Display MoreThis is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is the continuation of last week: the second half of Das Boot! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. We'll be starting at the two hour mark. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST, but feel free to drop by and hang any time! Anyone is welcome, even if you didn't catch last week's first part of the film.
The Story So Far...
The movie begins with Jürgen Prochnow's captain driving Warner, a war correspondent, to meet the submarine's crew who are celebrating the night before their next cruise in a French bordello. The sailors are drunk and chaos ensues after another U-boat captain gives a speech insulting Hitler. Rowdy men harass the French singer and fire a pistol and fistfights break out all around.
The next day, after some discussion with the captain the submarine leaves its dock in France for a lengthy planned cruise.
We meet more of the crew as Werner tours the ship and learn that they are largely apolitical. Most are extremely young and more concerned with girlfriends and other thoughts of home than anything else. One watch officer is an adherent Nazi and we see that the rest of the crew thinks poorly of him. The spaces on the ship are cramped and the days are long; the crew spend their time bickering and boasting among one another and going through the routines of everyday life.
After a time, an enemy convoy is sighted and the submarine begins an attack. One of the convoy's escort destroyers spots the sub and targets it with depth charges. They are able to escape after a tense dive to escape the reach of the destroyer's weapons.
There is more boredom for the crew as they spend weeks traveling through heavy storms. We follow a lot of everyday life: meals, medical checks, cloud talk about the state of the world. Some interactions between men become tense as the boredom and fear increase.
At one point, the sub happens to run into another U-boat captained by the man who had spoken against Hitler in the bordello and everyone celebrates it as though the encounter were a joyous homecoming.
Next, in a dramatic sequence that Wing Commander movie viewers will find extremely familiar, the U-boat finally discovers an enemy convoy and attacks, sinking multiple ships before another destroyer sights them. To escape, they must again dive–this time below the recorded safety limit for their boat.
The U-boat manages to escape but one of the crew breaks during the attack and has to be physically restrained. The first half of the movie ends with the U-boat damaged but still alive and the crew stopping to finally rest.
