To be charitable, Germany has a, shall we say, strained relationship with war films.

And I mean that in a couple of ways.

As the Axis power in a couple of world wars German soldiers are often and

accurately depicted as the bad guys. And that's fair any time the side you fight for

wages a protracted campaign of genocide.

But as we consume more and more war films, the German side of the story has become more prevalent.

And it is our duty as your purveyor of war film knowledge to interrogate this.

Doss Boot is a film that removes the jackboots and leather capes, the death camps, and even Hitler in telling its German war story.

That's because this film is less about World War II specifically and more about the nature

of war generally. The U 96 is our home for most of the film. Its crew is unmistakably blue

collar. These men aren't especially political. There's the one Nazi officer,

but he's ostracized by the majority of the crew

who are either indifferent or openly anti-Nazi

like the captain.

Placing us aboard a German submarine and a crippled

one at that underscores this useful narrowing of focus because it winnows the

broader German Wolfpack strategy against the Allied convoy defense

and all of the moralizing that that invites toward a more visceral and simple question of survival.

And the answer to that question is so very much in doubt for much of the film.

The initial hunt is charged with excitement,

and when the first torpedoes hit home, you understand why submarine films are so popular.

The anticipation of shooting a torpedo and then the ecstasy of waiting for it to hit is exquisite. The counterattack they experience in the aftermath is

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