Day #44 - The Longest Day

IMDB Link

I liked this movie even more than I thought I was going to! Being such a history buff, you give me a D-Day movie and I'm a happy camper :) What I enjoyed the most about The Longest Day is that they didn't just give you the Allied point of view. You also got to follow the Germans, which is rare in war movies. Not only that - but you didn't just follow one company or one military branch for the Allies - we got to see Air Force, Navy, Army, Airborne..we saw gliders at work as well as engineers. They really made accuracy a priority so I found it to be a really interesting story. It's unbelievable to see how the Germans handled the days before and of the invasion of Normandy - I had read before about how they expected the invasion to come at a different location but I didn't know how much they relied on weather to make strategy assumptions. Not only that, but once the invasion did start, it was as though Hitler didn't take it seriously. He wouldn't release the Panzer divisions and I found it interesting that his high ranking officers didn't have the guts to wake him up to even tell him what was happening!

I digress. The Longest Day was released in 1962 and was directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton and Bernhard Wicki. It starred a great many actors of that era, including Richard Burton, Red Buttons, a young Sean Connery, John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum. The nice thing was that none of these actors, in my opinion, really stuck out as a lead. It was more of an ensemble which I always feel is best for war movies. A bit of trivia - apparently this was one of the first war movies ever made where everyone spoke their native languages - the Germans spoke German, the French spoke French, and the British and Americans spoke English. Also, at $10 millioin, The Longest Day was the most expensive black and white movie ever made until Schindlers List came along in 1993. It won 2 Oscars - Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects.

One of the scenes that really blew me away was the invasion of Omaha Beach at Point-Du-Hoc. The men who were assigned this part of the beach had to scale hundred foot cliffs with ropes and ladders, taking heavy fire the whole time from Germans above. Amazing.