Stupidity: No U-boat commander is going to "finish off" a ship that is dead in the water and is on fire from stem to stern. He exposes his boat and his men to mortal peril by surfacing, brightly lit by a full moon and the fires burning on the sinking ship, making them a sitting duck for the destroyers that might well be still in the area. He also wastes a precious torpedo for absolutely no net gain.
Das Boot (1981)
1 stupidity
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: Jurgen Prochnow, Herbert Gronemeyer, Hubertus Bengsch, Klaus Wennemann
Other mistake: When attacking the convoy, the crew rushes forward during the crash dive. Just after a crew member jumps through the hatch after the bow crew compartment, you see someone standing still a second before getting pushed in the view of the camera. (01:31:15)
Captain: I'm sorry.
Lt. Werner: Is it hopeless?
Captain: It's been 15 hours. He's not going to pull it off. I'm sorry.
Lt. Werner: I asked for it. 'To be heading into the inexorable... where no mother will care for us... no woman crosses our path... where only reality reigns... with cruelty and grandeur.' I was drunk with those words. Well, this is reality.
Trivia: The movie is based on actual events and some of the characters have existed in real life. One of them, Pilgrim, took his own life after the book on which the movie is based was released.
Question: During the film one of the officers was holding a bottle of Becks beer. Was the label on the bottle age/era appropriate?
Answer: The label is absolutely correct, but at this time Beck's Beer was only for export and not regularly available in Germany.