this is my 50th movie logged on letterboxd in 2026, and honestly it took me forever to pick because i had like a million options. but i settled on das boot, the 208 minute version. maybe because it’s iconic in my brain, maybe because my dad showed it to me first, maybe because i wanted to live in a submarine with a bunch of bums for three and a half hours. whatever it is, here we are. i’m trapped in a metal tube under the ocean with an unhinged crew and somehow i'm having the time of my life.
i first heard about das boot when i was around 10 because my dad was watching it all the time. he wouldn’t let me sit with him because he knew it would traumatize me and he was right. last year i finally watched it properly with him and it blew my mind. now, knowing what’s coming, i can just live in it. i feel the boredom, the tension, the jokes, the terror, everything. it’s wild how a movie can make you feel so trapped but also so alive.
i don’t even know how to explain this but watching it is like your brain gets compressed into the submarine too. you start craving lemons and tangerines to avoid scurvy and also thinking about how the ocean could swallow you whole at any moment and somehow it’s thrilling and heartbreaking and exhausting and hilarious and beautiful all at once.
you don’t usually get to see WWII from the german side, and it’s not propaganda, it’s not glorifying anything. these men aren’t proud or heroic, they’re doing what they have to do because of circumstances they didn’t choose, and the ending hits like a punch in the gut because after everything, the universe just smacks them again and it’s devastating and perfect and i can’t stop thinking about it. the heartbreak stays with you long after the credits roll. i cried for an hour straight after my first watch.
das boot made me love war films and history. every war film i’ve gotten into, my dad either recommended, showed me, or told me the story behind it first. without him, i wouldn’t even be into this stuff at all, i wouldn’t have discovered this masterpiece, and i wouldn’t have learned to see the humanity in stories even from the other side of a conflict. thanks dad, i will never recover from this cinematic trauma and i love it.
this is my 50th movie logged on letterboxd in 2026, and honestly it took me forever to pick because i had like a million options. but i settled on das boot, the 208 minute version. maybe because it’s iconic in my brain, maybe because my dad showed it to me first, maybe because i wanted to live in a submarine with a bunch of bums for three and a half hours. whatever it is, here we are. i’m trapped in a metal tube under the ocean with an unhinged crew and somehow i'm having the time of my life.
i first heard about das boot when i was around 10 because my dad was watching it all the time. he wouldn’t let me sit with him because he knew it would traumatize me and he was right. last year i finally watched it properly with him and it blew my mind. now, knowing what’s coming, i can just live in it. i feel the boredom, the tension, the jokes, the terror, everything. it’s wild how a movie can make you feel so trapped but also so alive.
i don’t even know how to explain this but watching it is like your brain gets compressed into the submarine too. you start craving lemons and tangerines to avoid scurvy and also thinking about how the ocean could swallow you whole at any moment and somehow it’s thrilling and heartbreaking and exhausting and hilarious and beautiful all at once.
you don’t usually get to see WWII from the german side, and it’s not propaganda, it’s not glorifying anything. these men aren’t proud or heroic, they’re doing what they have to do because of circumstances they didn’t choose, and the ending hits like a punch in the gut because after everything, the universe just smacks them again and it’s devastating and perfect and i can’t stop thinking about it. the heartbreak stays with you long after the credits roll. i cried for an hour straight after my first watch.
das boot made me love war films and history. every war film i’ve gotten into, my dad either recommended, showed me, or told me the story behind it first. without him, i wouldn’t even be into this stuff at all, i wouldn’t have discovered this masterpiece, and i wouldn’t have learned to see the humanity in stories even from the other side of a conflict. thanks dad, i will never recover from this cinematic trauma and i love it.
