Hollywood Films About D-Day: 1. The Longest Day (1962): Darryl F. Zanuck's ambitious and expensive recreation of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy, is one of the best -- if somewhat flawed -- war films ever made. Boasting an all-star cast of 41 "A-List" (for 1962, that is) actors from four countries and filmed in various locations around France (Corsica doubling for most of the five invasion beaches on northern France) and made with the assistance of NATO's armed forces, The Longest Day was, for over 30 years, the most expensive movie ever shot in black and white. It's the only major movie to attempt to convey the scope and drama of the D-Day landings from a multinational viewpoint. 2. Saving Private Ryan (1998): If 1993's Schindler's List was director Steven Spielberg's soul-searching and ultimately redemptive examination of why we fought the war (the movie graphically shows the Third Reich's true nature as an evil regime), then 1998's Saving Private Ryan is the emotional bookend that depicts the sacrifices made by citizen-soldiers who put their lives on hold -- and often lost them -- to save the world from becoming a charnel house ruled by Adolf Hitler and his Axis partners. It is a powerful if viscerally graphic film that has, in retrospect, reawakened our nation's interest in World War II and made us realize, however belatedly, how much we owe to the men and women of the rapidly dwindling "Greatest Generation." Based loosely on the real story of the Niland brothers, Saving Private Ryan tells the tale of an eight-man squad of U.S. Army Rangers detailed to retrieve Pvt. James Ryan from Normandy after the death of his three brothers. Featuring the most intense and realistic cinematic depiction of the D-Day invasion, Spielberg's film is certainly far more violent and bloody than its closest cinematic cousin, Darryl Zanuck's The Longest Day. 3. The Big Red One (1980): Although Sam Fuller’s semi-autobiographical film covers more of World War II than just the Normandy invasion, The Big Red One does have a D-Day invasion sequence that, made with a smaller budget and showing only a tiny sliver of Omaha Beach, still captures the emotional and physical horrors faced by the young G.I.’s of the 1st Infantry Division as they hit the beaches under heavy German fire. Starring Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, and Bobby Di Cicco, this film wasn’t a big hit, but it is perhaps one of the most honest war movies ever made. 4. D-Day: The Sixth of June (1956): Robert Taylor, Dana Wynter, and D-Day veteran Richard Todd star in this somewhat melodramatic romance set mostly in pre-D-Day Britain during the build-up to the Normandy invasion. Taylor plays a married U.S. Army colonel who’s in love with Valerie Russell (Wynter), who’s also involved with Lt. Col. John Wynter (Todd). The film is essentially an extended flashback as the two officers head to the Normandy beaches and exchange tales about the woman they are unwittingly both in love with. 5. The Americanization of Emily (1964): One of the strangest films loosely tied to the Normandy invasion, this dark comedy, written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Arthur Hiller, is a combination of bittersweet romance and a satire about war, inter-service rivalry, and public relations in general. Starring James Garner, Julie Andrews, and Melvyn Douglas, its D-Day connection comes from an admiral’s nutty idea, hatched to upstage the Army, of having the first American fatal casualty on Omaha Beach be a Navy man. 6. Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004): Tom Selleck stars as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in this original made-for-cable movie that dramatizes the Allied Supreme Commander’s tension-filled life during the preparations for D-Day. Co-starring Gerald McRaney as Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., this modestly budgeted film is more of a character study of a man under intense pressure as the fate of the free world rides on his every command decision.
Thanks.
I was in theater with a guy who was in Big Red One. Oddly, it was his only movie role.