During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 during Buchheim's 1941 patrol and one of Germany's top U-boat 'tonnage aces' during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. Several American directors were considered three years earlier, before the film was shelved.
It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.ĭevelopment began in 1979. Also, several different home video versions, as well as a director's cut (1997) supervised by Petersen, have been released.Īn adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 German novel based on his experiences aboard German submarine U-96, the film is set during World War II and follows U-96 and her crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic.
It has been exhibited both as a theatrical release (1981) and a TV miniseries (1985). The tower of the submarine, Bavaria Studios, Munichĭas Boot ( German pronunciation:, The Boat) is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. DM 32 million (equivalent to €34 million 2021)
