‘Masterpiece’ film about D-Day ‘captures epic scale’ | Films | Entertainment

A “masterpiece” film captures the “epic scale” of D-Day better than any other – and it’s not Saving Private Ryan. The Longest Day (1962) is a World War 2 epic based on the Allies’ invasion of German-occupied Normandy on June 6, 1944. The first day of the operation, codenamed Operation Overlord and often referred to simply as D-Day, saw troops from the US, the UK, and Canada leading the amphibious assault in a major turning point in the war.

The film features an array of British and American stars including John Wayne, Kenneth More, Richard Todd (who actually fought in the battle), Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Steve Forrest, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda and many more. It was directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki, who were responsible for British and French exteriors, American exteriors, and German scenes, respectively. The movie was based on the 1959 non-fiction book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, who also wrote the screenplay, with additional material from Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall and Jack Seddon.

Actual participants in the fighting were brought in as consultants, and despite only having a PG certificate, the film continues to be praised for its affecting recreation of the momentous military face off more than 60 years on.

In a 2024 blog post on the website for the US non-profit Friends of the National World War II Memorial in Washington DC, the organisation’s resident historian Alex Kershaw shared his list of the top 10 films about D-Day.

The list features a number of important films depicting what Allied soldiers experienced that day, with The Longest Day among them. Mr Kershaw said while historians’ will no doubt “continue to nit-pick about accuracy, as they do with all movies based on real events, yet the film captures better than any other the epic scale of D-Day, thrusting us into monumental combat sequences a decade before CGI was first used”.

He even put it ahead of Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan (1998), which is held up by many as the gold standard of D-Day depictions, due to The Longest Day’s exploration of the “international dimension” of the effort. Fans have flocked to IMDb to heap praise upon the film, with one calling it an “epic star-filled masterpiece”.

They added: “Grandly retold historical events and impressive recreations of battle scenes make this an indispensable classic.”

Another wrote: “Quite simply the best film ever attempted on this subject. The events leading up to the D Day invasion in France are meticiously viewed from the French, British, German and American sides.

“The dialogue is spoken in the national languages of the countries taking part in the invasion and this aspect alone elevates it high above most other films”

“The superb black and white photography adds yet another layer or realism,” they continued. “Cast features many international stars, but never stoops to a “spot the stars” formula like too many of these films tend to do.”

A third praised its attention to detail, writing: “Even viewing it now as opposed to the theaters back then back then I am staggered at [the film’s producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s] incredible eye and grasp for the detail of the Normandy invasion.

“He did the smart thing and not only bought Cornelius Ryan’s standard account of D-Day, but got Ryan to write a very coherent screenplay. Even one who has absolutely no grasp of military history will be able to follow exactly what was going on.”

A fourth said: “This is perhaps one of the most ambitious, epic WW2 films to have been made; certainly it is the last of the classic B&W films made about the subject.”

The Longest Day is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Sky Store.