I loved
Das Boot as well, Clint!

How do I properly say this? I'd need to watch it at least two more times before I could comment with any detail about the mechanics of Wolfgang's direction, but I did find one standout feature of his directing style while watching
Line Of Fire... it's that he has no one standout feature to his directing style.
Some directors, think Kubrick or Spielberg, are telling you something in the course of telling the story. They inject a film with some measure of their personal view, their preference, their message. They leave readily identifiable calling cards, from Spielberg's fascination with lighting and transition to Kubrick's lone, static camera bravado. Peterson, on the other hand, has to be one of the most transparent, discreet directors I've ever not seen

Others with keener eyes might disagree, but to me, he just doesn't focus on any noticeable tricks or techniques at the expense of any others. His presence is one step further removed from the end result than most other directors. His calling card is the absence of a calling card.
I know from the behind-the-scenes footage on the
Das Boot Director's Cut that he is a big fan of technical innovation and painstaking realism. He pioneered the modern use of the Steadi-cam in that movie, and the inside of the submarine was meticulously recreated from photos and accounts of actual U-boats and their crews. He seems to be big on authenticity.
And he brings all of this to
Line Of Fire, but never seemingly at the expense of surrealism (everything about Mitch Leary, except, of course, for Mitch Leary himself, is so otherworldly). And he definitely provides viewers who are searching for symbolism with plenty to discuss, but never to the point that enjoyment of the film would be noticeably lessened if you missed any of it. His approach seems balanced to the degree that it disappears from the viewer's radar.
This balance, coupled with his foreign background, made for a wonderfully non-Jingoistic look at a story set against the American political landscape. Thank god for that.
