It was a West German World War II film. In order to better understand the film, let's briefly discuss the historical background of the film.
After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles (hereinafter referred to as the Treaty) imposed clear restrictions on the German army: the army was limited to 100,000 people, and could not possess offensive weapons such as tanks or heavy artillery, and the German General Staff was abolished; the navy could only have 6 dreadnought battleships of 10,160 tons with 280 mm main guns, 6 light cruisers, 12 destroyers and 12 torpedo ships. Submarines may not be built or owned. The Air Force shall not be organized. (From a certain encyclopedia)
After the signing of the "Treaty", in order to launch the next war, Germany vigorously developed new weapons and equipment such as aircraft and tanks, the strength of the army and air force recovered rapidly, and in some aspects the concept and mode of operation even ahead of the world's advanced level. Compared with the army and air force, the strength of the German navy was greatly affected by the Treaty.
In the 20th century, there is often a saying in the military history circles: "Five years of army, ten years of air force, and one hundred years of navy." It means that it takes only five years to build a strong army, and as long as there is a decade to develop a strong air force, but the navy, it takes tens or hundreds of years. (As for why I say this, it is not within the scope of this article, and I will not explain it in detail here)
In the conditions at that time, the German Navy's aircraft carrier technology has lagged far behind the United States, Japan, Britain and other world naval powers, coupled with the vigorous development of the military, the army and air force are competing for limited production resources, steel production is not enough to support the development of large ships such as naval aircraft carriers, the most important thing is that Hitler did not focus on the navy at the beginning, he did not attach great importance to the navy, more attention to attacking France, Russia and other traditional strong enemies from land.
In this context, the Elite Dönitz of the German Navy proposed the idea of developing a submarine force (he himself was a German submarine captain commander during World War I, was captured, and was a legend), using "wolf pack tactics" to attack the enemy - forming submarine squads and concentrating multiple submarines to attack the target ship in turn. This tactic achieved great success in the early days of the Atlantic Naval War, and for a time, the German submarine force and Dönitz became "heroes" and were strongly touted by Hitler and the German Nazis.
But the good times were short-lived, and as the Allies deciphered the Enigma code, improved tactics, and developed radar technology, Dönitz's submarine force was almost devastating. In 1943 Germany lost more than 240 submarines (if I remember correctly, the total number of German submarines did not exceed 400 during World War II), and at the end of 1943, U-boats could only cruise at sea, after which the Allied Navy gained overall superiority over the Germans until the end of the war.
In general, the German Navy, like the Army, achieved certain results in the early stages of World War II, but as the war progressed, the result was to be beaten to the ground and "looking for teeth".
"Attack from the Bottom of the Sea" tells the story of a German U-boat during a mission after German submarine tactics have begun to decline. The film is based on the best-selling autobiography of war correspondent Buchheim. By Wolfgang. Directed by Petersen, Jorgen. Prochno and other starring. The film lasted more than three hours and was staged in West Germany on September 17, 1981.
At the beginning of the film, war correspondents split up brother (Werner by Hebbert. Grönemeer) was commissioned to go to sea with a submarine, and his mission was to record the heroic image and deeds of the submarine's officers and men with a camera.
On the eve of departure, the divergent brother in the U-boat commander Gritty brother (Commander Lyman by Jurgen. Led by Prosno), he participated in a party of submarine officers and men. In the bar, the officers and soldiers let loose skeletons, desperately drank heavily, flirted with women, and unscrupulously made unlimited out-of-line moves, and another submarine captain who had just been awarded the Imperial Medal held the toilet and vomited wildly, unable to stand up, and the brother himself was drunk and drunk, and the scene was a mess.
Fear – This is the emotional emotion that the director conveys to the audience at the beginning of the film. As the German Navy submarine force with the highest death rate in World War II, the death rate reached about 70%, which also exceeded the death rate of any class of the participating countries. The fear of death hangs over the heads of submarine officers and men all the time, so when they are on vacation, they will be drunk and dream of death, living a life with today and no tomorrow. The director took this as the beginning, explained the important plot elements for the film and made a good preparation.
Suffocation – this is the director's emotional control throughout. When the submarine sailed into the ocean, the parting brother felt very excited, and swallowed through the submarine. The experienced gritty brother vaguely reminded him that the difficult days were behind him. Sure enough, after a while, the parting brother felt uncomfortable. Narrow, sweltering, tormented, 50 people with a toilet, unable to bathe and grow small creatures - lice, moldy food, purring when sleeping, undisguised farting, the smell that can never be discharged, the most important thing is that in the vast sea, the only thing that can be relied on is themselves, and submarines as long as they are targeted by warships, they will be at an absolute disadvantage, death hangs on the heads of officers and soldiers all the time, depth charges are their lingering nightmares, officers and soldiers are always on the verge of collapse.
After being attacked by a depth charge, the first person on the ship to collapse was actually the veteran Joan, who after the ship was severely damaged, he carried life-saving equipment, left his post without permission, tried to escape, of course, he could not go anywhere! Under the regretful eyes of Brother Perseverance, Joan explained with trepidation: I don't know, why, I am like this, please forgive me, next time will not.
Brother Perseverance was originally ready to send Joan to the military court as a deserter, but after hearing that Joan had carried out nine cruise missions, he was immediately relieved, after all, under the pressure of a long time, Joan's collapse was not unforgivable. Brother Perseverance came back with the ship again.
Despair – this is the emotional experience that the director ultimately wants to express. Yes, it is a deep despair, and it is the despair after seeing hope again and again after the hope is shattered, and it is even more cruel and ruthless. Evading the attack of the warship, the officers and men of the ship who escaped death witnessed the desperate jump into the sea by the ship's crew that they had sunk, but could only turn away.
The captain of the ship's engine is a senior submarine officer, who is deeply trusted by his brother, and has already had a conflict with his wife before carrying out this mission, and has a greater burden. Feeling that the troops could not hold on, He decided to let the chief engineer and the brother go ashore at the supply dock and return to Germany by land.
Although the brother thinks that he can still insist, but he can escape the stuffy can of the submarine, of course, it is also a happy thing, he promised the small soldier on the bed, for him to send a letter to his French girlfriend.
Unexpectedly, the authorities not only did not agree to let the two people take leave, but also forced the submarine to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to return, which is an almost impossible task. In a death-like silence, Brother Jian Yi proposed a bold plan that ignited the hope of returning home to the officers and soldiers.
However, during the sneak, Lady Luck did not take care of them, and the Allied warships spotted the submarine and gave it a devastating blow. The submarine fell on the bottom of the sea more than 280 feet deep and could not move, the cabin entered the water, lost power, the air almost disappeared as visible to the naked eye, a large amount of physical exertion, life and death, the officers and men of the whole boat fell into a complete despair, feeling that this time was really over, but at the same time an incredible force erupted, and the submarine was finally magically repaired.
At the end of the film, the film finally entered the climax, Brother Jian led a submarine full of holes and officers and soldiers back to the military port, the dock was a crowd of people welcoming in the middle of the road, everyone cheered happily, witnessing another miracle of the imperial navy, the scene was very warm, but just when everyone thought it was a "return of the king" drama, it became a "meteor falling" in the blink of an eye, the military port suffered an air raid, the submarine was sunk by the allied bombers, and the second deputy, Joan, the creeps and other officers and soldiers were killed and injured countless times. Brother Fentou watched Brother Jianzhi stare dead at the gradually sinking submarine, and in Brother Jiantou's eyes, Brother Fentou and the audience felt the real ultimate despair...
The film adopts a strong realistic recording style. Although the film uses the brother as a war correspondent to follow the submarine officers and men to interview and cut into the story, but in order to better reflect the style of the film, to convey to the audience a stronger fear, suffocation and despair of the sensory experience, the film is not completely presented from the perspective of a third party, sometimes, or from the perspective of the brother of perseverance to tell the storyline, but in the beginning, middle and the last important node of the film, with the vision of the brother to tell the story and show the final ending of the officers and soldiers.
From the personal viewing experience, in layman's terms, this is a West German film bragging about the officers and men of the German submarine force, especially at the end of the film, the director designed the submarine back to the dock and was sunk by the Allied bombers, ostensibly, in order to better interpret the "desperate" mood, designed a reversal, but in fact, it gives people a feeling, but also implicitly expresses that the failure is not the fault of the submarine force - we have worked hard to achieve results, it is your other branches of the army that have lost the war, to some extent, Further advocating the German submarine force, to put it bluntly, is somewhat unconvinced. To be honest, in this film, I don't see any anti-war (note not war-weary but anti-war) sentiment, as long as a group of officers and soldiers who faithfully carry out orders. The director is suspected of using "selling misery" to cover up the truth - the German submarine force was also a powerful tool and accomplice to the Nazi war of aggression.
The director's design is obviously inferior, advanced technology and strong combat effectiveness can only determine the victory or defeat of the battle (moreover, the German submarine force is not always strong, as mentioned earlier, the later stage is also full of teeth), in the world anti-fascist war that concerns the life and death of all mankind, the final victory must be the righteous side, so Nazi Germany will be defeated, there is nothing to say. Any advocacy, whitewashing, or cover-up is futile and can only add to the laughing stock.
If you do something wrong, you can honestly admit it and reform yourself!
Watch fun movies and savor our own lives!
I'm too hopeful, see you in the next issue!
The pictures in the article are all from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author!