The Longest Day (1962) Reviews

• The last good WW2 film made by people "who were there"

  Buck_Thruster2004-04-12

  This is perhaps one of the most ambitious, epic WW2 films to have been made; certainly it is the last of the classic B&W films made about the subject. Featuring an all-star cast (John Wayne, Richard Burton, Kurt Jurgens... even a cameo by Sean Connery!), it comprehensively details the build-up and execution of the Normandy landings in 1944, taking care to show how the event was perceived by Allied and Axis soldiers and commanders, as well as the Free French resistance. This is a film that takes great care in documenting the events of the day, without lapsing into sickly sentimentalism or getting distracted with fictional characters' personal lives (a failing of many WW2 movies since about 1970), or over-emphasising any one nation's importance in the operation (although, admittedly, Canadians may feel a little short-changed). Classic moments abound, notably the landing at St.Mere-Eglise and the soldier who gets caught in the church steeple, the frustrations of the front-line German commanders and fighters, and the numerous cameos for film nerds to keep track of. If you want a wartime romance, or an appearance by Matt Damon or Ben Affleck, or long, loving shots of the Stars & Stripes in slo-mo, or a gritty blood'n'guts fest, you'll be disappointed. This film has broader concerns, and was made with much more thoroughness. There is no agenda at work here, pro-war or anti-. It is solely concerned with documenting Operation "Overlord" for the film-going public, and succeeds brilliantly; a shame then, that it has not made the top 50 war films list. A must-see for any fan of war films.

• Spectacular recounting about the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, based on Cornelius Ryan novel

  ma-cortes2007-12-21

  This an important, interesting movie depicting the Overlord operation with monumental logistics and means of effecting the Normandy landing, the most difficult campaign of war. The picture brings to life the famous images of WWII and splendidly the most sensational military operation of the history in an Allied hard-fought effort. The film develops the previous days to the D-Day invasion ,such as the landings and the advance over France. The film is magnificently produced with big budget by the great 20th century Fox producer Darryl F Zanuck. Evocative cinematography by Jean Bourgoun and catching song by Paul Anka with musical score by Maurice Jarre. Excellent casting by plethora stars. Special mention to John Wayne as Lt. Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort , he's top-notch as tough,valiant officer in this believable war film and terrific acting by Richard Todd as Major commanding Us paratroopers dropped to protect the flanks of the invasion and taking strategic bridge. Furthermore known Generals and officers played by prestigious players, as Germans: General Gunther(Curt Jurgens),Field Marshal Erwin Rommel(Hinz), Field Marshal Von Rundstedt(Paul Hartmann), and Allied : Brig. General Theodore Roosevelt Jr(Henry Fonda),Brig. General Norman Cota(Robert Mitchum), General Haines(Mel Ferrer), Brig. General James Gavin(Robert Ryan), General Raymond Barton(Edmond O'Brien), Lt General OMar N Bradley(Stuart), General Bernard L Montgomery(T. Reid) and General Dwight D Eisenhower played by Henry Grace. Grace was a famed set designer , while he worked extensively for many films ,his only appearance was an uncredited performance as Eisenhower ; despite not being an actor , he was cast for his uncanny resemblance to the General. This famous event from how was orchestrated the dangerous,risky landings maneuvers is professionally directed by trio of directors, Ken Annakin, Bernhard Wicki and Andrew Marton. Adding more details along with the well developed on the movie, the events were happened of the following manner : Shortly after midnight on June 6, about 23.500 US and British paratroopers landed along the edges of the landing beaches. Their mission was to seize vital bridges and communications centers. They also had to hold off any Germans counterattacks until they were relieved by the amphibious forces. The Airbone landings were largely successful. Some US troops missed their target and end up scattered over the countryside. The main amphibious landings took place after an artillery bombardment from some 200 Allied warships at German positions also came under attack from Allied medium and heavy bombers. They were part of the 11,500 aircraft committed to D-Day. They bombed the Germans on and behind the five landing beaches. US troops landed on Utah beach. Strong currents and inaccurate navigation meant that they were a little away from their precise target. They landed about 1 mile(1,6 km) south. The beach there was relatively undefended. The troops soon knocked out the only concrete gun position guarding the beach.Demolitions teams cleared paths through the obstacles the beach and the first tanks crossed the Atlantic Wall. They fanned out into the countryside to link up with the paratroopers. By nightfall of D-Day some 23,000 men and 1,700 vehicles had gone ashore. The beach had been highly congested for much of the day. Utah was a triumph ,however Omaha beach was nearly a disaster, the fight was the most difficult. The Us troops were unable to get off the beach to make room for later waves of invaders. There were better defenses there than on the other beaches, and the German defenders were positioned on high ground, from where they could pour fire down on the attackers.The allies also made mistakes. The naval bombardment ended too soon, and the bombers missed their targets and launched landing crafts and amphibious tanks too far out from the beach, may were sunk. When the first assault wave landed ,it faced a bar-rage of fire , some men were thinking of evacuation. However small groups began to make it off the beach to the high ground beyond. By dusk, some men were ashore, most were still crowed on the beach. The high ground beyond was only thinly held by exhausted survivors waves. Some 2300 US troops had been killed in the landings. The operation had come close to disaster. The three Anglo-Canadian beaches-Gold, Sword and Juno stretched fore some 25 miles. They were wide and open and ideal for amphibious landings. The British on Gold and Sword quickly crashed though the Atlantic wall. Their success was due partly to a range of specially developed armored vehicles known as Funnies. The Canadians at Juno had a tougher time. They faced rough seas and alert defenders .By late morning ,they were also pushing inland. Despite the horror of beaches , overall Allied losses were far lower than expected. Some 6000 US personnel were killed, wounded, or missing, along with 4300 British and Canadian troops. German losses totaled between 4000 and 8000. By the day's end ,some 128000 Allied soldiers were ashore and many more were on their way.

• An absolutely remarkable film...

  Nazi_Fighter_David2002-10-01

  'The Longest Day' is June 6, 1944, the day the Allied assault on Hitler's Fortress Europe... And when it came everything went much according to plan... But fighting through the tough country of Normandy took much longer than had been expected... Dwight D. Eisenhower, the four-star Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, made up the force of some two million men massed in England for the strike at Europe... Combined American, British, Irish and Canadian forces assault the beaches of Normandy in an effort to gain a foothold on the continent... From the viewpoint of the Americans and Germans involved, the story unfolds through numerous episodes highlighting the 'Longest Day.' We see the commands posts occupied by the Germans; Caen, the starting point; the French underground network; Omaha Beach; Utah Beach; Ste-Mère-Église; as well as sites and camps in England... The film is a clear examination of D-Day looked at from almost every viewpoint, particularly from that of the Germans who are overwhelmed by the forces brought against them... It is in fact Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (profiled against the French beach thoroughly planted with mined obstacles) who looks out to where the invasion fleet will appear later-or sooner, and gives the film its title: "The first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive... For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day." In the first half, much attention is focused on the weather, as the troops... American, British, Irish, Canadian and French are poised on board their boats and ships, waiting for the rain to stop... In the key scene when Gen. Eisenhower (David Grace), makes the decision to go ahead with the invasion on June 6, more than 5,000 ships moved to assigned positions... The importance of time is emphasized by increasing the ticking of a clock... On the other side of the channel, the German generals, who know the invasion is imminent, see the same nasty weather and decide to take some time off for war games... French Resistance fighters receive their coded instructions from BBC radio and increase their sabotage activities... Much of the early going is also devoted to some of the Allies' more unorthodox ideas, the kinds of things that make more sense cinematic ally than militarily: the use of metal clickers by paratroopers for identification, and parachuting mechanical dummies loaded with firecrackers behind German lines to create confusion... The film reaches its peak when the two sides in the battle are finally engaged... The first assault wave hit the Normandy beaches at 6:30 A.M. on June 6... The soil of France looked sordid and uninviting... Planning has been as complete as possible, but in the vast confusion of invasion under enemy fire, so many men fell uselessly when they left their landing craft, and stepped into water... Others fell into underwater shell craters and drowned... The Allied air bombing that was to have knocked out German beach defense guns had not been accurate, especially on Omaha Beach where the bombs had been laid down too far inland to do much good... As a result, the gunfire that met American troops there was more murderous than anything they had been prepared for.. Today it is difficult to watch the invasion scenes and not compare them to the opening of Steven Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan,' but that really is unfair... Zanuck manages to display the image of thousands of young soldiers who were killed fighting to liberate France... A long aerial shot from the point of view of a German pilot Josef 'Pips' Priller (Heinz Reincke) strafing Normandy Beach reveals a shore-line of successive waves of men running for their lives trying to secure Omaha Beach... This awful waste and destruction of war: scores of trucks and boats hit by shells, or sunk by mines with their crew lost... Trucks overturned and swamped, partly sunken barges, and many jeeps half submerged... Field Marshal Rommel set to work to do everything possible to make the beaches if not impregnable, very uninviting indeed... 'The war will be won or lost on the beaches,' he states... The German command was slow to react to the invasion... They had been misled by the weather and the Allied deception plan that Normandy was a diversion and the main landing would be at Pas-de-Calais... Shot in CinemaScope and in black-and-white, 'The Longest Day' captures the history of the moment... The film tracks the book very closely, shifting the viewpoints from German to French to American to British throughout... In three hours Zanuck and his staff expand on the scope of one day, to tell mostly everything, with an exceptionally strong cast playing cameo roles... The cast could not be better, in spite of the brevity of their roles: All the characters speak in their own languages... The motion picture is Winner of two Academy Awards for Cinematography and Special Effects, Zanuck's 'The Longest Day' is one without doubt an absolutely remarkable film, one of the most impressive and most authentic documentation of war ever put on film...

• One of the Greatest War Films Ever Bar None!!!

  sawyertom2003-03-16

  The Longest Day is one of the greatest war films ever. Bar none. The acting, the cinematography, the storline and the acuraccy are great. if any of you fans watch AMC watch the Backstory behind this movie. It's amazing that it was even made. This is Zanuck's greatest work. The perspective from the different combatants regardless of their rank is great. Like somebody else said it did not portray the Germans as cartoonish evil doers. It gave a good honest portrayal that I wish more war movies would have. As a history buff I love to see movies from other countries soldier perspectives. This captures it better than every other war movie. The only one that comes close is Tora, Tora, Tora. There is one drawback however and that is the rangers at Pointe De Hoc. They did find the big guns but,they were further inland and later destroyed before they could be used. Zanuck used this to show the futility and waste of war. Other than that is a classic with very few flaws. The comparison between SPR and TLD are well like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, SPR has gritty realism that stuns you, but like another reviewer said, this was 1962 and the movie was about the entire scope of the battle. It was not meant to be up close and personal like SPR. Many of us appreciate movies from different perspctives. This is not a movie you should not rent. You should own it as part of your video collection. This movie may appear to be pro-war and patriotic, but Zanuck himself said he wanted to make an anti-war film. I think he did so magnificantly. He captured the essence of the book where Cornelius Ryan said he wrote about the men,not the battles. That is why Zanucks film is so successful. He captured the men and their feelings, whether they were American, British,German's or French and what they were feeling going into one WW2's most decisive battle. This is a Four Star Classic!!!!

• Still a classic after 42 years!

  phantomsteve_2004-05-02

  Invariably compared with "Saving Private Ryan" (SPR), this scores over the more modern work because of the focus on all the major sides of the action (British, American, French and German). All languages are used (with subtitles as appropriate - eg the Germans speak in German, etc). While true that the battle scenes are not gory as SPR's, and that the sounds of battle are muted during the dialog (unlike SPR's), it should be borne in mind that in '62, the audience rating of the time *was* a General Release ("G" in the US, "A" in the UK (I'm guessing for the UK, but it is now PG)) - which more detail would not have allowed. I think part of the purpose of this film is to allow *everyone* to see what happened 18 years before!