D-DAY, THE 6th OF JUNE

US, 1956, 106 minutes, Colour.
Robert Taylor, Richard Todd, Dana Wynter, Edmond O’ Brien, John Williams, Jerry Paris.
Directed by Henry Koster.

D- Day the Sixth of June, should have been much better than it is. Taking the day for the Normandy invasion as its focus, it is not another version of The Longest Day. It is rather a conventional war romance with some action sequences but a focus on the romantic trio.

Robert Taylor, echoing Waterloo Bridge, is a stolid hero. Dana Winter is an attractive heroine and there are good supporting roles for Richard Todd, Edmond O'Brien and John Williams. The film is very much an American view of England during the war and the invasion itself. Comparisons might be made with such effective films on the same
theme as The Longest Day, Patton, John Schlesinger's Yanks.

1. Was this an enjoyable film? Was it an adequate representation of this day?

2. How successful was it as a war film? Did it present the war realistically and vividly enough? Or was there only a token representation of the war? The feel of the impact of D-Day? and its importance?

3. How successful was the film in its structure, the memories of the principal characters carrying the story through in its ordinary time development? Did this add interest to what happened to the characters? Why? Would it have been different with a straight forward narrative?

4. What did the film have to say about love? Of relationships? About love and pity? And the difference between them? Of the situations of love in wartime?

5. Was Brad a sympathetic hero? Did he Love Valerie? Why did this love supercede that for his wife? How ironic were the accidents of their meeting? Could he have made a choice to opt out of their relationship at any time? How emotional was it an involvement because of the war? What bound them together during the war? the role of loneliness? The final choices that were made? Especially in view of the effect of John’s presence to Brad? His final not revealing John’s death to Valerie? How typical a war personage and hero was Brad?

6. How attractive a heroine was Valerie? As seen in her home situation? In relation to her father? At work with the troops? As a sympathetic girl? As English compared to Brad as American? Why did she love John? Why did she want to support him? What attracted her to Brad? What was the effect of this attraction on her life? The importance of their weekend at the seaside? What choices did she have? Why did she make them? Why did she return to John? What was left to her at the end?

7. How typical a stiff upper-lip Englishman was John? His style and his love for Valerie? His respect for her father? His efficiency and competence in war? His return from the war and the wounds and their effects? His leading of the D-Day? invasion? As a gentleman in regard to Brad? The self-sacrificing for Valerie? Was his death too contrived?

8. What did Valerie’s father add to the film? The clash between old and new ideas? English and Americans? the importance of his death, in not being allowed to fight the war?

9. What did Timma add to the film? the brash leader full of self-confidence? The blustering underneath mental strain? As a friend to Brad? his experience in going on an invasion and his need for publicity? How accurate a picture of a war time man was this? Of a civilian proving himself in the army? Did this add to the value of the film?

10. How dramatic were the sequences of the invasion? The details of the preparation, the human background behind them? Preparations in London? The invasion, the aftermath in Africa?

11. What insights into war did the film offer? Did it just merely take the war for granted as a background?

12. Which were the principal issues of the film? Or did it remain on the level of popular entertainment - even of cliché? Why?