Wael Khairy RogerEbert.com Jul 30, 2023

...enough nerve-wracking suspense to make your heart pound against your chest like depth charges rupturing a submarine's hull.

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Erick Estrada Cinegarage Jun 21, 2023

The outcome, no matter how you look at it, confirms that it's futile to return to war but that it's also impossible to escape it. [Full review in Spanish]

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Dwight Brown Sepia Aug 10, 2022

Das Boot's actors look like they have lived through every sneak attack and painful claustrophobic moment in this film.

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Judy Stone San Francisco Examiner Nov 11, 2021 3/4

Director Wolfgang Petersen has rigorously discarded war movie clichés, both American and those of the Nazi regime, to show the very human fears and real courage of Germans who battled for, and lost, supremacy of the seas.

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Scott Cain Atlanta Journal-Constitution Nov 9, 2021

This is the finest submarine movie ever made. Although director Wolfgang Petersen emphasizes the claustrophobia of undersea life, his above-surface scenes are powerful as well.

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Tom Cassidy Common Sense Media Jun 21, 2021 5/5

Effective as an anti-war movie and as thrilling as any disaster flick, Das Boot is a humanistic masterpiece.

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Russ Frushtick Polygon Mar 1, 2021

Massively compelling.

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Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com Sep 5, 2020 4.0/4.0

For all its intensity and excitement and fighting and destruction is, perhaps more than any other film, an anti-war film.

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Diego Galán El Pais (Spain) Aug 21, 2019

Das Boot comes across as cold and distant, but the work of Wolfgang Petersen is nevertheless rigorous and skillful, the actors are effective, and the camerawork is risky. [Full Review in Spanish]

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Bob Thomas Associated Press Mar 29, 2019

Peterson has captured the teamwork, the claustrophobia and the peril of underwater warfare. He draws compelling performances from the crewmen, many of them quite young.

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Sarah Cartland Caution Spoilers Jan 29, 2019 5/5

Wolfgang Petersen's exceptional anti-war, war film is a long haul but never boring -- as the captain, officers and crew face terror, ennui, excitement and occasional joy in the North Atlantic in 1941. (Director's Cut)

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Bruce McCabe Boston Globe Apr 28, 2018

Das Boot is a psychological thriller of the first order. The fact that the setting is a war is, amazingly and interestingly, only incidental to its points.

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Film4 Staff Film4 May 14, 2012 4.5/5

Still makes compulsive viewing.

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Variety Staff Variety Feb 23, 2012

Everything described in the film is authentic.

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Dave Kehr Chicago Reader Dec 9, 2011

The film has no qualities beyond its formal polish.

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Nick De Semlyen Empire Magazine Sep 21, 2011 5/5

The execution is second to none; taut, claustrophobic and overwhelming.

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Peter Canavese Groucho Reviews Jul 25, 2011 4/4

Few war films are more potent than Das Boot...the ultimate submarine movie. [Blu-ray]

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Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Apr 24, 2009 A+

It is unlike any other war film in that it confines the audience in a confined submarine where we digest the fear and panic of the human beings on screen. In short, "Das Boot" is a religious experience.

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Todd McCarthy Variety Mar 19, 2009

Agripping, impressively detailed account of one harrowing voyage by a German U-boat during World War II.

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Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com Feb 19, 2008 5/5

Just as good, some say better, than the original classic.

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