The Longest Day

The second nominee for the Best Picture Oscar of 1962 was The Longest Day, a three-hour, highly historical look at D-Day. It's unusual that it was directed by four credited directors (and an uncredited Darryl Zanuck), each of whom was responsible for a different portion of the movie. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, but this movie is better than it has a right to be.

Written by Cornelius Ryan based on his book, the film is about 24 hours, starting at about 8 PM on June 5, 1944. The weather has been bad on the English channel, but the Allies have postponed the inevitable invasion too many times. A clearing in the weather is promised, so Eisenhower, at about 9:30 that night, gives the green light.

The troops, massed on England for months, snap into action. John Wayne is the commander of the paratroopers, who will go ahead of the landing to take the crucial city of St. Mere-Eglise. Richard Todd, as Major John Howard, sees the first action, taking a crucial bridge before dawn. Robert Mitchum plays Norm Cota, who heads the 29th infantry, who will land on Omaha Beach.

Meanwhile, the Germans are arrogant and complacent. They expect an invasion, but not in bad weather and not at Normandy. When the attack comes, reports are scoffed at. Too late, they snap into action, but an entire reserve of Panzers can't be used because Hitler is asleep and is not to be awakened--he has taken a sleeping pill. "We will lose the war," one general says, "because the Feuhrer has taken a sedative."

This is one of those movies that has a cast of thousands, but no one has much screen time. Just when you think you've seen everyone, up pops Henry Fonda, who plays Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. He insists on being the first to land on the beach, even though he has arthritis (he would die just over a month later of a heart attack). Richard Burton is in it, though he has only two scenes--one at the beginning, and then one in the penultimate scene, when he lies wounded, contemplating a German soldier he has killed, who is wearing his boots on the wrong feet. Red Buttons also has brief but memorable scenes as a paratrooper who lands on the spire of the church in town, a sitting duck to be shot by German troops.

The cast is full of all sorts of actors, from thespians like Roddy MacDowell and Rod Steiger to pop stars Paul Anka and Fabian. This type of thing has been done many times (some years later it would be tried in A Bridge Too Far, with disastrous results). What makes The Longest Day worthwhile is its almost fetishistic devotion to getting history right. Almost all of the characters are real people, and the timing is like a Swiss watch.

Above all, the film is able to give one an idea on the scale of the invasion. I've often heard it described as moving a city of 200,000 people across a body of water in one night, which basically it was. Since this film was made in 1962, and not today, the extras are actual human beings, so when we see the beach full of soldiers from the view of an airplane, it's kind of awesome.

We also glean how that day was pivotal in world history. What if Hitler hadn't taken a sleeping pill? Whatt if the weather didn't cooperate? It's kind of amazing that it all went right. In that last scene with Burton, Richard Beymer shares a smoke with him. He has gotten lost from his unit, and has no idea what's going on. "I wonder who won?" he muses.