# Director Wolfgang Petersen passes away at 81 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [August 16, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774 "2022-08-16T18:40:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774/1 "2022-08-16T18:40:15Z")
Doesn’t get a lot of acclaim these days, but Petersen gets a lifetime pass from me for _[Enemy Mine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Mine_(film))_. > **[Wolfgang Petersen, ‘Air Force One,’ ‘Das Boot’ Director, Dies at 81](https://variety.com/2022/film/news/wolfgang-petersen-dead-air-force-one-1235342734/)** > > Wolfgang Petersen, who rode his acclaimed German-language film “Das Boot” into a career directing Hollywood blockbusters such as “In the Line of Fire,” “Air Force One,… ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774/2 "2022-08-16T18:50:30Z")
Ouch, that stings. “Das Boot” is a masterpiece, and “Enemy Mine” has a special place in my heart. ETA: and I forgot: “In The Line Of Fire” also was a brilliant variant of the classic Hollywood big blockbuster, with a president… ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774/3 "2022-08-16T19:14:42Z")
A shame to lose him but “das boot” is a stone cold classic. Even now, some 40 years later my stock reaction to any random warning bell, beep or buzzer is to shout out in a thick german accent “ALARM!” Only a few people get it sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774/4 "2022-08-16T19:20:13Z")
I saw Das Boot at Filmex when it came out. (Also George Romero’s Knightriders.) I’d had the book for years, but never got around to reading it until years after I saw the film and I noticed it on my shelf. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774/5 "2022-08-16T23:18:42Z")
IMDb [link](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000583/). Sadly, the last English language film he made, back in 2006, is the _Poseidon_ remake. And before that it was _Troy_. Just keep scrolling past them to see much better stuff. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/director-wolfgang-petersen-passes-away-at-81/969774/6 "2022-08-16T23:25:09Z")
A really skilled director, who I think was not served well by H’wood and deserved much better. While I know a lot of people whose childhoods included 10,000 rewatches of The Neverending Story on VHS, I always found it a bit too precious for my liking. In The Line of Fire and Air Force One are practically parodies. The only movie he made in the States that I really liked is Outbreak, which is a bit of a tough rewatch these days for several obvious reasons. That said, Das Boot is absolutely brilliant, one of the finest and best-constructed war movies of all time. When I was in film school, for reasons too boring to get into here, I got to go to the premiere of the director’s cut, which was pretty mind-blowing (and butt-numbing). The afterparty was great…had a very surreal conversation with Jürgen Prochnow which will always stick with me.