Reviews for The Longest Day
Review - Longest Day, The
Eddie Albert ....Col. Thompson — Paul Anka .... U.S. Army Ranger — Richard Burton .... Flight Officer David Campbell — Red Buttons .... Pvt. John Steele — Sean Connery .... Pvt. Flanagan — Fabian .... U.S. Army Ranger — Mel Ferrer .... Maj. Gen. Robert Haines — Henry Fonda .... Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. — Steve Forrest .... Capt. Harding — Gert Fröbe .... Sgt. Kaffekanne — Curd Jürgens .... Maj. Gen. Gunther Blumentritt (he played the villain in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me) — Peter Lawford .... Lord Lovat — Roddy McDowall .... Pvt. Morris — Sal Mineo .... Pvt. Martini — Robert Mitchum .... Brig. Gen. Norman Cota — Robert Ryan .... Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin — George Segal .... U.S. Army Ranger — Rod Steiger .... Destroyer commander — Richard Todd .... Maj. John Howard (Todd actually participated in D-Day, but he didn't play himself in the movie) — Robert Wagner .... U.S. Army Ranger — John Wayne .... Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort
Director — a bunch of people
Having just read D-Day, by Stephen E. Ambrose, and not being in the mood for Saving Private Ryan, I decided to watch The Longest Day. It's a three-hour movie about D-Day based on the book by the same name by Cornelius Ryan. I haven't seen the movie in years. In fact, I can't recall seeing it since watching it as the late-night movie on WGN when I was in college — the picture was sized wrong for my TV and all the subtitles were cut off.
I could still vividly remember three scenes:
1. When the paratroopers come down in St Mère Eglise and the one guy gets caught up on the church. (There is a figure of a paratrooper hanging from the church today to honor the guy — which I find a bit strange.)
2. When the paratrooper clicks his cricket as a password and hears the two-click response, then gets shot by a German soldier who recocks his weapon — which makes the exact same noise as the cricket.
3. When the invasion fleet first appears off the coast.
I enjoyed it. I think the movie does better than Saving Private Ryan at portraying the scope and significance of D-Day. In this regard, having such a huge cast helped. At other times, the famous faces were a distraction. Even near the end of the movie I was still saying "Hey, there's ... " I found it rather disconcerting to see the pre-James Bond Sean Connery as a Scottish buffoon and Gert Fröbe (who played opposite Connery's Bond as the villain Goldfinger) as a bumbling German sergeant delivering coffee on a mule.
SPR was better at showing the horrors of war — there wasn't nearly enough blood and destruction in TLD to be realistic — but after the initial scenes on Omaha Beach, SPR focuses too narrowly to give the big picture. TLD is good in that it also gives the point of view of the Germans and French.
There really isn't a plot as such — it's more of a documentary — and no one character is on screen long enough to get me emotionally involved. But it does contain those great scenes I mentioned earlier and kept my interest throughout.
Director — a bunch of people
Having just read D-Day, by Stephen E. Ambrose, and not being in the mood for Saving Private Ryan, I decided to watch The Longest Day. It's a three-hour movie about D-Day based on the book by the same name by Cornelius Ryan. I haven't seen the movie in years. In fact, I can't recall seeing it since watching it as the late-night movie on WGN when I was in college — the picture was sized wrong for my TV and all the subtitles were cut off.
I could still vividly remember three scenes:
1. When the paratroopers come down in St Mère Eglise and the one guy gets caught up on the church. (There is a figure of a paratrooper hanging from the church today to honor the guy — which I find a bit strange.)
2. When the paratrooper clicks his cricket as a password and hears the two-click response, then gets shot by a German soldier who recocks his weapon — which makes the exact same noise as the cricket.
3. When the invasion fleet first appears off the coast.
I enjoyed it. I think the movie does better than Saving Private Ryan at portraying the scope and significance of D-Day. In this regard, having such a huge cast helped. At other times, the famous faces were a distraction. Even near the end of the movie I was still saying "Hey, there's ... " I found it rather disconcerting to see the pre-James Bond Sean Connery as a Scottish buffoon and Gert Fröbe (who played opposite Connery's Bond as the villain Goldfinger) as a bumbling German sergeant delivering coffee on a mule.
SPR was better at showing the horrors of war — there wasn't nearly enough blood and destruction in TLD to be realistic — but after the initial scenes on Omaha Beach, SPR focuses too narrowly to give the big picture. TLD is good in that it also gives the point of view of the Germans and French.
There really isn't a plot as such — it's more of a documentary — and no one character is on screen long enough to get me emotionally involved. But it does contain those great scenes I mentioned earlier and kept my interest throughout.
Reviewed by Roger on 2008-08-13 14:10:01