Das Boot

Data
Title: Das Boot
Year: 1981 (Germany), 1982 (US)
Length: 209 minutes (director's cut)
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Writer: Wolfgang Petersen, based on the novel by Lothar G. Buchheim
Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge, Bernd Tauber, Erwin Leder
Music: Klaus Doldinger
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing (1983); currently #64 on IMDb's Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: life on board a U-boat near the end of WWII
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Indifferent. There's no particular story arc, although it doesn't need one.
Characters: Good. There was a lot of "which guy is that," but after a few hours I could keep enough of them straight that I usually knew who at least one person was in any given scene.  The handful of characters that are distinct enough to follow are quite nice, although this is not a movie to watch if strong character development is what you like.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Terrible.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Great.
Music: Bad.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). It had a lot of potential. There are a lot of scenes that seem like they should be suspenseful, but I just didn't feel it. But even if everything were carried off perfectly, it's 3½ hours of pretty much the same thing continuously. Meh.
Objective Rating: 2.2/4 (Okay).