So, in addition to the amazing music video I linked to yesterday, a couple amazing video clips online have caught my attention. The first one is a 20-second clip titled “The Dramatic Lemur” which, for my money, totally owns “The Dramatic Chipmunk” (which is really a prairie dog anyway). The second one is far more legitimate. It is not a Youtube clip. It is a musical entitled “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog“. I’m going to state just the facts about it, because those are all you need to shit your pants in amazement. It is created by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. It stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion (star of Firefly) as a supervillain and a superhero, respectively. It is a musical in three parts that are free online now, but will not be beyond Sunday. It is so amazing I can’t stand it. That last part was opinion, but damned if I don’t believe it’s fact.
Das Boot is a German movie made in 1981, written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Jürgen Prochnow. It is not the weird-ass drinking game featured in the climactic scene of Beerfest, though that also featured Prochnow, coincidentally. I assure you, he is not a strangely non-threatening corporate villain here. He’s a totally badass, half-crazy submarine captain.
This movie clocks in at 3 and a half hours, meaning it’s a real commitment of a movie, and like most commitments, you’re not really sure that everyone will survive the whole way through, and by the end, you’re sure everyone will not survive.
But let’s get one thing straight: this movie kicks total ass. I would not have expected a movie that’s so dark and introspective to have so many awesome badass moments, but this movie was choc-full-o’ them, and most of them came from Prochnow. He had this look that he would give from time to time that I would just pump my fist at, where his eyes would just narrow and slide lazily from a thousand-mile stare towards the person he was addressing, and he would break into a smile that was either rueful or sly, depending on the situation. I really was thinking, “Wow, this guy’s either totally insane or the most sane guy ever, but I can’t tell which yet.” However, as the movie progresses, I leant more towards the crazy side, though that really took nothing away from his character’s pathos.
Like with most of the movies I have reviewed positively on this site that may not be the most watched among my readers, I’m going to stray from spoilers, so I’ll focus on the technique side of things, since the plot is pretty consistenly great and in my mind, unassailable.
The writing: Awesome, because it has those long pregnant pauses that can build drama like words never can, and a great movie knows when to let a moment breathe; it also has those one liners that are like the word GRAVITAS!!!! scrolling across the bottom of the screen – like when the submarine is shipping out to sea and the reporter is taking pictures, Prochnow’s character says, “Take pictures of the crew returning, not putting out to sea. They’ll have grown beards by then. It would shame the Tommies to see mere boys give them Hell. Baby faces. Ones that should still suck mama’s breast.” He shows cynicism for the higher-ups in war, and for war in general, but he shows nothing but pride for his men, even though he knows they’re still children. The perfect leader.
The acting: Beyond Prochnow, it’s mostly awesome, though there were a couple of the minor sailors I thought were just not developed actors – not really anyone’s fault, they needed to cast young, so they got young actors. However, a couple supporting characters really caught my eye. Heinz Hoenig played Heinrich, the boat’s sonar operator and medic, and it’s sad that the movie was made nearly twenty years ago. Otherwise, I would have a new mancrush. He’s completely magnetic, and that comes without overplaying a single line. His performance was flawless. Also, Hubertus Bengsch plays the 1st Lieutenant, who is the staunch patriot for Hitler, who says all the right things, whose beliefs get broken down as he gets more broken down over the course of the movie. When he starts growing a beard with everyone else, you can tell and it rules to see that kind of character development.
The technical aspect of the movie, from directing to editing to sound and everything was the real star, however. I don’t want to get into real specifics, I just think that the very intimate and claustrophobic submarine setting was emphasized incredibly well, and I wish that people who see this movie after reading this try to keep that in the back of their mind when they watch the movie, because it really deserves appreciation.
This is one of my longest reviews, which is appropriate for a long movie like this, so I won’t drag it along any farther. Good movie.
I Ate My DVD Collection 
Kriti Godey said
You should totally link to the dramatic lemur and Dr. Horrible, because, you know, you can!
I need to brush up on German things… I head to Germany in about a month.
Aura said
Das Boot was a brillient movie and Hubertus Bengsch who played the first officer is a great actor (I would say that because my sister thinks he’s very nice wink wink). Do you think they will do a remake? Also fueled my ambition to visit Germany 🙂
Nicole Catá said
I think that “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” deserves its own review.
My hints are thinly veiled, my friend.