At 210 minutes in length, this Director's Cut of the film is Petersen's best film one of the best war films ever made. The film may run the gamut of submarine thriller conventions that you would expect to see, but Petersen takes a more interesting approach in handling them. The film spends a lot of time showing life aboard the submarine, constantly emphasising the limited set with characters climbing over and around each other and their supplies, allowing the audience to feel the claustrophobia that this environment would have. The film never breaks from the point of view of the sailors aboard the submarine and is focused solely on their characters as they go about their routines, giving the audience time to get to know them and highlighting their nervous anticipation initially and thereafter, the boredom, tension and repetitiveness of their work as they dive and surface, waiting for battle. When the battles do occur, Petersen is keen to emphasis the reality of these moments for the sailors aboard the submarine, focusing on their reactions to the constant bombardment and drawing out these sequences to build tension, but also to demonstrate the relentlessness of the attacks against the submarines. It's a great approach that really makes you feel for these characters and offers a reminder that the horrors of war are visited on both sides. The final act doesn't wholly satisfy emotionally in that it feels a little tacked on, but it does fit with the themes of the film.