Laconia

This movie is based on true events surrounding the attack in 1942 of the large merchant / war vessel Laconnia - carrying over 2,000 people - by a german submarine and the subsequent events thereafter. Those exact events caused this "incident" to gain worldwide attention during the Nuremberg trials, because of the USA trying to bury their own inhumane acts. I personally was astonished to see what exactly happened in the end.

This movie - which totals almost 3 hours and is split in 2 'episodes' - kept me 'entertained' for the total duration. It very well shows the two sides of war, where the distinction between enemy and friend can become very blurry.

Overall, I score this movie 7.6/10, which makes a very well deserved IMDb rating of 8 stars.

Just happen to watch this movie about 2 months ago. I really enjoyed it, I didn't think for one second it was anti American. In the movie the scene people are referring to they were given direct orders to bomb, they reported what they saw. But in general I thought it was a great TV movie. People take stuff so serious. Just relax and take in the show. I'm starting to really enjoy international movies, to me just more depth. It's nice to see at war time what went on behind the scenes in other countries. Germany could have easily said screw those people but they showed compassion. Just think the world was at War, they stopped what they were doing and helped the enemy.

This documentary - drama was a great thing to show to the main public. The idea of being noble and humane in the midst of a war is quite unusual and it should have been stressed out more in order to make humans aware in such a way. This kind of situations are extraordinary, and they happen only occasionally, under special circumstances. I hope more movies would be made in such honorable manners to encourage people of this planet to be just like this or better. The media has this power, and I wish it was used more in this way! Thank you for making this movie, I'd rate it min. 7,5 if I was asked. And all this nationality preferences and it's discredits are just what the war is all about, I sincerely hope we soon become what we pretend to be. Big respect for the captain and I hope we aspire to such deeds!

Over time many movies have pictured how the German Navy and Army conducted themselves in WWII. I don't write Nazies, because that is a political party and in general the Germans fought for their country. That being said, all sides of the war had their share of murders. If you think the allies never did anything wrong, you are very naive.

The submarine part of the German navy was led by Donitz and banned any political propaganda from the sub pens and submarines.

Its very known that if British and German submarines would meet, they would greet each other and part, due to respect for each others profession.

The movie itself shows the balance between being humane and full fill your obligations as a submariner.

This film is a throwback to the halcyon days a decade ago when brexit was still unheard of. As of late 2021, with anti-European and especially anti-German sentiment running strong in the UK and with a government in Westminster whose default response to domestic policy problems is stoking cross-channel tensions, something like this would no longer be produced, and if it were it would not be broadcast, at least not in Britain. The picture is on the whole nicely made and well-acted. Franka Potente is excellent, as usual, as is Lindsay Duncan who plays a snooty aristocrat - a type of role that suits her perfectly (watch her in the HBO miniseries 'Rome'). Ken Duken as U-boat commander Hartenstein and Andrew Buchan as third lieutenant of the Laconia are very good, too. Still, I have a number of reservations about the picture.

1. It is too long. I don't need non-stop explosions and action, but this film could easily have been condensed to a good one-and-a-half hours without detracting from the story in any way.

2. The way the character of Dönitz has been drawn. Dönitz was an 150% Nazi: 'Hitlerjunge Quex', as he was called. He may have condoned Hartenstein's actions, but he did so not for humanitarian reasons but because they provided valuable propaganda material. And he certainly did not have any moral reservations about the murderous order he is giving towards the end of the film (not so save any further victims of U-boat attacks); on the contrary, that order was entirely in keeping with his ideological approach to warfare. The film is whitewashing him.

3. A strange thing I noticed is that the subtitles used for the German characters often do not match what they are actually saying. In most cases they offer relatively free translations, which is of course fine, but at least occasionally they deviate quite widely. I wonder why - but I am not interested strongly enough to re-watch the picture in order to try to find a pattern. Still, strange it is.