Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
The skipper of the WESER welcomes the U-boat's first officer and calls him Kapitänleutnant (Lt. Captain), although it must obvious to him that the man is no more than a Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant). An Oberleutnant shows two narrow golden rings on his sleeve, while a Kapitänleutnant shows one narrow between two wide rings.
[This is a character mistake.]
In the underwater scene following the first depth charge attack the large calibre machine-gun behind the conning tower can't be seen. Was this a different boat or model? [When a submarine submerged, the AA machine guns would be taken below, as would the breech mechanism of the gun.]
Corrected by John Elwen
In order to make sure the cast looked the part and had the pale, pasty complexion that the real submariners would have had from being cooped up in the sub for such a long period, they were kept indoors for the shoot's duration. [This would have risked disrupting filming due to actors passing out from Vitamin D deficiency - quite apart from the fact that some of the film is shot outdoors. The sallow, pasty look was a brilliant make up job by Alfred Rasche and Ago and Rudiger von Sperl.]
Herbert Grönemeyer, the actor who plays the reporter, has become famous in Germany as a pop singer. As far as I know, "Das Boot" was the only acting role he ever had. [Actually he appeared in 7 movies from 1976 to 1985 including Das Boot.]
At the end of the movie, as the sub sinks, it disappears below the surface of the water, and we should see a large amount of bubbles as air is forced out the open hatch of the conning tower by the water flowing in. Even if the conning tower hatch was closed, there should be air bubbling out from somewhere as it is displaced by the water. [No, we shouldn't. The submarine is holed in the attack and since the hatch is open it is an 'open system', hydraulically speaking. Water pressure forces water into the holes in the hull and the air is displaced through the hatch. This means that by the time the hatch itself sinks to the surface of the water there will be no air left in the hull.]
You may also like: Titanic | Saving Private Ryan | Apocalypse Now | Downfall | Black Hawk Down
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