This excellent movie gives the big picture about the D-Day Invasion (“Operation Overlord”) of June 6, 1944, a task that involved some 3.5 million men, 2/3 of whom were American.

Unlike more recent pictures about D-Day, like Saving Private Ryan, also excellent, which give a micro view of the largest invasion in history, The Longest Day gives a macro view, showing the massive preparations and logistical nightmares on both sides of the English Channel.

But there is more; The Longest Day also shows the horror of the invasion from the point of view of the individual soldier, sailor, and airman, with great performances from a bevy of world-class actors.

Producer/director Darryl F. Zanuck had the genius to portray the characters with actual Germans playing Germans, French playing French, British playing British, and Americans playing Americans. Most of the dialog is straight from the actual quotes collected from Cornelius Ryan’s history book of the same name. Not only that, but the Germans spoke German, the French spoke French. Everything was explained in subtitles. From the high command including Eisenhower himself, all the major decision-makers were portrayed and portrayed well. On the German side, we had von Rundstedt and Rommel, as the senior commanders. Zanuck also assigned separate directors for each different nationality depicted reserving for himself overall supervision and continuity. The result is simply flawless, a seamless view of the D-Day invasion from the highest to the lowest echelons.

The Longest Day makes it clear how difficult it was for the Germans to determine that an actual invasion was taking place. The Allies had been threatening attack for months and filling the airwaves with coded messages aimed at the resistance.

On the night of the attack, the German commanders of the fortifications guarding the beaches and the sea were unable to tell that some 20,000 airborne troops had parachuted behind their lines in the wee hours of the morning. Neither could they know that the French Resistance had been mobilized and had begun to destroy their communications that same night. One of the fine ironies of the day was the fact that Hitler had taken a sleeping pill and left orders not to be awakened, however, his word was needed to free up the German reserves to help fend off the attack. General von Blumentritt’s futile conversation with General Jodl of OKW (German High Commmand) begging for tank reserves and being rebuffed with that excuse was quite revealing. Rommel, too, and a dozen other senior German commanders were away from their posts at the time of the attack.

There is a veritable who’s who of the best international stars portraying the characters in the movie. John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort a battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division gets perhaps the most screen time of anybody. But, there was no real “star” of the picture, as the battle itself was the focal point. Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Ryan, Sean Connery, Richard Todd, Sal Mineo, Stuart Whitman, Rod Steiger, Curt Jurgens, Red Buttons, Tom Tryon, and at least 40 more top stars made up the cast and all performed admirably.

Photography is tight and well focused on the immense scope of the invasion. Sets appear to be the original locations. Props look absolutely authentic. Music consisted of incidental excerpts from Beethoven’s Fifth, da da da daaah, which also happens to be Morse Code for “V,” used to denote “Victory” by the Allies. The music also included the theme song (and excerpts) written by Paul Anka.

For a person concerned with history, The Longest Day is one of the truly great war movies and probably the last great epic produced by Hollywood. As Americans our hearts should swell with pride and we should hold out our hands to the veterans who fought that we could remain a free country on The Longest Day.




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening