My personal top 5 submarine movies

[Howard313]

• Has it been done before? Probably.
• Does anybody here care about my opinion? Probably not.
• Am I going to do this anyway? Sure, got nothing better to do right now.

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.

When it comes to submarine movies, you have a laundry list to choose from. While every one I've seen so far has been entertaining, some are obviously going to be better than others.

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.

5. Down Periscope (1996) {not to be confused with 'Up Periscope' from 1959}

Those who take the time and effort to read my posts will know from all the badly written jokes I throw in them that I like to laugh, and this movie with it's dry American humor hits me right in the American funny bone. Yes it is a comedy, and for that reason I can't really recommend it to everyone.

The plot follows Tom Dodge, who is given command of an old rusty run down diesel engine submarine called the USS Stingray.

It's not for everyone, a lot of people disliked it, I did not. Moving on.

4. U-571 (2000)


One of the more recent titles to make this list, this movie generally ticks people off for two reasons.

• Monstrous portrayal of the German uboat crew.
• Historical Inaccuracies.

Other than those two things, I found this movie to be fantastic, the plot was effective, the action scenes were intense, the acting was spot on, the effects were fantastic, and it was all around good fun. The plot basically follows an American crew boarding a German submarine in order to capture and decode their Enigma cipher machine. That's pretty much it, if you don't mind the fact it's not 100% accurate and just enjoy it as a movie you'll probably enjoy this one.

3. 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!"

Well calm down, I still enjoyed this movie, it wouldn't have made it on this list if I didn't. It's just a little.....long for my tastes. I had the displeasure of watching the uncut 5 hour version. Do yourself a favor, stick to the normal version, this movie was cut for a reason, uncut it moves at a snail's pace and by the end I'm exhausted and utterly bored. Luckily the Director's cut's pacing is much better and I highly suggest going with it instead.

Anyway if you are looking for historical accuracy look no further, this movie (unlike the last one on my list) was not made by Hollywood, it was made by the Germans. And they did a good job telling the story of the life and crew of a typical uboat. Acting is great, action scenes are pretty good, and this movie probably has the best soundtrack out of all of them on this list.

The plot follows an aging uboat captain and a typical patrol as a reporter comes along for the ride. Will he return home successfully? Will he return home at all?

2. The Hunley (1999)


Talk about an overlooked gem. Why isn't this movie more popular!?

For those who do not know the C.S.S Hunley was the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship, and this movie tells all about it. This movie has everything; action, humor, romance, sadness....all rolled into one big ball of chewy movie goodness. That's really all there is I can say about this one without giving too much away. If you like submarines (which if you are on this site I'm assuming you do.) or if you like civil war movies then give this one a go.

Also I'd like to say this movie has a pretty awesome soundtrack!

1. The Enemy Below (1957)


Oh boy we are getting into the classics now. Despite it's old age this movie has INCREDIBLE special effects, 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!

Plot is simple, a uboat and a destroyer meet each other, decide they don't like each other, and then decide to start beating each other up over it. This movie is a personal favorite of mine because there is no "bad guy" you care for both the uboat captain and the captain of the destroyer in this movie. Which begins to confuse you because you don't want either of these guys to die. This began to take it's toll on me halfway through the movie, I was on the edge of my seat after every depth charge, and every torpedo.

It's a little slow for the first 25 minutes (mostly to introduce you to the characters and their back-stories.) But after that You are in for a wild ride.

Gotta love the trailer too.:

Well if you made it to here good job, you managed to read through this entire thing (Unless you just skimmed through it, then you are a cheater.) Let's just hope that I managed to put this in the right place/there isn't a sticky on the top of this forum that says "put your top 5 submovies here."