The Longest Day

For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day. The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view. The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French gets an all star production. One of the great war movie epics, it has all the requisite blunderbuss spectacle and heroism as the Allies invade Normandy. It's not hard to see why it was such a box office winner, sure it's a touch too long given that a lot of characters don't really have much to do, but performances are strong and the slices of humour off set some of the national stereotypes on show. One has to marvel at the ambition of the production, Fox Studios boss Darryl F. Zanuck spent $10 million to get it onto the big screen, and it shows. Narrative is split into three parts, the preparation, the operations on land and sea in readiness for the Normandy assault, and then the landings in all their powerful glory. For sure we have seen more authentic war movies post The Longest Day, but it undeniably deserves its place as a template movie whose power to entertain in any era forever holds firm. 8/10

John Wayne may have featured just slightly more than anyone else in this drama, but it's very much an ensemble effort that delivers a film with a great deal of authenticity to it. It's all set around the day of the D-Day landings in 1944. The weather on England's south coast was, in the words of their meteorologist, "akin to mid-winter". Delay meant more frustrations for everyone so off they go using just about every form of transportation available - gliders, planes, tanks, landing craft - you name it, as a quarter of a million men (plus lots of sparkling "Tommies") headed to Normandy. Meantime, we also see a fairly plausible perspective from the Nazi side of the channel. They've been preparing for an invasion for a while, but are unsure where and when it will come and the apprehension is beginning to take it toll. What's also clear is that the High Command are, themselves, losing faith with the battle tactics of the Bohemian corporal and much less afraid to let it be known. It's now that the story picks up the pace as troops land by sea and air and face the entrenched enemy who are determined to stop the establishment of a beach-head. With bullets flying and explosions everywhere the cinematography, stunt arranging and pyrotechnics really do give us a sense of the dangers the men faced trying to secure a few miles of sand. There's a lovely, short, cameo from Bourvil as the mayor of a small town so delighted to see them that he turns up, suitably sashed and armed with a bottle of champagne to celebrate as the shells drop all around them! Gert Fröbe also finds his milk round become just a touch too perilous too, allowing just a little humour to creep into the story of precision logistics that didn't always go to plan. It's effectively and tightly edited and the momentum drives itself as we see but this one day - no conclusions, not even the end of the end of the beginning. It's lengthy, but each beach has it's own story to tell and the four creative brains behind this project keep it enthralling, for the most part, for a watchable three hours of horror and hope.