U47 – KAPITANLEUTNANT PRIEN 1958
This war film is about the Captain of U-47 of the German Navy in WW2. The man, Gunther Prien, became an instant hero of the Reich when he took his submarine into the British naval base at Scapa Flow, and sank the Royal Navy battleship, ROYAL OAK.
The German film follows Prien and his crew as they are "asked" to volunteer for the difficult task of sneaking into the heavily defended anchorage of Scapa Flow. Scapa Flow was a major target for the German Navy. Not only was it a major base, it was the site of the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of World War One. Quite a few of the surrendered battleships were later scuttled by their crews rather than let the British have them.
The submarine, U-47, manages to find a way in past several block ships and over an old anti-submarine net. They sneak up to torpedo range of the battleship ROYAL OAK. They fire several torpedoes that fail to hit the stationary target. They do a quick reload and fire another round of torpedoes. These hit home causing the ROYAL OAK to rollover and sink taking 800 plus crewmen with her.
Prien then threaded his command back out and into the safety of the North Sea. It is now back to Germany and a heroes welcome.
The film now bogs down with too much domestic play about Prien's wife and family. There is the odd comical bit thrown in about the not stop parties the crew has to celebrate their U-boat's success. For some reason the writers throw in a bit about Prien helping rescue folks from the camps.
The film then returns to sea and combat. There is plenty of good wartime footage showing various ships sinking etc. Then a rather far fetched idea of how Prien and his sub were lost in March 1941. U-47 was a very successful ship, which between the war's start and its loss, sank 31 ships totalling close to 200,000 tons. It is not known exactly when or where U-47 was lost.
The cast is made up of, Dieter Eppler, Joachim Fuchsberger, Harold Juhnke, Richard Haussler and Sabine Sesselmann. The director, Harald Reniel was best known as the director of the documentary, CHARIOTS OF THE GODS about u.f.o.'s visiting earth.
While the action scenes are while handled, the film seems much longer than it is. This is because of the film being padded out with family and political nonsense that adds nothing to the production. There is just too much fiction mixed in with the historical facts.
This war film is about the Captain of U-47 of the German Navy in WW2. The man, Gunther Prien, became an instant hero of the Reich when he took his submarine into the British naval base at Scapa Flow, and sank the Royal Navy battleship, ROYAL OAK.
The German film follows Prien and his crew as they are "asked" to volunteer for the difficult task of sneaking into the heavily defended anchorage of Scapa Flow. Scapa Flow was a major target for the German Navy. Not only was it a major base, it was the site of the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of World War One. Quite a few of the surrendered battleships were later scuttled by their crews rather than let the British have them.
The submarine, U-47, manages to find a way in past several block ships and over an old anti-submarine net. They sneak up to torpedo range of the battleship ROYAL OAK. They fire several torpedoes that fail to hit the stationary target. They do a quick reload and fire another round of torpedoes. These hit home causing the ROYAL OAK to rollover and sink taking 800 plus crewmen with her.
Prien then threaded his command back out and into the safety of the North Sea. It is now back to Germany and a heroes welcome.
The film now bogs down with too much domestic play about Prien's wife and family. There is the odd comical bit thrown in about the not stop parties the crew has to celebrate their U-boat's success. For some reason the writers throw in a bit about Prien helping rescue folks from the camps.
The film then returns to sea and combat. There is plenty of good wartime footage showing various ships sinking etc. Then a rather far fetched idea of how Prien and his sub were lost in March 1941. U-47 was a very successful ship, which between the war's start and its loss, sank 31 ships totalling close to 200,000 tons. It is not known exactly when or where U-47 was lost.
The cast is made up of, Dieter Eppler, Joachim Fuchsberger, Harold Juhnke, Richard Haussler and Sabine Sesselmann. The director, Harald Reniel was best known as the director of the documentary, CHARIOTS OF THE GODS about u.f.o.'s visiting earth.
While the action scenes are while handled, the film seems much longer than it is. This is because of the film being padded out with family and political nonsense that adds nothing to the production. There is just too much fiction mixed in with the historical facts.