Revealing mistake: In one scene just before the attack on a big Hunter the young captain (Jürgen Prochnow) is sitting with his charts. Beside him he has got a glass of beer standing. The sub lurches heavily right and left in the hard weather, but the surface of the liquid stays the same.
Das Boot (1981)
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)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the first attack by the destroyer - where she misses the U-boat and throws her bombs further away - the boatswain makes 22, then 23 strokes on the slate of the Control Centre,thus counting the number of depth charges used against the boat. A few seconds later, in a shot from another angle, with the slate in full view, we see only 22 strokes. (01:03:30)
Trivia: All the actors were fluent in English and dubbed themselves in the English version.
Trivia: The full sized mock up of the U boat was rented by Steven Spielberg for use in the first Indiana Jone's film.
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.
2nd Lieutenant: First time on U-boat?
Lt. Werner: Yeah. First time. It's gonna be exciting.
2nd Lieutenant: Do you have a will?
Lt. Werner: Excuse Me?
2nd Lieutenant: 13 boats down last moth. Sank with men and mice. Exciting, huh?
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.
Captain: April fool. Practice makes perfect.
Question: During the film one of the officers was holding a bottle of Becks beer. Was the label on the bottle age/era appropriate?
Question: What's the music the German band are playing at the end when U96 returns to port?
Answer: It's the 'Erzherzog Albrecht Marsch', composed 1887.
Question: I know practically nothing about submarines, so this seemed a bit strange to me. When there's that huge storm, why do they keep staying at the surface, only going down for an hour at a time?
Answer: U-boats also travelled much faster on the surface...about 18 knots, vs only 8 knots or so beneath the surface.
Answer: Because that's what the U-boat was designed to do. Unlike modern nuclear boats, they didn't have the capacity to stay submerged for long periods - basically just as long as the air lasted; there wasn't atmosphere control equipment. They would 'snorkel' near the surface, recharge the batteries with the diesel engines, and then dive for a few hours at most before having to come back up and repeat the process.
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Answer: The label is absolutely correct, but at this time Beck's Beer was only for export and not regularly available in Germany.