Ed Pond Nobody talks like this. The characterisation is flat with no clear motivations. Why does the British officer feel so betrayed by the German woman? 'You lied to me' - he's known her for about one day, and she didn't want to give herself away, obviously... The plot plods from one quasi-intellectual soliloquy to another. The whole thing is pretentious playwright preaching which detracts from the sad true incident it is based on.

Robert J. Maxwell We don't hear much about the sinking of the British troop ship Laconia because the story ends neither with an Allied victory nor a glorious last stand. We can hear about the battles of Britain or Pearl Harbor or Midway but not the sinking of the Laconia, any more than we can stand to hear about the battles of the Java Sea, Savo Island, or Kasserine Pass. As human beings we prefer our movies to be cooked rather than raw.The facts in the case of the Laconia are clear. It sailed from Cairo for Liverpool, a passenger liner converted to troop ship, but this time carrying only civilians and more than a thousand Italian prisoners. A U-boat commanded by Ken Duken as Werner Hartenstein, not knowing what the ship carried, torpedoes and sinks it. Approaching the flotsam, Hartenstein and crew grasp the situation and pick up several hundred survivors, berthing some aboard the U-boat and towing the rest in a daisy chain of lifeboats. Hartenstein, to the bemusement of Admiral Doenitz in Paris, sends out a radio signal on a British frequency in plain English, explaining the circumstances and promising that any ship of any nationality that approaches to receive the prisoners will not be attacked.The British receive the message but decide not to reply. Instead they notify the US Air Force base on Asencion Island about the location of the missing Laconia without mentioning the U-boat which, by this time, is crowded with passengers on deck and below and sports large sheets displaying red crosses. A B-24 from Asencion Island sees nothing of the Laconia but does spot the U-boat. The American crew is young and untested. Nobody seems able to read the Morse code lights from the U-boat, but they do recognize it as an enemy submarine and drop five bombs on or near it, causing casualties.Hartenstein reluctantly puts his remaining passengers in lifeboats and tells them to stay in position and wait for the arrival of a Vichy French rescue ship. The rescue happens apace, after further deaths in the barren lifeboats. Hartenstein's boat is damaged but makes it back to port, where he is decorated. However, the incident prompts an order from high command that no more rescues will ever be attempted except for ship's officers or chief engineers. Hartenstein is lost on a later mission.The language problem is handled deftly. The Germans mostly speak German; the British speak only English. There are a couple of sub plots but none involve a developing romance, Gott sei Dank. It's a miniseries but it must have been an expensive one because the visual effects are unusually good and the performances are uniformly fine. If the direction by Uwe Janson has any flaws it's that he's decided to use too many choker close ups, but that's about it. He doesn't glamorize the actors. When they've been torpedoed and are bobbing in the sea they look like hell.The central figure is Duken's modest and human Hartenstein. Duken is very impressive and not just because he has a sympathetic role. He has a trim beard, he's young, reasonably good looking, and has a pair of piercing eyes which he deploys magnificently. When he fixes his gaze on someone, it seems as if he's looking inside him. But he's matter of fact about the circumstances and stern when necessary. Famke Potente has a marvelously expressive face and uses her expressions judiciously. Some films about enemy submarines must have an ideological zealot aboard. Not this one. That would be too easy. The crew member who wants to stick to the rules, who believes U-boats are there to sink and kill the enemy is the boat's chief engineer, Matthias Koeberlin, but he's not an evil figure. His arguments are not humane but are pragmatic. And he shows a happy aptitude for teaching the kids to speak a few words of German. It's a difficult role and he manages it well.The film is based on a true story although some characters are surely fictional, as much of the dialog must be. But, an excess bit of sentimentality aside, it's an excellent example of just how good a miniseries can be, and the story is worth telling -- and retelling.

valentin-schubert First of all, I'm German and I want to leave out all the stuff about whether it is anti-American or not, because the bombing of the U-Boat Is a fact and the point brought up by some here that it's a movie to ease German conscious is bullshit. Let's just talk about the movie. First problem; it's too long. The arc of suspense is terrible. Next problem: at some points it just tries too hard to be Titanic. Biggest Problem: it's a serious movie, or at least wants to be and should be. But they put two cartoonish, annoying, cliché characters in this movie, which made me hit my head against the wall every time they appeared. I don't care for the fate of a character I hate. The egoistic father, and The "British lady". The fur coat wearing Lady is a walking cliché and by asking every five minutes in the second half where her daughter is and how hard life is she tries to force empathy. But no, she's just not a real person. Nobody on earth would behave like this and if somebody did, everybody would hate her. The leading roles of Ken Duken and Franka Potente are well performed. The general look of the movie is good. But the second half just lacks tension. At some points a solid movie, at some points horrible.

starzandi I couldn't disagree more with the other review already posted.I found it a very convincing piece of drama, especially the u-boat scenes were reminiscent of the other great u-boat drama "Das Boot" with the camaraderie on the sub.The acting, especially from Ken Duken as Hartenstein, was subtle and excellent.There were some brilliantly acted, moving scenes with Brian Cox, Andrew Buchan and Franka Potente. There are some slightly comic scenes that add a bit of life as it is to the drama.Alan Bleasdale took his story from research in many survivors stories and created his view of the Sinking of the Laconia. It was much more true to the real histories than the majority of war- dramas I know(even " Das Boot" took liberties).I don't care for the exact badges and stripes on the navy uniforms.Those are minor details(visible only for experts) that don't detract the average viewer from the story.But careful: this review is for the UK-version of the film only . The German TV-version is different(edit,music, language)!!!