THE LONGEST DAY
US, 1962, 170 minutes, Black and White.
Eddie Albert, Richard Beymer, Bourvil, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Ray Danton, Peter Van Eyck, Mel Ferrer, Gert Frobe, Henry Fonda, Steve Forrest, Leo Genn, John Gregson, Jeffrey Hunter, Curt Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Roddy Mc Dowell, Sal Mineo, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger, Tom Tryon, John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Irina Demick, Richard Todd, Robert Wagner.
Directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wickhi.
The Longest Day was acclaimed on its first release almost twenty years after the events it portrays. Ten years later, it still has great interest for our recent world history which, nevertheless, is beginning to recede into the past.
Using a documentary style with date and place sub? titles, German dialogue where necessary, and black and white wide-screen photography on Normandy locations the film builds up a cumulative interest over its almost three hour length.
Compared with Is Paris Burning? (1966) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) it stands quite well.
Action reconstruction is good and informative, Germans, Americans, British and French all getting a fair share of the film's attention. Naturally, the emphasis is American, as was D-Day? itself. In that context, the cinema heroics of John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan must be authentic enough. Richard Burton and the rest of the English cast stand up for the British.
The film is interesting action, a welcome reviewing of history and a starter for discussion on the many issues of war.
1. What was the value of the making of this film twenty years after the events? what is the value of seeing this elaborate re-creation of D-Day?, thirty years after the events?
2. What are the major lessons of a historical film like this? Was the technique effective - the documentary look, the information, details of persons, rank, places; the indications of time; the continued crosscutting to the various strands of the longest day? What was the cumulative effect?
3. A fair picture of what happened and why? Fair to the Germans, Americans, French, British?
4. The successes and mistakes of both sides shown accurately enough? Examples? The Germans, speculations about the invasion, theories, war games; various personalities, those at the front and those in offices or in Berlin; Hitler unable to be disturbed from sleep; the two pilots of the Luftwaffe? How should the Germans have been better prepared? Could they have warded off the invasion? The Allies - the waiting, expectations, weather, tension, training, plans, delays and postponements, the 'now or never' atmosphere, the enthusiasm, the hope? Why did they want to win by this stage of the war?
5. Did the film successfully communicate human interest in the film to engage audience interest in the whole film? Both Germans and Allies?
6. The various strands of the day? How well presented? Interesting? Effective in the cumulative effect of the film? John Wayne and the paratroopers, tension, plans, uncertainty, negotiation with authority, the gambling, the young Americans, take-off and human interest, the jumps, the mistakes and deaths, Red Buttons and the Church. Richard Beymer lost. Wayne and group lost yet fighting, Wayne being carried, Beymer sitting out the day with Richard Burton. R.A.F. mess-hall talk about crashes and deaths, morale, Richard Burton wounded in the garden. Marines, the beach-head landings and difficulties (and their impression on the astonished Germans), decisions to move forward with risk or be decimated and the invasion fail; Mitchum's decisions, Jeffrey Hunter getting men through. Marines; the Roosevelt Junior episode and the landing. Navy; Rod Steiger and patriotism. The Resistance; getting the British through in the hayricks, the dangers of the sabotaging of the train, the secret radio transmissions and codes, the mayor welcoming the Marines to France. The French commandos and their losses and heroism, the need for the French to participate in the invasion, the Nuns helping; (the joy of the French couple in the house by the Channel and the discomforture of the German soldier)? The British Commandos, their jump (and the use of dummies), the severe fighting and holding the bridge, the Scottish Regiment's relief in time? Controls in London and their assessment of the day.
9. Was the Allied victory certain? How did the film show the emerging sense of victory. and the contribution of each section?
10. Was this a good war film? Does it have a healthy influence amongst today's audiences? Why?
