The Best Movie Ever | Under The Sea

Seventy percent of the Earth is covered in oceans, but the percentage of films set beneath the waves is much, much smaller. Still, the release of ambitious films like Finding Dory remind us that there are some really great films that have invited audiences underwater, to tell powerful stories against incredible backdrops.

Also: Andrew Stanton and Lindsey Collins Reveal Why ‘Finding Dory’ Was Necessary (Exclusive Interview)

But what’s the best underwater movie ever? Let’s find out! This week on The Best Movie Ever, we asked our panel of critics – Crave’s William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold, and Collider’s Brian Formo – to each pick just one film that represents the height of this subgenre. Two of them picked an iconic World War II submarine thriller, and the other picked a lavish animated film for the whole family.

Find out who picked what, and why, and come back next Wednesday for another all-new, highly debatable installment of Crave’s The Best Movie Ever!

Witney Seibold’s Pick: Das Boot (1981)

Neue Constantin Film

Swimming is wonderful. Scuba diving is, if enthusiasts are to be believed, one of the most elevating of human experiences. Surfing is Zen. And diving is exhilarating. But to live underwater is, if Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 epic Das Boot is to be trusted, perhaps one of the most harrowing of all experiences. In order to live underwater for extended periods, as so many naval officer have had to do during wartime, one needs to lock themselves in a cramped, metallic, uncomfortable environment with little air, no light, and an ever-encroaching sense of claustrophobia. Everything about life aboard a submarine feels strangely unnatural. And from this deep-sea locale, one must covertly fight a war and do a difficult job. 

Das Boot, a 209-minute epic (293 if you find the uncut version), stuffs audiences into that underwater metal tube alongside a cadre of German WWII soldiers, each of them largely disenfranchised with the war, and cynical about Hitler’s plan, and allows them to bear the brunt of submarine life first hand. I have never been on a submarine (beyond the one at Disneyland), but after watching Das Boot, I feel like I’ve already had enough. The long, long everyday stresses of getting this fragile cocoon of life merely functioning is overwhelming unto itself, much less having to worry about the war effort. 

Das Boot also depicts said war effort as a futile task. The central submarine of the film, commanded by Jürgen Prochnow, sets out to accomplish a mission, but spends most of their time recovering from a disaster, or running from Allied forces. The ultimate irony of the film is that the soldiers all experience the deepest horrors of war without ever accomplishing anything, or even advancing. Das Boot is a depressing litany of the uselessness of war. It’s also pretty great. 

Brian Formo’s Pick: Das Boot (1981)

Neue Constantin Film

There are precious few underwater shots in Wolfgang Peterson’s Das Boot, but the potential for water to crush the men aboard is always felt and heard. It’s one of the most tense movies ever made and the tension comes from watching their faces and listening to the sound of their submarine struggle to withstand the natural force of plunging into the eternal ocean. There are creaks when they dive, mouths agape and hoping for the best, but when the creaks turn to prolonged moans, their eyes shut, they clutch a cross, look at a picture of a lover. More than the best underwater movie ever, it’s the most humane film about men who fought for the Führer; we get to learn about them, and we watch them crumble at the punishments from the sea. Their faces were baby-clean at the start and bushy-bearded by the end. The dialogue is natural, sometimes mundane, sometimes revealing. It plays like we’d imagine it would on a boat. 

Das Boot is bookended by two magnificent sequences on land. One is perhaps the most drunken party scene ever filmed, as the German sailors drink themselves into oblivion, knowing that they’re shipping out the next day. Their captain acknowledges, that they drink from youth (as the tide has turned not just in water, but in the war, he laments that he’s been handed a “children’s crusade” to lead). By the end, they are attempting to lose a British vessel who’s waiting for them to come back to the surface. 

In between, Das Boot is an immense technical achievement of space, time, and facial studies. The interior of the submarine was meticulously built to scale on a sound stage. The cinematographer, Jost Vacano built a camera that could fit through the narrow hallways so that we could feel the exact level of closeness to humans and gears that the crew would’ve felt in their barracks and at their stations. When the ship creaks, we experience it from the inside, not knowing what is happening on the outside. 

William Bibbiani’s Pick: Finding Nemo (2003)

Disney/Pixar

I think it’s rather interesting that my fellow writers in this column heard “Underwater Movies” and both picked films about human beings, living underwater, at war. My inclination was to focus on films that capture an experience human beings will never have: living underwater, and at peace. The oceans are a wondrous place filled with gorgeous sights and incredible creatures. I couldn’t think of a better film than Finding Nemo, although I came pretty close to picking The Abyss instead.

Finding Nemo is an emotional sucker punch of a movie. The plot is alarmingly simple and utterly devastating: a boy is separated from his father, and they have to find each other. Traveling the whole ocean to save your child is hard enough as a person, but as a little clownfish it’s damn near impossible. Then you have to consider the fact that the child has been put inside a fish tank at a dentist’s office. The emotions are overpowering, the odds are completely overwhelming.

But every single frame of Finding Nemo is beautiful, and many of them outright awe-inspiring. It’s a visual feast, realizing a fantastic world that had never been caught on camera in such a gorgeous way. It puts human drama into an inhuman landscape, engaging us in a story and tugging our heartstrings and dazzling the eyes. I consider Finding Nemo to be one of the perfect movies. So “the best underwater movie” was practically a foregone conclusion.

Previously on The Best Movie Ever:

Top Photos:  Disney / Pixar / Neue Constantin Film