militaryhistory

The Longest Day was made in 1962 and produced by Daryl F Zanuck. It tells the story of the allied invasion of Normandy France in june 1944. The movie has an all star cast, including John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Jeffery Hunter, Sal Mineo, Richard Burton and a host of thousands of extras and supporting actors. The autheticity is of the highest caliber. The fild was made very shortly after world war two and access to authentic uniform items and weapons were extremely easy, not to mention that information about the war was readily available and may of the actors had actually served in the war. I first saw this film in the theaters when it came out (I guess I’m dating myself), it worked very well on the big screen and was presented in a black and white format, though I understand that a colorized version does exist. The producer chose black and white due to its widespread use during the war. And it does in fact look great in this format.  The information that it conveys is very detailed and looks at both sides of the conflict from an allied perspective and a German perspective. I also gives the average GI (term used for the American Soldier) his due and also tells his story.

The downside to the movie is that it is done in such a way as to make it viewer friendly and tends to use a little tounge and cheek humor to show the fog of war. This technique made it look as though it was more of a good time than the tradgedy that it really was. In this area it pales in comparrison to movies like Saving Private Ryan, Flags of our Fathers and the Thin Red Line which shows the horror and fear of war. But despite these shortcomings, I still give this movie a very high rating of FOUR STARS.