: (Klaus Doldinger) Long considered a
gritty triumph of German cinema and one of the most respected
submarine-related films worldwide, the 1981 World War II thriller
also has the distinction of being one of the most depressing
tales in the history of the big screen. Based loosely on the actual
captain and crew of the German submarine U-96, the movie and the book
that inspired it took liberties to darken the plotline with additional
death and futility. The U-boat was heralded for its success in sinking
enemy tonnage during the war, its early triumphs yielding in the film to
a dangerous cat and mouse game with Allied forces that leads to an
unnecessarily grim conclusion. The horror expressed by most of the crew
at their own slaughters earns them a reprieve to the extent that they
become protagonists before long. Despite its epically disturbing
outcome,
was an immense international success because of
its outstanding acting (led by the sympathetic Jürgen Prochnow as
the anti-Nazi captain) and stunningly accurate recreations of the
interior and exterior of the U-boat. Wolfgang Petersen's direction often
shows the crew of actors rushing about the cramped ship with convincing
authenticity, allowing audiences to fully experience the dank and
claustrophobic setting with frightening realism. Not as faithful in
conveying that sense of history is Klaus Doldinger's frequently obvious
score, which remains a somewhat controversial aspect of an otherwise
really fine all-around picture. Doldinger was a popular jazz musician in
Germany in the 1970's and 1980's, and he enjoyed a robust career in film
and television scoring as well. Most of his recognition as a composer
for the screen came with television series, but his long collaboration
with Petersen helped bring him international attention on a handful of
major movies in the 1980's. In retrospect,
represents
one of Doldinger's most prominent big screen assignments, and his music
for the occasion is highly polarizing. Although it usually successfully
generates the right emotional responses for much of the story, its
now-dated rendering was intentionally unconventional.
Despite
Das Boot enjoying a massive production
budget for a German film, the score ultimately utilized a blend of small
orchestra and synthesizers to create a distinctive tone. It wasn't
unusual for synthesizers to be applied as tools of drama in the 1980's,
and the strategy with
Das Boot emphasizes the electronics for
their ability to represent the boat and its plight as an otherworldly
experience rather than a straight, traditionally classical one.
Doldinger opts to mix his array of early synthesizers with a small
orchestra containing strings, brass, and percussion. In the place of
woodwinds in his ensemble, the composer uses the keyboards to generate
equivalent sounds, such as the high-pitch effects and fake pan flute in
"Eingeschlossen." Some listeners might be so thrown off by the
synthesizers that they may not realize that the bulk of the music in
Das Boot is actually orchestral. That ensemble's orchestrations
and mix, however, are extremely shallow and sparse, allowing the
resonant tones of the synthetics to dominate, intentionally or
otherwise. The composer's equipment at the time included a Minimoog,
Prophet 5, and Fairlight CMI sampler, and these machines generate
everything from standard fake brass tones to effective emulations of
submarine sounds. The Fairlight CMI sampler perhaps makes the most
interesting contributions to the score, generating the imitations of the
submarine's overworked motors and, more impressively, a common sonar
ping in rhythmic duties. That machine also, unfortunately, provides the
wretchedly fake orchestra hits that were becoming a fad at the time and
eventually proved to be among the most obnoxious synthetic sounds of the
1980's. These synthesizers earn the most notoriety in
Das Boot in
part because of such contributions, but they truly earn their pay in the
performances of Doldinger's main theme. While the orchestra carries much
of the weight during the standard dramatic and suspense portions of the
score, even dabbling with some marginally effective counterpoint lines
at times, the synths provide the driving sense of patriotism and a touch
of coolness and melodrama to character arc and the boat itself. Debates
will long continue about the appropriateness of the orchestral and
synthetic blend in the final mix, but few will argue that the end result
is not distinctive.
Equally controversial in the score for
Das Boot
is Doldinger's handling of themes. Dominating the work is his famous
title theme, and regardless of your opinion about its appropriateness,
its memorable ascending lines have been so popular through the years
that they have enjoyed a remarkable second life with remixes. (A famed
1991 techno remix of the tune may seem hideous to many listeners decades
later, but it was wildly embraced at the time.) The repetitive nature of
the theme's phrasing is a fascinating representation of the characters'
endurance, giving them almost a sports-genre sense of inspiration. It
also may represent the very obvious pistons of the main engines on the
submarine as well. Structurally, these repeating figures that merely
shift harmonies underneath are very simplistic, however, and some
listeners may be bothered by how noble and optimistic the theme
inherently becomes. Even when Doldinger slows its pace and dwells deep
in the bass region with the idea, such as the horrifying final scene of
the movie, the idea seems a bit juvenile and overly positive. Still,
it's an undeniably cool thematic concept in both its pop-inspired title
sequences and orchestral adaptations, and it does use a B-phrase of
meandering mystery that addresses the despair of the story more
appropriately. Another controversial aspect of this theme is how often
it is rendered in the movie, especially by the time Petersen reedited
the product through the years for additional releases. Most users will
recall its summary arrangement with the synthetics in sound effect
duties in "Titel," though its suspenseful suggestions in surrounding
cues and more orchestrally fluid string lines in "Auslaufen" and the
start of "Warten" reveal just how malleable the idea could be. Its
seven-note primary phrase is easy for Doldinger to insert just about
anywhere needed, even if those applications don't all represent a
consistent element of the plot. At times, you get the impression that
Petersen blindly inserted the melody into various transitional shots
simply because it was the film's main theme, not necessarily because it
worked particularly well at that moment in the narrative. Especially
engaging, though, is the hyperactive and heroic acceleration of its
phrasing in "Heimkehr" for mainly the strings and brass, though its tone
may become obnoxious for some listeners after a couple of minutes of
bright bravado. The same general approach fares a bit better in
"Rückzug" as a tool of false hope that the crew will make it home
to Germany alive.
In the earlier portions of the score where the main
theme makes its most prominent statements, Doldinger also establishes
his top secondary idea, the rhythmic accompaniment for the submarine's
propulsion and attack sequences. Exploding in "U 96" is this theme for
the titular submarine in its lethal offensive mode, and this is where
the fake orchestra hits really thrive. It's almost omnipresent for the
boat's surface shots at speed and the crew's running to their stations
within. The driving rhythm of the idea is joined by rising brass figures
with no small dose of heroism that would have served a
Rocky film
just as well at the time. A rousing, undulating string line mingles with
the main brass motif within this theme to add excitement. This idea
continues in "Konvoi" with more prominent timpani, recurring in the
second half of "Angriff." It mingles freely with the main theme in
"Heimkehr" and is deconstructed in the anxious "Absinken." Given the
shifting fortunes of the crew in the story, it's no surprise that this
theme is eventually overtaken by Doldinger's rather bland suspenseful
filler material in the latter half. Much of that music, from the stoic
orchestral meandering in "Gibraltar" to the largely synthetic
atmospheres of "Auf Grund," "Eingeschlossen," and "Rettung," presents
little of interest. The aspirational hope of "Heimkehr" is reprised with
emphasized cymbals in "Rückzug" before "Ende" drags everything back
into the inevitable darkness. A third, totally unique theme in the score
is provided in two variations on the "Erinnerung" cue, and Doldinger
uses this identity to supply acoustic guitar and string softness for a
romantic character diversion that is quite pretty but also very out of
place. The progressions of its interlude sequence do borrow harmonies
from the main theme, however. This music only adds to the wildly
inconsistent range of renderings in the score for
Das Boot, and
it's a soundtrack that really needs to be heard rather than described.
On album, some of its presentations, including its original LP record
and the longer 1997 CD version dedicated to the director's cut, feature
source music and songs from the picture, though not always the same
ones. The 1997 Director's Cut CD is the best option, as it includes a
vastly superior mix (required of Doldinger from source tapes after the
studio's original tapes were found melted in storage), some of the
source music, and several cues with the dialogue and sound effects
included. Purists may prefer the original, shorter 1985 CD's mix, but
Das Boot is the kind of uniquely cultish score for which its
enthusiasts might be best served by acquiring both.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1985 Album: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1997 Director's Cut Album: ****
- Overall: ***
