The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
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Movie Reviews of The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: The Longest Day
Summary: 5 Stars
A very authentic movie. Everybody played their parts very well. Richard Todd, who played the British commander at Pegusus Bridge, actually fought there on D=Day.Movie Review: Before Private Ryan there was The Longest Day
Summary: 5 Stars
A veritable who's who of mid-20th century hollywood provides a sweeping epic overview of the D-Day invasion. Historically very accurate, it provides a view from both sides of the greatest battle of the greatest war in the 20th century. "Saving Private Ryan" has merit but I still prefer this work for a dramatic portrayal of what Rommel called, "der langste tag." A grand hollywood epic to tell an incredible and sweeping story of a pivotal day in history.Movie Review: The greatest "war movie" as "war movie"
Summary: 5 Stars
Come on, this has to be the movie against which all other "war movies" are measured!! This was 1960's Hollywood loving tribute to the sacrifices made by the men of the Allied armies, who liberated France by making it across the English Channel and surviving one of the bloodiest days in history.
Every star who could be in this movie was in it -- John Wayne, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Fabian!! The special effects were laborious and the directing often magnificent. (The long sequence by which the Free French attack a German Stronghold stands with the best movie shots of all time.) Hollywood used "all of its skills" to make this one of the great epics of all time. Even the score is instantly recognizable.
The movie itself is based upon Cornelius Ryan's book of the same name -- and that may be the primary frustration for newer generations of movie watchers who see this movie for the first time. Ryan's book is anecdotal, focusing upon individual stories -- there are some loose efforts to explain the overall situation to the movie goer, but the DDay story was so ingrained in the group awareness of the Free World that a great deal of back ground knowledge was simply taken for granted.
I recall picking up the book upon which the movie was based at the library before the movie came out -- not knowing what D Day was (I was pretty young). And when I say that I did not know what D Day was, that was literally true, I did not understand the term -- which had become a socialogical shorthand taken for granted by generations of americans. I remember attempting to look it up in dictionaries, in all sorts of non fiction books -- finally some footnote explained that there was an H Hour and and M minute, and the light bulb went on.
So, for viewers born after 1980 or so, enjoy the film for what it is -- a munificent love letter to the soldiers of WWII -- pick up Stephen Ambrose on DDay before or after if you need a context and enjoy.
Movie Review: Greatest war movie of all time? Naaaaaahhh!!!
Summary: 3 Stars
Not only it is not, this movie has aged badly over the years. And I don't mean just its special effects, which were the best at the time but now look understandably dated. I mean the picture itself; the attitude it reflects.
Soldiers fall nicely in bloodless deaths. Grenades only kill when needed, enemies fire only when you keep your head down, dirt only stains your cheeks, and wounds mean only scratches and cuts, not gory carnage. There is no pain or terror; no one cries in agony, grief or desperation.
No one kills civilians, not even nazis, not even by accident. There's your standard scared kid, or the classic Brooklyn wiseguy among the grunts to be sure, but every officer is a "Father-knows-best" square-jawed tough hombre. Germans always yell on the phone, whether in anger or affection, and all Frenchmen belong to the Resistance; their girls flirting like sluts. No kidding. And talk about the All-Star cast!:
Robert Mitchum storms the beaches of Normandy as the quarterback of a football team. John Wayne delivers his tiresome lines on automatic cowboy. Richard Beymer has to verbalize everything he sees, feels or thinks, just to spare you the effort of figuring it all by yourself. Sean Connery, Roddy McDowell, Red Buttons, Rod Steiger and Richard Burton compete each other for the Ham-Of-The-Year Award in the brief cameos they're given. Even thespians you don't see overdo it: that "hold until relieved" order, for instance, keeps changing its intonation everytime time it's echoed in the paratrooper's head (the actor then makes a face accordingly). And every once in a while there's the Deep Thought, mused over by someone with eyes wide open in Revelation.
In short, it is a big movie, but a bad one. Badly done, badly played and badly written. Cornelius Ryan may have been a good journalist but he certainly wasn't a good screenwriter. His script tells you more about old Hollywood than what World War II was like.
Time has nothing to do with the movie's dated look. "Is Paris Burning?" -in many respects a clone of "The Longest Day"- was filmed shortly after. So was "Patton" a few years later. The former has aged horribly as well, if not more; the latter remains present. Both were written by the same fellow, young Francis Ford Coppola. His next movie would be "The Godfather". What does that tell you?
ANSWER: Practise makes perfect. Passion helps. Budget and Big Stars, only if you have the first two.
Movie Review: Wonderful movie to watch on Remembrance day
Summary: 5 Stars
The Longest Day is a wonderful movie to watch at any time, but especially in Remembrance Day.
Being the daughter of a WWII veteran, this movie has special meaning to me, to my whole family. I recommend it wholeheartedly.