So, spent a couple hours today trying to snag a day-early copy of the new blu-ray. Tried all the major local stores, but finally found a copy at a little store at the mall. Paid way too much ($24.99, but still slightly cheaper than buying it from Amazon), but didn't feel too bad since Best Buy wanted $22.99 for a copy of
Birdemic.
Anyway, watched some of the new extras, and while they're tastefully done and fairly low-key, there's not a whole lot said in them that wasn't already said on the commentary on the 1997 DVD. There's some behind-the-scenes stuff I hadn't previously seen, like footage of the film crew scouring the French coast for pieces of the boat. There's some funny stuff from Wolfgang Petersen's wife, who was an (uncredited) Assistant Director on the movie, but the extras seem a little superficial in all. I was hoping the Captain's Tour would be more substantial, but it's basically just 8 minutes of Jurgen Prochnow walking around the set at the Bavaria Filmstadt, looking really uncomfortable while reciting some basic facts ("this is the bow torpedo room, here you see the four torpedo tubes, and the bunks on the side. Four more torpedoes were stored in this room, and when they were fired, more room was made for the crew. Moving on the captain's quarters...").
I got about five minutes into the 1981 "making of," which is the same one that's been available on YouTube the last couple years. However, it looks a lot clearer in this version, and the German narration has been redone in English, though all of the set-dialog is in German (duh!) with English subtitles. I'll finish watching that tomorrow, watch the 1983 Battle of the Atlantic documentary, and get back to you guys then. Maybe I'll watch the theatrical cut tomorrow, too. I only saw it once, in 1998, and I remember severely disliking it the first time around. So this is now the
forth version (Director's Cut VHS, Director's Cut DVD, Uncut DVD, DC/Theatrical Blu-Ray) I've bought in 11 years of a movie I hated the first time I saw it!
