Slight error in "Das Boot" (U Boat 96)

[Kurusu]

It is a great movie, I have it in DVD, and all. And have watched it many times.

But found a little inaccuracy.

When the submarine stops in neutral but Axis friendly Spain, by Christmas, the submarine captain is offered some fresh figs, he eats one and he goes on to say he had never tasted fresh figs before.

Everything looks alright, except for... There are no fresh figs in Winter. Not even in Spain.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Loves me some figgy pudding.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

Even greenhouse fig trees don't produce winter figs?

 

[Kurusu]

Even greenhouse fig trees don't produce winter figs?

There's 2 crops in the year. Spring and late Summer


Edit. The only thing a greenhouse can do is keep the fig tree alive in harsh environments.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

When my D-I-L immigrated from Germany, I said I could get copies of the book in German and English. I would read the German one and she'd read the English and we could help each other's grammar and pronunciation.

She said she had heard about the book and there was a good reason it was banned in Germany for about 20 years! And wanted nothing to do with it! I read it in English in the 80's. It was a little crude at the beginning but thought it was fair, at least.

Apparently she is from the "New" and "Kinder and Gentle Germany", who would have thunk it?

Ivan

 

[Kurusu]

When my D-I-L immigrated from Germany, I said I could get copies of the book in German and English. I would read the German one and she'd read the English and we could help each other's grammar and pronunciation.

She said she had heard about the book and there was a good reason it was banned in Germany for about 20 years! And wanted nothing to do with it! I read it in English in the 80's. It was a little crude at the beginning but thought it was fair, at least.

Apparently she is from the "New" and "Kinder and Gentle Germany", who would have thunk it?

Ivan

Ah! Someone who read the book. Can you tell me if that scene is also in the book?

Maybe it was only in the movie.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

So - Do they grow Hothouse Figs in Spain?
My Mother used to make terrific Fig Preserves.
She was not Axis Friendly.

 

[Kurusu]

So - Do they grow Hothouse Figs in Spain?
My Mother used to make terrific Fig Preserves.
She was not Axis Friendly.

All Spain is a hothouse.

And. I'm just their friendly Western neighbour.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I can't remember that scene, but being in Spain was and there was a huge banquet with all manner of fresh food.

In the Bible, Jesus is walking into town (Jerusalem, I think) and walks up to a fig "Tree" and curses it because it has no figs "as it wasn't the season for figs!" Why would Jesus curse the tree because it wasn't the time for figs? A scholar told me that most varieties ALWAYS have a berry that is bitter and matures into figs and travelers used this as a quick snack/survival food. (The Biblical lesson is: don't ever be fruitless, the practical Lesson is: Don't Disappoint Jesus!) The fig tree was withered up when the disciples passed by later that day!(End of Sunday School, back to your regularly scheduled gun forum!)

Ivan

 

[Kurusu]

I can't remember that scene, but being in Spain was and there was a huge banquet with all manner of fresh food.

In the Bible, Jesus is walking into town (Jerusalem, I think) and walks up to a fig "Tree" and curses it because it has no figs "as it wasn't the season for figs!" Why would Jesus curse the tree because it wasn't the time for figs? A scholar told me that most varieties ALWAYS have a berry that is bitter and matures into figs and travelers used this as a quick snack/survival food. (The Biblical lesson is: don't ever be fruitless, the practical Lesson is: Don't Disappoint Jesus!) The fig tree was withered up when the disciples passed by later that day!(End of Sunday School, back to your regularly scheduled gun forum!)

Ivan

Was it also during Christmas in the book?

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I'm just their friendly Western neighbour.

I thought during WW II Portugal was Allied or at least pro Allied. I know their former colony, Brazil was part of the Allies.

Ivan

 

[CH4]

“Fresh” is a relative term...

 

[Kurusu]

I thought during WW II Portugal was Allied or at least pro Allied. I know their former colony, Brazil was part of the Allies.

Ivan

Portugal shares the Iberian Peninsula with Spain. And, same as Spain, was neutral in WWII.

Salazar, our "benevolent dictator" at the time, avoided committing to either side. By the end of the war he was more pro allied than when the war started. He hated and feared comunists and at first thought Hitler would get the World rid of them. Those were difficult times, even for non beligerants.

This Country also was a "house divided" with people rooting for opposite sides, sometimes in the same family.

 

[Kurusu]

“Fresh” is a relative term...

Not with figs. They don't keep.

 

[Old TexMex]

My aunt used to preserve figs. I found a jar some 30 years after she had made the preserves, they were fabulous. Not fresh, but really nice.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I had fig preserves yesterday at breakfast, probably have some tomorrow morning, with fresh homemade biscuits.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[Old TexMex]

Leon, that is one fine way to start the day.

 

[rockquarry]

The fig "inaccuracy" didn't take away from the movie in the least.

 

[Absalom]

......
She said she had heard about the book and there was a good reason it was banned in Germany for about 20 years! And wanted nothing to do with it! I read it in English in the 80's. It was a little crude at the beginning but thought it was fair, at least.

Apparently she is from the "New" and "Kinder and Gentle Germany", who would have thunk it?

Ivan

I am not quite sure where she got the idea that the book was ever banned in Germany. It wasn't.

Buchheim published it in 1973 and it became the best-selling WW II fiction in published in German ever. I think it still holds that record. In 1981, the movie came out.

As for the figs, I remember the scene, but know nothing about figs; Germans usually eat them candied at Christmas; I don't think I've ever had a fresh one.

I have the book and have read it, but I don't remember figs; it's got something like 600-700 pages and I'm not going to start searching

 

[Rudi]

We get them dried here, very tasty.