(The Director's Cut)
Subject: Film Editing 101
I'm just gonna have to break down and get that 3½-hour version of DAS BOOT. The curiosity is killing me. I'm guessing that the extra hour breaks down as follows:
5 extra minutes of Werner on the bridge yelling and getting splashed
5 extra minutes of gazing wistfully at photographs from home
5 extra minutes of ALAAAAAAAARM!
5 extra minutes of booger-flicking
5-minute shot of Werner cleaning up after getting hit with the grease rag
5 extra minutes of signalling to the other U-boat
5-minute shot of the Chief finishing that crossword puzzle
5 extra minutes of the bucket brigade
5 more extra minutes of ALAAAAAAAARM!
5 extra minutes of Johann blithering in fear
5 extra minutes of Johann blithering in apology
5 extra minutes of crab inspection (we didn't see EVERYBODY's butt)
Subject: Das Boot x 2
Well, I did it... I got the 3½-hour version of Das Boot and spent a long afternoon in hell watching it. Of my predictions, the only ones I got right were:
- more gazing wistfully at photos from home
- more bucket brigade
- more ALAAAAAAAAARM!!!
No kidding, there was a whole new ALAAAAAAAAARM in there, which I personally found very gratifying, but it didn't make the movie any better. Looked to me like they worked in every frame of film they shot that wasn't actually an outtake. There were a number of whole new scenes, but the bulk of the addition was an excessive dragging-out of the cat-and-mouse sequences between the sub and the destroyers, particularly the first incident when they tried to attack a destroyer in rough seas. The prelude to the action was MUCH longer (I'm going to be hearing "right full rudder, ninety degrees" in my sleep for the next two weeks), and there were long, long lulls in between spates of depth charges, and they worked another flooding crisis in there as well. It was just tiring. Another thing they did that wasn't so good was throw in a bunch of extra scenes to show how boring life on a sub is when there's no action going on. A couple of them were fairly entertaining, but mostly they serve to make the audience as bored as the crew.
Otherwise, it was a whole lot of extra...you know...stuff. Bits of dialog here and there, shots of repairs being made, orders being given, underwater scenes, overwater scenes, explosions, flooding, brooding, waiting, listening, quavering, talking it over, and just general all-around stuff. Nothing special.
They re-did the dubbing to a considerable extent, changing the dialog in spots and even replacing the 2nd lieutenant's voice (whoever did it the first time was much better). All the script changes I caught were inferior to the original, and totally unnecessary. They even added music in one or two places where they shouldn't have.
They also cleaned it up, which is just bizarre. Watching the first English version, you know the German script must have been a lot more vulgar - they're submariners, for pete's sake. I don't think they call each other "pathetic idiot." It used to have a few words that aren't for the kiddies, but not many. The dialog in the long version is downright pristine - except for Thomsen's speech, for some reason. This is seriously disconcerting, especially if you remember what they DID say the first time. Even "jerk-off" was changed to just plain "jerk." There's something to be said for the comedy value of replacing "there goes our Christmas screw" with "there goes our Christmas stocking," but the degradation of, uh, verisimilitude doesn't work very well in this film. I'm sorry, but whoever decided to do that will just have to go to bed without milk and cookies.
There were also spots where they showed EXACTLY the same thing, but used a different take(?!). Just because it was there, I suppose. I will give this version credit for looking better, however. The overall picture quality seemed to have been improved, and they got rid of the continuity problem with the lighting during the night scenes.
The best thing about it is that it makes you newly aware of how brilliant the original release was....which is pretty much what I expected.
In that sense, it wasn't a bit disappointing.
I'm amazed at the way you've slated the Director's Cut. Obviously it's not as good as the original 6 hour German job but it's certainly superior to the 2.5 hour version. The only point I agree with you is on the language - it's been tidied up to the extent to render it pathetic ('smart guy' instead of asshole, 'feet' instead of fart etc etc) but that's all. If you look closely the 1981 edition is fairly disjointed in places and the scenes don't flow logically. Example: Werner & 2nd Lieutenant on bridge in bad weather - Werner yelling as usual. Then you see a cable break and those on watch have to rescue Pilgrim. He's brought down and the hatch closes as Kriechbaum, the navigator, collapses at the bottom of the ladder. That doesn't make sense and you wouldn't have both the 2nd & 3rd Watch Officers on bridge at the same time anyway. In the Director's Cut you can see that these are actually 2 separate scenes that have been merged on the earlier version. Example: the crab scene. In the 2.5 hour version the First Lieutenant emerges from the bog but you wouldn't definitely know he had crabs unless you'd seen the restored version where the Chief Engineer breaks the news to him over lunch. (It's more funny too). Basically the extra scenes 'make' the film more complete. And yes, it does drag it out but then that's part of the point of Petersen's making the film in the first place; it was to show life on a U-Boat and it was boring and cramped and the crew did get on each other's nerves. I won't go on about the technical stuff on the restored version - visit the Das Boot official site if you want to know the ins and outs but it enhances the film like nothing else. I see you don't like the 2nd Lieutenant's voice on the restored version; that's tough - Martin Semmelrogge dubbed his own lines and I'd much rather have that than some pseudo Germanic accent.
i did find the original bridge scene confusing, but never thought about its making more sense in the longer version - i tend to be pretty glazed over by the time all that comes along and am no longer thinking about much of anything.
i do know a lot of people who were horrified by the idea of a "director's cut," but also a lot of people who are horrified at anyone's slamming it; as one person put it, "More is MORE!"
details about the versions themselves aside, i think it's partly a matter of temperament and past experience with the phenomenon. those who were lucky enough to see the original tv series won't quibble over one hour more or less. some who have only seen the films just can't get enough of that stuff. my problem was that i sat down to it hoping (but not quite believing) that the extra hour would not even be noticeable, as it would merely fly by with 60 minutes' more excitement than the shorter film. well before the first cassette ended i was moaning, "oh, dear god, is this EVER going to end?" and i hate to have to think that about what was one of my 5 favorite movies before The Director's Cut came along... and i'm still sore at Wolfgang Petersen for making me think it.
in conjunction with that, it makes me sad that the film is most likely losing a piece of audience because of that. the Director's Cut is the only version available new on video, and the short one is starting to become scarce even in video rental stores. i do tell people to watch the Director's Cut rather than not see it at all, but i've seen too many people give me "that look," growl suspiciously and ask, "Is that one of those long ones?"
oh, just three and a half hours. no big deal.
so they don't watch it.
technical improvements aside - and continuity problems - i think Petersen took the right approach the first time: compacting a mini-series into a film which gets all the important points across in a reasonable length of time. The Director's Cut gets them across in an unreasonable length of time, at least for something that's presumably meant to be ingested in a single sitting.
interesting trivia about the 2nd lieutenant's voice, though i'd have to see documentation on the original dubber's "pseudo-germanic accent." i have a tin ear for that sort of thing, but i find it hard to believe they didn't get a real german to do the voice-over the first time. it was, however, quite pleasant. the real actor's nasal, whiny, high-pitched voice grates on my nerves badly.
probably sounds just like mine.