[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Howard313

Has it been done before? Probably.

Definitely. But It's been awhile.

Does anybody here care about my opinion? Probably not.

Definitely so! Of course I'll disagree with it vehemently, virulantly and violently, but hey, what are internet forums for?

Am I going to do this anyway? Sure, got nothing better to do right now.

Always a good thing. I've got nothing better to do that give you grief.

Warning, possible spoilers ahead!
I did my best to keep spoilers out of this list but I make no guarantees that you won't run into any.

Is any one of these movies less than five years old? One of them is over fifty! Anybody who hasn't seen them by now deserves to get spoiled

Now this is all just my opinion, but since I am a god amongst men if you disagree with me then you are automatically wrong no matter what arguments you make.....sucker. With that out of the way, lets get this bloody thing over with.

As I've said elsewhere, my chiseled jaw and muscular frame are irresistable to women, men admire for my debonair manner and quick wit, but my best quality by far has to be my overwhelming humility.

Down Periscope (1996)

I didn't like what I saw, but I haven't seen all of it, so I could be influenced to change my mind.

U-571 (2000)

Monstrous portrayal of the German uboat crew.

For some reason I didn't pick up on that. I guess I was too busy banging my head over the

Historical Inaccuracies.

I wouldn't have minded those nearly as much if they had even bothered to do some research on the littlest things. As soon as Harvey Keitel blew the klaxon three times for a dive I started throwing popcorn at the screen. Nit-picking? Sure, but when they can't even get the little details right what hope does the rest of it have. The special effects were great. Everything else, from the writing to the acting - not so much.

Das Boot (1981)
I can hear you guys now. "Howard! How dare you put Das Boot at the #3 slot! Das Boot is the best movie ever made of all time in all existence!"

Howard! How dare you put Das Boot at the #3 slot! Wait. Did somebody already say that?

You didn't like the long version? Read the book, then watch the long version in 1-hour sittings. You'll find it much easier to take and very like the book.

As for historical accuracy, a lot of actual u-boatmen disagreed. I liked the attention to detail where the interior of the boat was concerned, but a lot of the plot devices were cliches taken from other movies. Johann freaks out and has to be subdued? Destination Tokyo. There are others I can't think of right now, but they are there. I love the movie, but it's far from perfect. What I love the most is the lack of real plot. It just follows the patrol, for better and for worse.

...an aging uboat captain...

Well, in a submarine or a fighter squadron, I guess 30 is considered "aging".

The Hunley (1999)

Why isn't this movie more popular!?

Probably because it stunk so bad. I loved the concept (but what do I know? I'm a fan of Ironclads, which was probably worse) but the execution? Way, way WAY too much melodrama. Why can't these guys just tell the story and leave the fiction out of it? This is why Tora! Tora! Tora! is a true classic and Midway is classic crap.

The Enemy Below (1957)


I mean if I didn't know any better I'd say they recorded actual war footage and just put it into the movie for the action scenes....wait what? Oh, that's what they did....heh. Moving on!

Actually that's what they didn't. They used a real destroyer escort and did real things like dropping real depth-charges, but I'm pretty sure there was no stock war footage used at all.

I saw it in the theater when I was a kid, and those scenes played a major part in making me choose destroyers when I joined the navy.

Then again, one of my all-time favorites gets me razzed every time I mention it, so I won't. It sucked, both plot and acting, but it featured real early-war subs that just don't exist any more, and real pre-war Elco 77-footers, which even They Were Expendable didn't have, and it was supposed to be about those early boats.

So here's my guilty pleasure. Watch it at your own risk.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=139820