It’s time to start the day in the worst possible way, and that is by reporting that Wolfgang Petersenthe legendary German filmmaker based in the United States and responsible for modern classics such as ‘The Submarine (Das Boot)’, ‘The Perfect Storm’ or the big screen adaptation of ‘The NeverEnding Story’, has died at the age of 81 due to pancreatic cancer.
Although the death occurred last Friday, it was not until Tuesday the 16th that the family announced the tragic news and, according to international media such as Deadline or Variety, the director and screenwriter died peacefully at his residence in Brentwood —California— in the arms of Marie Antoinette, who was his wife for 50 years.
The seed of the stage
Petersen, born on March 14, 1941 in the German city of Emden, studied at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, one of the most prestigious educational centers in Hamburg. After completing his studies, he focused his efforts on the world of theaterdirecting plays at the Ernst Deutsch Theater in Hamburg during the 1960s.
However, his training would not end there, studying theater in Hamburg and Berlin and enrolling in the film and television school in Berlin in 1966; decision that would boost his jump from the stage to the screen with cathodic productions like ‘Smog’ or ‘Van der Valk und die Reichen’.
His feature film debut would come in 1974 by the hand of ‘Einer von uns beiden’, a psychological thriller based on the homonymous novel by Horst Otto Oskar Bosetzky starring Jürgen Prochnow; interpreter who gave life to Captain Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock in the feature film that would catapult the director to world fame in 1981: the brilliant ‘El submarine (Das Boot)’.
The submarine that took him to Hollywood
This landmark of war cinema set in World War II served Petersen to win Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay; a recognition that opened the doors of Hollywood and that helped him take the director’s seat in the iconic adaptation of ‘The Neverending Story’ by Michael Ende three years later.
Is eclectic tonic remained constant throughout the rest of his career as a filmmaker, in which, in addition to war and family fantasy, he cultivated genres such as science fiction in ‘Enemigo mí’, the action thriller in ‘En la linea de fuego’ —with a immense Clint Eastwood— and ‘Air Force One’, the epic adventure in ‘Troy’, and even the catastrophe cinema in films as varied as ‘Outbreak’ and the not inconsiderable ‘Poseidon’, without forgetting that jewel titled ‘The perfect storm’, which the director himself labels as the most complex experience of his career.
As always in these cases, we can do no better than remember his professional career and give us a good binge with his work to celebrate Wolfgang Petersen being a part of our film history. Rest in peace.