Das Boot - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Das Boot or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Das Boot

[liam]

Vigo is a coastal city in the Galician province in northern Spain. Two U-boats, U-506 and U-523, are reported to have been sunk near Vigo during the Second World War.

[chad]

Three scale models were built for special effects work. The first, a 35 foot remote controlled model, could sail in high seas and dive; the other two, 18 feet and 8 feet in length, were used for underwater shots. Scale models of tankers, destroyers and other ships were also built to complete the armada.

[ruby]

The scene in which the navigation officer takes an astronomical sight using a sextant is very accurate. The actor is even filmed rocking the sextant from side to side which is not very known to non sailors.

[amber]

When Werner first comes aboard the U-Boat, he is given an oxygen mask along with a survival gear kit, but told by the crew members that it's all "just for show". The mask does in fact save his life when the boat is damaged and the crew has to conserve air.

[ella]

To get one particular interior shot, a section of the model's wall was removed. However, Wolfgang Petersen and cinematographer Jost Vacano felt that it detracted from the film's overall authenticity, and from then on only ever filmed the interior from within the confines of the boat.

[javier]

The only film that year to be Oscar nominated for Best Director, but not Best Picture.

[caroline]

The bulk of the film's $15 million budget was spent on constructing U-boats. Specifications for the original Type VII-C U-boat were found at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The plans were taken to the original builder of the subs, who was commissioned to build a full-sized, sea-going replica, their first such assignment since the war ended. A second full-sized model was built for interior filming.

[jamie]

Rutger Hauer was offered to play the Captain, but turned it down to do Blade Runner (1982).

[chad]

Steadicams were not yet in use during the production of the movie. In order to get the fast tracking shots through the U-boat without a shaky image, director of photography Jost Vacano created a system of heavy gyroscopes together with his father that kept the camera steady as he ran through the hallways. The set of the U-boat had intentionally been built slightly bigger to give Vacano more room to work. Even so, as he had to look through the camera, he had to wear a helmet because he would regularly bump his head.

[fred]

The film's opening prologue states: "La Rochelle, France. Autumn, 1941. Germany's vaunted U-boat fleet, with which Hitler hoped to blockade and stamp out Britain, is beginning to suffer its first major setbacks. British freighters are now sailing the Atlantic with stronger and more effective destroyer escorts, inflicting heavy losses on the U-boats. Nevertheless, the German High Command orders more and more U-boats, with ever younger crews, into battle from their ports in occupied France. The battle for control of the Atlantic is turning against the Germans. 40,000 German sailors served on U-boats during World War II. 30,000 never returned."

[morris]

The cast was deliberately kept indoors continually during the shooting period in order to look as pale as a real submarine crew would on a mission at sea.

[nora]

The emblem on the U-96's conning tower is the Laughing Sawfish, the emblem of the 9th flotilla from Brest. It was usually green in colour.

[tom]

To help his actors convey the claustrophobic conditions found on a real U-boat, director Wolfgang Petersen insisted on filming within the actual confines of the ship (scarcely wider than a man's outstretched arms), rather than removing the model's outer wall.

[ken]

The human figures on the 35 foot model were modified Barbie (or rather Ken) dolls.

[maureen]

Some of the model sub scenes where shot in a small custom-built pond in the back lot of the Bavaria Film Studios. The same pond was later used in Enemy Mine (1985) and the The NeverEnding Story (1984) (The NeverEnding Story), both also Petersen movies.

[dustin]

With production costs of 31 million DM, it was for a long time the most expensive German movie ever made. It was beaten in 2006 by Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), which, however, was a German-French-Spanish co-production shot in English.

[christina]

The film omits references to a scene in the novel where Lieutenant Werner reads some of the First Officer's diary and in fact gains respect for the man who is otherwise generally disliked by the other officers.

[charlie]

Depth-charge explosion effects were created by detonating small explosives in a 5m-deep tank and filming them at 1500 frames per second.

[oscar]

The character of Phillip Thomsen is very loosely based on Heinz Hirsacker, the real life commander of U-572. Hirsacker was not as noble or brave as Thomsen is portrayed in the film and was never awarded a combat decoration for his U-Boat service, much less the Knight's Cross. He was further accused in 1942 of cowardice before the enemy after repeatedly avoiding enemy ships and retreating to base at the first sign of pursuit. Hirsacker was convicted by a court martial and sentenced to death, but committed suicide in 1943 before the sentence could be carried out.