DAS BOOT (THE ORIGINAL UNCUT VERSION)
The WWII drama Das Boot is a different kind of war epic, at least for American audiences, because it was filmed from the German point of view, originally as a 1981 German TV miniseries. Four years later, It was imported that way by the U.S.’s Bravo cable TV network, while movie audiences in the States saw it as an edited-down big-screen version. Good as the movie is, the original uncut version is much, much better: This story of a German U-boat crew is intensified exponentially by having longer patches of tedium, and character development, between the claustrophobic bursts of frightening action. Jurgen Prochnow stars, but the real star is director Wolfgang Petersen, whose German miniseries so impressed Hollywood that he quickly was hired to direct The NeverEnding Story, and eventually directed such big films as Outbreak, The Perfect Storm and Troy. And right now, the uncut Das Boot is available at Amazon for $9.69– less than two dollars an hour. – David Bianculli