MOVIE REVIEW : ‘DAS BOOT’ ON TV: MESSAGE IS DEEPER

The Z Channel is showing “Das Boot” at more than twice the length at which it was released in theaters. But that doesn’t mean it is twice as good or even that much different in substance. However, it is a decidedly different experience. Its first half premieres on Z Saturday at 9 a.m.

“Das Boot” (“The Boat”) was a classic World War II submarine action-adventure movie, the twist being that for once the heroes were German instead of American. That they were, however, enabled writer-director Wolfgang Petersen, in adapting Lothar Gunther-Buchheim’s semiautobiographical novel, to develop their story into a stunning, tragic anti-war protest.

At 1 hour, 45 minutes in theaters, it was fast-paced and exciting; at five hours it is often grueling, indeed, a real fanny-squirmer at times, especially if you know what’s coming from having seen the theatrical version.

Yet in being so lengthy, we feel all the more trapped in that narrow, cluttered U-boat with its quietly stalwart captain (Jurgen Prochnow, really superb) and his loyal men. And the more we experience the men’s hardships and claustrophobia, the more deeply we feel the film’s message. What “Das Boot” loses as sheer suspenseful entertainment at the far longer running time it gains in seriousness and indelibility. At either length it is a major cinematic achievement.

When Petersen shot his film he also shot a long version for German television and prepared this English-language version of it for the BBC. A subtitled five-hour version doesn’t exist, but no matter: only the minor characters seemed to be dubbed, and the English dialogue is on the whole excellent. If anything, that the men speak English (with only a slight German accent) only heightens what was already one of Petersen’s signal achievements, which was to persuade us to forget that the men were Germans.

“Das Boot” is that rare German war film that’s not about Nazis but about decent men who were as much the victims of Nazism as were many of their country’s enemies. You find yourself rooting for them only to say to yourself, “Hey, wait a minute, they’re supposed to be the bad guys.”

The edge-of-the-seat set pieces are all there and, of course, more extensive: the sequence in which Prochnow must take his boat to dangerous depths to hide from an enemy destroyers whose propellers are heard grinding ominously; the riding out of a savage storm; and the heroic salvaging of the vessel after a heavy attack. There is so much telling detail--e.g., the sailors, all of whom seem so young, being de-loused for crabs.

Throughout, the film is accompanied by increasingly bleak radio reports of the course of the war for the Germans. “Das Boot” leaves you feeling that the men in this movie were absolutely no different from their American counterparts--except that their superhuman efforts and great sacrifices were all for nothing.

After the first half on Saturday at 9 a.m., “Das Boot” continues Sunday at 9 a.m. It then again airs in two parts, starting at 8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday. For insomniacs, it screens in its entirety Thursday, starting at 1:30 a.m.