{"id":47528,"date":"2022-08-17T01:13:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T01:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-director-of-das-boot-is-dead-at-81\/"},"modified":"2022-08-17T01:13:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T01:13:51","slug":"wolfgang-petersen-director-of-das-boot-is-dead-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-director-of-das-boot-is-dead-at-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolfgang Petersen, Director of &#8216;Das Boot,&#8217; Is Dead at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wolfgang Petersen, one of a handful of foreign directors to make it big in Hollywood, whose harrowing 1981 war film, \u201cDas Boot,\u201d was nominated for six Academy Awards and became one of Germany&#8217;s top-grossing films, died on Friday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.  He was 81.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The cause was pancreatic cancer, according to Michelle Bega, a publicist at the agency Rogers &#038; Cowan PMK in Los Angeles.  His death was announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr.  Petersen was the most commercially successful member of a generation of filmmakers active in West Germany from the 1960s to the &#8217;80s, whose leading lights included Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog.  But he was equally known in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over five decades  Petersen toggled between his native Germany and the United States, directing 29 films, many of them box-office hits like the 1990s political thrillers \u201cIn the Line of Fire,\u201d with Clint Eastwood, and \u201cAir Force One,\u201d with Harrison Ford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With a knack for genre filmmaking \u2014 action films were another strong suit \u2014 he also made forays into fantasy \u201c(The NeverEnding Story\u201d), sword-and-sandal epic (\u201cTroy&#8217;) and science fiction \u2014 all while attracting marquee names to star in them, like Dustin Hoffman in \u201cOutbreak,\u201d Brad Pitt in \u201cTroy\u201d and George Clooney in \u201cThe Perfect Storm.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For all his success in Hollywood, however, \u201cDas Boot,\u201d a tense drama about sailors on a German U-boat during World War II, is the work for which Mr.  Petersen will mostly likely be remembered.  In the English-speaking world, that frequently mispronounced title alone (\u201cBoot\u201d is spoken exactly like the English \u201cboat\u201d) has attained a kind of pop-cultural status, thanks to references on \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d and other TV shows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201c&#8217;Das Boot&#8217; isn&#8217;t just a German movie about World War II;  it&#8217;s a German naval adventure epic that has already been a hit in West Germany,\u201d Janet Maslin wrote in her review in The New York Times when the movie opened in the US in early 1982.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The movie won high praise for its historical accuracy and the clammy, claustrophobic effect achieved by the cinematographer Jost Vacano, who shot most of the interior scenes with a small hand-held Arriflex camera.  Although the critical response in Germany was divided, with some accusing the film of glorifying war, it encountered a more uniformly positive response abroad.  Nowadays it is considered among the finest antiwar films ever made.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cDas Boot\u201d (also titled \u201cThe Boat\u201d in English-speaking countries) grossed over $80 million worldwide, and though it did not win an Academy Award, its six Oscar nominations \u2014 including two for Mr.  Petersen, for direction and screenplay, and one for Mr.  Vacano, for cinematography \u2014 remain a record for a German film production.  (It was not nominated in the best-foreign-language-film category; West Germany&#8217;s submission that year was Mr. Herzog&#8217;s \u201cFitzcarraldo,\u201d which did not make the Academy&#8217;s short list for the Oscar).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr.  Petersen prepared various versions of \u201cDas Boot\u201d over the next decade and a half.  In 1985, German TV broadcast a 300-minute version (twice as long as the theatrical release), which Mr.  Petersen argued was closer to his original vision but commercially unfeasible at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After \u201cDas Boot,\u201d he teamed up with the producer Bernd Eichinger, whose fledgling studio, Constantin Film, co-produced the English-language \u201cThe NeverEnding Story,\u201d an adaptation of a 1979 fantasy novel by the best-selling German children&#8217;s author Michael Ende.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Released in 1984, \u201cThe NeverEnding Story,\u201d about a bullied boy who enters into an enchanted book, was another-box office hit in Germany and abroad \u2014 although it, too, received its share of negative reviews, including from The Times&#8217;s film critic Vincent Canby, who called it \u201cgraceless\u201d and \u201chumorless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Despite a tepid US box-office return, which Mr.  Petersen chalked up to the film&#8217;s being \u201ctoo European,\u201d \u201cThe NeverEnding Story\u201d became a cult favorite over the decades, for its trippy production design, scrappy special effects and synth-heavy theme song, written by Giorgio Moroder and sung by the British pop singer Limahl.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The movie was mostly shot at Bavaria Film Studio, near Munich, where present-day visitors can ride Falcor, the \u201cluck dragon\u201d that Mr.  Canby compared to \u201can impractical bath mat.\u201d  (The studio&#8217;s theme park, Bavaria FilmStadt, also offers tours of the submarine from \u201cDas Boot.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wolfgang Petersen was born on March 14, 1941, in Emden, in Northern Germany.  His father was a naval lieutenant in World War II who later worked for a shipping company in Hamburg.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Growing up in the immediate postwar period, the young Mr.  Petersen idolized America and American movies.  On Sundays he would go to matinee screenings for children at the local cinema to see westerns directed by Howard Hawks and John Ford and starring Gary Cooper and John Wayne.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI got to know the medium of film when I was 8 years old, and I was immediately enthusiastic about it,\u201d he told Elfriede Jelinek, a future Nobel Prize winner for literature, in a 1985 interview for German Playboy.  \u201cWhen I was 11, I decided I wanted to become a film director.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1950, his family moved to Hamburg, and when Wolfgang was 14, his father gave him an eight-millimeter film camera for Christmas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After graduating from high school, Mr.  Petersen was exempted from compulsive military service because of a spine curvature.  In the early 1960s, he worked as an assistant director at the Junges Theater (now the Ernst Deutsch Theater) in Hamburg.  He then studied theater in Hamburg and Berlin for several semesters before enrolling at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin, West Germany&#8217;s first film school, which opened in 1966.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1970, his graduation film, \u201cI Will Kill You, Wolf,\u201d was picked up by West German television, and this led to a directing offer for the long-running German crime series \u201cTatort.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the next decade, Mr.  Petersen worked at a feverish pace, directing for both television<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>and the big screen, starting in 1974 with the psychological thriller \u201cOne or the Other of Us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">From the beginning, audience approval was of central importance to him.  \u201cI crouched in the cinema to see how the audience would react\u201d to one particular film, he recalled in the Playboy interview.  \u201cAnd what happened?  People walked out of the movie.  I was devastated.  Because I&#8217;m obsessed with making films for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He often succeeded, with popular early-career thrillers that tackled thorny political and social issues.  \u201cSmog\u201d (1972) dealt with the effects of pollution in the Ruhr, the industrial region in Northwest Germany.  \u201cThe Consequence\u201d (1977) was controversial for its frank depiction of homosexuality, a taboo topic at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He was married to the German actress Ursula Sieg from 1970 to 1978. He later married Maria-Antoinette Borgel, whom he had met on the set of \u201cSmog,\u201d where she worked as a script supervisor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He is survived by his wife as well as a son from his first marriage, Daniel, a filmmaker, and two grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr.  Petersen had nearly 20 films to his credit by the time he made \u201cDas Boot.\u201d  A triumph that few, if any, could have predicted, the movie established his international reputation and opened the door to Hollywood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In his autobiography, \u201cI Love Big Stories\u201d (1997, written with Ulrich Greiwe), Mr.  Petersen recalled the first American test screening of \u201cDas Boot\u201d in Los Angeles.  At the beginning, the audience of 1,500 applauded when the screen flashed with the statistic that 30,000 Germans onboard U-boats were killed during the war.  \u201cI thought: This is going to be a catastrophe!\u201d  Mr.  Petersen wrote.  Two and a half hours later, the movie received a thunderous ovation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After \u201cThe NeverEnding Story,\u201d Mr.  Petersen made \u201cEnemy Mine\u201d (1985), a science fiction movie starring Dennis Quaid about a fighter pilot forced to cooperate with a reptilian enemy after they both land on a hostile alien planet.  Ms.  Maslin called it \u201ca costly, awful-looking science-fiction epic with one of the weirdest story lines ever to hit the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A year later  Petersen moved to Los Angeles, where he would remain for two decades, working with big stars in a string of mainstream successes that included the political dramas \u201cIn the Line of Fire\u201d (1993), about a Secret Service agent&#8217;s efforts to prevent a presidential assassination, and \u201cAir Force One\u201d (1997), about the hijacking of the presidential jetliner.  There were also the disaster films \u201cOutbreak\u201d (1995), about a deadly virus, \u201cThe Perfect Storm\u201d (2000), about commercial New England fishermen caught in a terrifying tempest, and \u201cPoseidon\u201d (2006), a remake of \u201c The Poseidon Adventure,\u201d the 1972 blockbuster about a capsized luxury liner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even at their most commercial, Mr.  Petersen&#8217;s films often had undercurrents of political commentary.  Discussing the \u201cIliad\u201d-inspired \u201cTroy\u201d (2004), Mr.  Petersen drew parallels between Homer&#8217;s epic and the reign of George W. Bush.  \u201cPower-hungry Agamemnons who want to create a new world order \u2014 that is absolutely current,\u201d he told the German newspaper S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His film career seemed to come full circle in 2016 with \u201cVier gegen die Bank,\u201d a remake of his 1976 comedy-heist film based on an American novel, \u201cThe Nixon Recession Caper,\u201d by Ralph Maloney.  It was Mr.  Petersen&#8217;s first German-language film since \u201cDas Boot\u201d a quarter-century earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Throughout his career, he seemed unconcerned by critics who called his artistic merit into question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf someone asked me whether I felt like an artist, I would have a strange feeling, because I don&#8217;t really know,\u201d he once said.  \u201cWhat is an artist?  Maybe it&#8217;s someone who produces something much more intimate than film, more like a composer or writer or painter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy passion,\u201d he added, \u201cis telling a story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wolfgang Petersen, one of a handful of foreign directors to make it big in Hollywood, whose harrowing 1981 war film, \u201cDas Boot,\u201d was nominated for six Academy Awards and became one of Germany&#8217;s top-grossing films, died on Friday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. He was 81. The cause was pancreatic &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-director-of-das-boot-is-dead-at-81\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Wolfgang Petersen, Director of &#8216;Das Boot,&#8217; Is Dead at 81<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47488,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-blockbuster-filmmaker-of-das-boot-dies\/","url_meta":{"origin":47528,"position":0},"title":"Wolfgang Petersen, blockbuster filmmaker of &#8216;Das Boot,&#8217; dies","date":"August 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic \u201cDas Boot\u201d propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career that included the films \u201cIn the Line of Fire,\u201d \u201cAir Force One\u201d and \u201cThe Perfect Storm,\u201d has died. He was 81.Petersen died Friday at his home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47287,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/das-boot-perfect-storm-and-air-force-one-director-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":47528,"position":1},"title":"&#8216;Das Boot,&#8217; &#8216;Perfect Storm&#8217; And &#8216;Air Force One&#8217; Director \u2013 Deadline","date":"August 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Wolfgang Petersen, the German director whose films include The Perfect Storm, Air Force One and Das Boot, has died. He was 81. Petersen died peacefully Friday at his Brentwood residence from pancreatic cancer, in the arms of his wife of 50 years, Maria Antoinette. Wolfgang Petersen: A Career In Photos\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/MSDDABO_EC004.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47803,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/das-boot-director-was-81-the-hollywood-reporter\/","url_meta":{"origin":47528,"position":2},"title":"&#8216;Das Boot&#8217; Director Was 81 \u2013 The Hollywood Reporter","date":"August 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Wolfgang Petersen, the German writer-director who surfaced in Hollywood following the triumph of his submarine masterpiece Das Boot to make the action blockbusters In the Line of Fire, Air Force One and The Perfect Storm, has died. He was 81. Petersen died Friday at his Brentwood home of pancreatic cancer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/outbreak_01-embed_2020.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47311,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-director-of-das-boot-and-air-force-one-dies-aged-81-movies\/","url_meta":{"origin":47528,"position":3},"title":"Wolfgang Petersen, director of Das Boot and Air Force One, dies aged 81 |  movies","date":"August 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The German film-maker Wolfgang Petersen has died at the age of 81.The Oscar-nominated writer-director was known for films such as Das Boot, Air Force One and In the Line of Fire. He died of pancreatic cancer at home in the company of his wife, Maria Borgel Petersen. His death was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Wolfgang Petersen and Clint Eastwood.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4cd8def4bf3aeeccac4d1826c8d8f9d987df83ba\/0_161_4000_2402\/master\/4000.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47303,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-dead-troy-the-perfect-storm-director-was-81\/","url_meta":{"origin":47528,"position":4},"title":"Wolfgang Petersen Dead: Troy, The Perfect Storm Director Was 81","date":"August 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Wolfgang Petersen, who rode his acclaimed German-language film \u201cDas Boot\u201d into a career directing Hollywood blockbusters such as \u201cIn the Line of Fire,\u201d \u201cAir Force One,\u201d \u201cThe Perfect Storm\u201d and \u201cTroy,\u201d has died. He was 81. The news was confirmed by his production company. \u201cDas Boot\u201d (1981) was the harrowing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47895,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wolfgang-petersen-director-of-das-boot-and-air-force-one-dead-at-81\/","url_meta":{"origin":47528,"position":5},"title":"Wolfgang Petersen, director of &#8216;Das Boot&#8217; and &#8216;Air Force One,&#8217; dead at 81","date":"August 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Petersen, a German filmmaker, earned the most awards acclaim in his career for his 1981 World War II epic \"Das Boot,\" but his career is populated by a number of films that hold special places in the hearts of cult action film lovers. After writing and directing 1984's children's fantasy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/08\/16\/obituaries\/16petersen-top\/16petersen-top-facebookJumbo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}