama set almost entirely aboard a German submarine, and is probably the best film in that small sub-genre (submarine/war) ever made. Definitely worth seeing.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story, bad dialogue, August 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boat [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I watched the English-language VHS version of "Das Boot" last night, and I have to say that the story is great, but the sound was terrible. It was hard to understand the dialogue because it was little more than a whisper, heavily-accented, and too fast-paced. Instead of being dubbed, it seemed the movie had been reshot with all the actors speaking English. If this was the case, it was not a good idea because many of the actors struggled with the language. It would have been better to have the dialogue dubbed by people more fluent in English. I guess it's a better idea to get any foreign movie in its original language with English subtitles.