The Gun Counter

I just saw it for the first time. The Director's Cut, to be exact.

Great movie. It also shows that not all the Germans, even the military men, were goose stepping Nazis (hock, spit).

I thought the ending was a bit cryptic, almost film noirish. Not sure I would have written it that way.

Anyway, I'd like to hear everyone's comments and critiques.

Tubes 1 and 4...Fire Away!

I saw it on one night years ago and said oh cool, ive never seen that... so I flipped it on while I was surfing the web as usual...

95 hours later it was finally over!!!

Holy shit what a long movie...

Great film yes, but damn did they have to play out the entire 2 hours of them sitting on the bottom being quiet?

I love the movie, it's one of the best submarine movies I've ever seen, and even a couple of bubble heads I know said it's one of the best sub movies out there. I too have the director's cut.

I have no idea what mekender is talking about, they weren't on the bottom for THAT long. I suggest you read some of the novels out regarding our submarine service in WWII. The horror of 75% bad torpedoes (and NO ONE was willing to admit there was a problem - the problem was all with the boat crews and skippers, NOT the manufacturer, oh no, it CAN'T be the manufacturer - while our men died in submarines with fish that wouldn't blow up when needed. MANY, MANY good men died as a result of the Navy's refusal to consider there was a problem with the torpedoes.

I've read about sub crews which also died when running out of air while being chased from above and their batteries have almost gone dead, and the air is stale and heavy with carbon dioxide, men are getting sick and passing out, no one is moving unless they absolutely HAVE to. I tell you, this nation owes our submariners a LOT of gratitude, but there's also a reason they're called the SILENT SERVICE, 'cause you'd almost think they didn't even exist except for their kill ratios and simply incredible missions and accomplishments (most of which are still classified).

EVERY time I've met a submariner, I've never failed to shake his hand or thank him for what he's done and gone through. They are a special breed, intelligent and well disciplined, and frequently able to pull miracles out of their ass. Which, of course, makes it doubly hard when they have to kill another submarine, 'cause that could have been them and you KNOW there are no survivors (accident perhaps, but from a warshot - EXTREMELY doubtful).

I tip my glass to you submariners out there, no matter which nation you may be from (I'm sure there's nothing like driving underneath a hurricane knowing everything topside is a screaming mess and you're just cruising along 800 feet below the surface with a cup of coffee on your table).

I first saw it in a theater in '82(?) while on delayed entry to the Navy. It had me dripping with sweat. The realism (for the time) was remarkable. A great piece of cinematography.

Das Boot is good. IMHO, The Enemy Below - Kurt Jurgens as U-Boat skipper, Robert Mitchum as Destroyer skipper - is another classic. (I think it is in Netflix inventory.)

Not so sure about that "coffee cup on your table" at 800 feet during a hurricane; I'm thinking you might want to be holding the cup. I remember 27 degree rolls at 400 feet during a North Atlantic storm while on a Boomer - smoothed out to a slight roll at 700 feet - and that was no hurricane.

I've seen The Enemy Below. EXCELLENT! Also, regarding Das Boot, I was on the edge of my seat, too, from the way they portrayed the suspense while the boat was stuck on the bottom.

Mike: Can you suggest some titles for those novels you mentioned?

Everyone: What did you think of the ending? I think it was a bit of a letdown, realism be damned.

Note, I believe that I saw it on AMC so toss in commercials and I believe the movie was about 4.5 hours long in total.

Don't know about Mike's book list, but I can suggest Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward L. Beach. The book was loosely followed in the movie of the same name, (and the only other submarine movie I would view) although Hollywood interjected a Moby Dick scenario. Beach was a WWII submarine officer and wrote several other 'authentic' submarine books - I've read several - although they may be out of print now.

From Mike's post, I suspect he has read Silent Victory by Clay Blair. Jr. It is a history of the Submarine Force in WWII which does not pull any punches. The poor command decisions, abysmal torpedo performance and discrepancies between claimed and confirmed sinkings are all included. It is a somewhat daunting tome - my well-worn soft cover edition is over 1,000 pages - but IMHO is the definitive WWII US Submarine History book.

I'm sure both Beach and Blair made extensive use of the collection of war patrol log books in the library at the Submarine Base, New London. One used to be allowed to merely walk in, pull a volume from the shelf and thumb through it. (I did just that way back in the sixties when I was stationed there as an instructor at Submarine School.) However, I have heard that the patrol log library is now restricted to 'researchers'.

I'm shocked (SHOCKED I say) no one has mentioned Operation Pacific yet.

A couple more good books to read on subs is: "The Silent Service: Grayback Class" (part of a series of Silent Service books by H. Jay Riker, which also includes Ohio Class, Seawolf Class, and Virginia Class), but even better is a book called "Blind Man's Bluff" (The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage).

Add Silent Victory to those books and you'll have PLENTY of good reading till the end of the year (and beyond, depending on how much you read at one sitting).

WARNING: You might lose significant sleep reading these books 'cause you probably will have a hard time putting them down.