What do you realize about the true value of war movies by watching the drama version made after the movie ``The Boat'' was released?

The narrow Inferno of a submarine filled with foul smells

The first thing that strikes you when you watch the movie is how small the interior of the ship is. The main type of ``The Boat'' was the Type VII C, which was the most commonly manufactured type during the war. The total length is approximately 67 meters and the width is approximately 6 meters. Excluding the captain and other officers, three soldiers take turns sharing one bed. There is only one toilet. Furthermore, there is no food storage, so bread and fruit are all over the place, and sausages and bananas hang from the ceiling. There are no baths or showers. Forty-four men sleep and eat together for two months inside such a steel cylinder. I feel like I'm going crazy just thinking about it.

Director Wolfgang Petersen depicts the lives of the men trapped in such a small Inferno with a sense of realism. In the production of ``The Boat,'' a number of submarines of different sizes were prepared in order to take various shots of the submarine. First, a full-scale floating U-boat was built, but it could not be submerged. The diving scene was shot in miniature. In the studio, the inside of a U-boat was recreated as a huge cylindrical set, and the actors' performances were filmed.

"The Boat" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

Due to the setting of a grueling two-month voyage, filming was done sequentially. During this time, the performers were not allowed to shave their beards or even go out in the sun. In the movie, the actors' faces gradually become bearded, their eyes become sunken, and their complexions become ghostly pale, not due to makeup but to the real changes of the people trapped in the submarine. is.

The use of small cameras to capture the movements of the soldiers is also effective, giving a real sense of the cramped interior of the ship. I would especially like to pay attention to the depiction of a U-boat diving rapidly. Submarines fill their tanks with seawater to dive underwater, and an effective way to increase their speed is to make the tip of the ship heavier. Therefore, when a rapid dive order is given, the soldiers rush forward like crazy, folding themselves onto the bow of the ship, making the bow heavier, and trying to dive under the sea as quickly as possible. Although it is very analog, the full-speed dash of the soldier chased by this small camera can be said to be a famous scene that symbolizes ``The Boat.''

Furthermore, as we watch the soldiers fighting in a U-boat that has lost its ability to float due to aircraft bombing and has landed on the bottom of the ocean 270 meters deep, exposed to the fear of flooding, even the audience is trapped inside the submarine. The patient suffers from shortness of breath, as if he or she has been deprived of oxygen. This is a movie that people with claustrophobia should definitely watch out for.

``The Boat'' was released in Japan and America in 1982 and became a hit. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and received great acclaim. However, an unexpected person objected to that assessment. The original author is Lothar-Günter Buchheim.

Why did the original author criticize the movie so harshly?