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Post by twothousandonemark on Apr 11, 2017 4:00:37 GMT
A+I've always held this in high regard. Of the many all star cast films from that era, this one seems one of the more worthy, to shine spotlight on the events of June 6, 1944. Robert Mitchum is the star for me, Red Buttons is fantastic as always, & John Wayne adds some gravitas to balance it all out. Not nearly as violent as the likes of SPR, though much more accessible. It plays as a feature length stitched together by entertaining & enlightening side scenes, with known stars of its time, some in for mere moments. The Europeans speaking their own languages with subtitles is a nice touch. My #50 all time. |
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Post by teleadm on Apr 11, 2017 18:13:23 GMT
There was an earlier version of the invasion called D-Day the Sixth of June 1956 by Henry Levin and staring Robert Taylor, Richard Todd and Dana Wynter. That movie look like a small budget B-Movie compared to The Longest Day 1962.
I gave The Longest Day 9/10 on the old Imdb, and I see no reason to change it. Big, justifiebly long, impressive production long before CGI.
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Post by telegonus on Apr 11, 2017 18:26:48 GMT
Great film, more than a little flawed, The Longest Day holds together for me due to its integrity, the black and white photography making it feel like You Are There, the sheer sweep of the film, especially given its narrow time frame makes it, in a word, awesome. I agree with many who feel that the big stars in small parts drags it down, but only up to a point. The big name players date it but as time has gone by fewer and fewer people know who Frankie Avalon, Richard Beymer, Steve Forrest or Tom Tryon were, so they're just playing characters in a movie.
Some of the major stars I wish hadn't been cast in the film, including John Wayne and Robert Ryan, whom I like but not in this movie. Rod Steiger doesn't work for me, either. But the film is overall bigger than all its stars and rises above their casting. In recent years they've stopped showing it on television on June 6th, Veterans Day or whatever holiday they used to choose to run it. Till fairly recently it was a matter of if not on one channel then the other. Even my local PBS station, which used to run it, has stopped doing so.
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Post by twothousandonemark on Apr 11, 2017 18:42:44 GMT
For what it's worth, Wayne was partially who brought me in to check it out as a pre-teen, borrowed from local library.
I know it's common knowledge that he commanded more money (& less shooting time) than most everyone else involved, & yet I probably wouldn't have experienced it til' much later. I guess -for me- that paid off. Besides, it almost works to its advantage that the film really doesn't ever depend on any single star or the other to make it worthwhile. Snippets of known actors sprinkled around make the picture & its historical context front & centre.
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Post by mattgarth on Apr 11, 2017 19:02:10 GMT
Note the scene where Jeffrey Hunter has bullets spraying in the sand around him -- he reacts as one explosive goes off and delivers sand right into his eye. Pro that he was, he finished the scene.
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Post by politicidal on Apr 11, 2017 20:04:24 GMT
They'll never make another war film like this again.
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Post by gadolinium on Apr 12, 2017 0:33:22 GMT
They'll never make another war film like this again. They tried really hard to do so with A Bridge Too Far. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Apr 12, 2017 5:45:34 GMT
Richard Todd not only appeared in both films about D-Day but he served with distinction as a paratrooper in the Second World War. I This from his page: He was an officer in the 7th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. On D-Day this Battalion made contact with Major Howard at the Orne Bridge now called Pegasus Bridge. Todd was the officer who made contact. In The Longest Day (1962) he played Major Howard and the meeting with Todd was one scene. In D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) he played the commander of his Battalion in the filming of the same scene. Somehow, I find this so cool !
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Post by koskiewicz on Apr 12, 2017 15:31:16 GMT
...this film holds a special spot in my heart...my Mom's brother was killed on Omaha Beach on day 1 of the invasion. An uncle I never got to know.
The book "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan is an awesome tome covering many aspects of that day not seen in the excellent film.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Apr 12, 2017 17:25:34 GMT
koskiewiczThere's been way too many uncles we never got to know. These pictures make them somehow a little real to us and hopefully we appreciate what they went through for us. The Ryan book is indeed excellent.
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Post by vegalyra on Apr 12, 2017 17:32:04 GMT
Great film, one of my favorites.
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Post by hi224 on Apr 16, 2017 9:22:45 GMT
I remember Mitchums famous quote on the beach, great stuff and really mesmerizing as well.
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Post by ironjade on Apr 16, 2017 13:47:06 GMT
Among the things already mentioned, it also has one of the most amazing long-take arial shots. I can't remember it very well, but it goes something like this: from the ships in the harbor, to the docks, to soldiers running/charging a long way along the docks, ending in a battle over the horizon of the docks into the city. I think. If anyone remembers it better, please correct me. It went on forever, involved enormous mass coordination of many elements, and was perfectly accomplished, in that case by one of its several directors, Ken Annakin. That was the Free French commando attack on Huistreham, which opened with an amazing single tracking shot which must have been a nightmare to coordinate. I may be wrong but I think it was inspired by some newsreel footage of the actual attack. Probably the best bit of the movie, apart from the scenes in which Robert Mitchum appears. |
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