In honor, I will post this video that was done in the 90's by a German techno group using his iconic score and footage:





Wolfgang Petersen, ‘Air Force One,’ ‘Das Boot’ Director, Dies at 81

Das Boot is still the only WWII film which I rooted for the Germans. I watched the re-release director's cut in the theater 20 years ago. When U96 rises out of the bottom and the diesels sprung to life, there were cheers.

If I get a chance to drive on the autobahn, I'm blasting this on the stereo.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rawny,

Saw it in Europe when it cane out. Leaving the theater i remember a guy waving a bunch of documents and bitching about the date or the U-Boat number sunk on that date. The ultimate minor detail.
Guess if the guy was complaining only about that, was i just saw was a masterpiece.

Till today, i think it is.

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He died Aug 12. Why haven't I heard about it until now? I didn't see anything posted in the news.

In the Line of Fire and The Perfect Storm are two of his more famous films. Both are currently streaming on Netflix.

I concur that Das Boot is one of the best war movies ever.

The boat's gotta take that.



Before he got international fame, he made himself a name in Germany as a TV crime director, particularly with the famous "Reifezeugnis (maturity certificate)" episode of the long-running "Tatort (crime scene)" series starring a young Nastassja Kinski, also launching her career. "Never Ending Story" was a technically masterful, though story-wise mediocre adaption of Michael Ende's children's novel. "Enemy Mine" was another classic, somewhat forgotten today. "In the Line of Fire" still stands out among the "declining hero" Eastwood movies, particularly due to the support by John Malkovich and Rene Russo. "Outbreak" was the pandemic thriller before Soderbergh's much more scientifically faithful "Contagion". "Air Force One" was kinda silly, but solid Harrison Ford fare. "The Perfect Storm" probably showed him at his peak as a director. "Troy" was so-so for me - epic, but not invariably true to Homer. Only saw bits of his "Poseidon" remake, didn't capture me enough to watch all of it. "Das Boot" remains what he will be remembered for.

Midnight movie on University campus watched Das Boot

Walked out and got in my Volvo 240D to drive home and I felt like I was driving a flippin uboat/submarine.

"In The Line of Fire" and "The Perfect Storm" do not need any introduction, but the thing that gets me about "Das Boot" is that I've never seen a bad version of it. The theatrical version with English dub was great, the Director's Cut in German was great, and the entire miniseries in Germany was great even though the tone changes from endless scare to endless boredom with moments of sheer terror.

All of them were great. And for that, he will be missed. I know some of the trades were saying that "Poseidon" dropped him out of Hollywood, but he started development on some movies that never worked out. One of the was John Scalzy's "The Ghost Brigade" which would have been interesting. Also, if anyone like Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" (not Paul Verheoven's parody film), check out John Scalzy's "Old Man's War" series. It's worth reading.