"Although some maintain that the end of New German Cinema did not occur until after the cold war, many of the filmmakers associated with the movement felt, after Das Boot, that it was finally all right to make it in Hollywood--a sentiment that was to be the death knell of a wholly independent German cinema tradition." (Rentschler "How American Is It?" 279-80).
Das Boot begins with a message that resonates and evokes feelings of ambivalence for both American and German viewers alike: "40,000 German sailors served on U-Boats during WWII. 30,000 never returned." This immediately causes viewers in the audience to confront their own sympathy for those German sailors lost. Most Germans would tend to be ashamed of the cause these sailors died for, while, on the other hand, most Americans would tend to feel a sense of pride for overcoming evil. In either case, for those who assume that all or at least most of those sailors were devout followers of Hitler, there is very little sympathy. Petersen's objective in this film is to challenge this assumption from an ideological perspective and evoke sympathetic feelings by presenting the characters on a micro-level. For the crew of the ship their time spent on the vessel seems like a right of passage lead by the Captain, Herr Kaleun. The characters aboard the ship are in a situation that anyone can identify with, even if the sailors are fighting for the Nazi regime. The feeling of entrapment, emphasized by the confinement of the sub, and a struggle to survive is easily translated and understood by anyone. Once the audience separates the Hitler loyalists from the people whose positions are products of their situation, sympathy is created. But, how does Petersen show us the characters this way, who do we identify with and how?; how does he separate the good guys from bad guys visually?, and how does this create sympathy for those characters? Reasons for the film's success abroad lies in the answers to these questions.
