What is your favorite Submarine movie?
I finally watched the movie Das Boot (which according to most submarine movie buffs is a must-see). It’s a movie I’ve been wanting to watch for ages and I was not disappointed. I loved it! After watching Das Boot I started going through my other favorite submarine movies and decided to make this list. This is our Top 5 Submarine movies:
1. Das Boot
A German movie that shows the war from the other side. This Submarine movie was pure class and is not only referred to as a great submarine movie but also a great war movie.
Summary: Das Boot meaning “The Boat” is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as a theatrical release and as a TV miniseries, and in several different home video versions of various running times. Das Boot is an adaption of the 1973 German novel of the same name by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. Set during World War II, the film tells the fictional story of U-96 and its crew. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country. The screenplay used an amalgamation of exploits from the real U-96, a Type VIIC-class U-boat.
2. The Hunt for Red October
Sean Connery speaks German for the first 5 minutes of the film and then all of a sudden they all start speaking English. Regardless, this is a great movie.
Summary: The Hunt for Red October is a 1990 thriller film based on Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name. It was directed by John McTiernan and stars Sean Connery as Captain Marko Ramius and Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan. The film received highly positive reviews from critics and was one of the top grossing films of the year, grossing $122 million in North America and $200 million worldwide. The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing in 1991.
3. Crimson tide (1995)
This is probably the first submarine movie I ever watched. Denzil was in his prime here. Classic movie, and make you wonder how many times we’ve been this close to nuclear war.
Summary: Crimson Tide is a 1995 submarine film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It takes place during a period of political turmoil in the Russian Federation, in which ultranationalists threaten to launch nuclear missiles at the United States and Japan. It focuses on a clash of wills between the seasoned commanding officer (Gene Hackman) and the new executive officer (Denzel Washington) of a nuclear missile submarine, arising from conflicting interpretations of an order to launch their missiles.The film was scored by Hans Zimmer, who won a Grammy Award for the main theme, which makes heavy use of synthesizers in place of traditional orchestral instruments.
4. U-571 (2000)
Starring Matthew Mcconaughey. Another good movie, not the best one on the list, but still very enjoyable.
Summary: U-571 is a 2000 film directed by Jonathan Mostow, and starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Thomas Kretschmann, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes, and Tom Guiry. In the film, a World War II German submarine is boarded in 1942 by disguised United States Navy submariners seeking to capture her Enigma cipher machine.
5. The Abyss
Not sure if this really classifies as a Submarine movie, but it is underwater, and there are ships that move underwater. So it qualifies. Awesome movie… This is a must see!
Summary: The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. When an American submarine sinks in the Atlantic, the US search and recovery team works with an oil platform crew, racing against Russian vessels to recover the ship. Deep in the ocean, they encounter a new and mysterious species. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri. It was released on August 9, 1989, in North America.
What about The Enemy Below?
I’ve not heard of it.