THE LONGEST DAY (1962)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki

SCREENWRITER: Cornelius Ryan, Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall, Jack Seddon

FILM STARS: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Steve Forrest, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Jeffrey Hunter, Stuart Whitman, Kenneth More, Richard Todd, Tom Tryon, Rod Steiger, Curt Jürgens, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Sean Connery, Paul Anka, Edmond O’Brien, Mel Ferrer, Ray Danton, Richard Beymer, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowall and many more.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Cornelius Ryan

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: NEL

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1969

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1959

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: War

WORDS: The story of D-Day, the invasion of continental Europe, at Normandy in France on June 6, 1944 during World War 2, is one of the most important military battles in history. Its scale and significance cannot be underestimated. And, as with many battles, the first day of the battle was crucial.

The Longest Day (1962) depicts that first day and it is one of the great war films.

Its greatness doesn’t lie in the standard indicia of what makes a great war film. Though it touches on all the various tropes that appear in war films it doesn’t concentrate on one or another. It makes no stand on the correctness of war or not but it does hint at the futility and the necessity, it doesn’t really have any dramatic tension though there are emotional scenes, it says nothing about the human condition in war though there is humanity in the film, it’s not character driven though you follow the character’s story arc, however small, and feel for them, it takes sides though it is fair to both sides, it is factual though much of the detail is fictional, its actions scenes are big rather than visceral, though they seem vivid and real.

What it does have is all about being “big”. Big battle scenes done without CGI, big set pieces, a big-name cast (one of the greatest ever assembled), a big cast of extras, a big running time (178 minutes), a big budget, and big ambitions.

Even with all this bigness it is one of the few epic action films that manages to balance the epic with the individual experience, the action of battle with the quiet between battle, the chaos of war with the lack of war kilometres away, the tragic with the comedic, the victory and the loss, the winners and the losers, the faceless many with the recognizable few. And, you can star spot in the meantime. That may sound glib or trivial but it’s a bonus for me. No matter how engrossing or real a film is I always know I’m watching a film, even if it has no stars. So, when it does have stars, and many stars in small roles, part of my enjoyment is in star spotting and watching them interact with other actors.

And The Longest Day has many stars … John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Steve Forrest, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Jeffrey Hunter, Stuart Whitman, Kenneth More, Richard Todd, Tom Tryon, Rod Steiger, Leo Genn, Gert Fröbe, Curd Jürgens, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Sean Connery, Paul Anka, Edmond O’Brien, Mel Ferrer, Ray Danton, Gary Collins, Bob Steele, Richard Beymer, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowall, Paul Anka, Mark Damon, Tommy Sands, Fabian, Ron Randell, Leslie Phillips, Richard Dawson, Norman Rossington, Victor Maddern, Peter van Eyck, Gert Fröbe, John Meillon, Bourvil, Christian Marquand, Jean Servais, Irina Demick, Wolfgang Preiss and Arletty.

Many of the biggest names of the day (Wayne, Mitchum, Fonda, Burton etc), with solid older stars (Todd, Lawford, More, O’Brien), with established young stars (Hunter, Wagner, Whitman, Danton, etc), with young stars in grooming (Mineo, Beymer, Damon, Tryon etc), with teen idol singing stars (Fabian, Anka, Tommy Sands) and with some future stars (Connery, Segal, Phillips etc).

In roles, big or small, they are noticed, and they all do well. The acting is uniformly fine, it may be secondary to the spectacle, but it is the glue that keeps everything together and makes the film relatable. Many of the characters are real life people and some of the actors (Wayne, Ryan) are much older than the characters they play but it matters little, they bring gravitas or strength of personality to the roles. Everyone tries. Perhaps they knew this was a big film with many stars and they didn’t want to be the odd one out.

The scenes and segments I like the most are the ones that stuck in my mind after I saw the film on TV as a kid (in Australia in the 70s) and still resonate now when I watch the film again on the big screen at home – the parachutists landing in the village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, General Norma Cota (Robert Mitchum) and his men on Omaha Beach, Richard Burton’s wounded pilot, the cricket clicker scene in the hedgerows. But, there are many great scenes in dispersed with little bits of human story.

The photography is wonderful …wonderful tracking shots, wide shots, close-ups, handheld camera work, and dramatic lighting make the film visually stunning. It was filmed in black and white which works for war films … we are so used to seeing newsreel in black and white that colour in the spectacle sometimes looks fake. Black and white can also hide come of the inconsistencies in uniform and machinery colour military train spotters would pick up on (though I’m sure producer Darryl F. Zanuck wouldn’t have been concerned with that). The filmmakers tried to make the film look as real as possible without the gore that goes with war. To add to the realism the film was (mainly) filmed at the location of the battles though I have read some of the beach landings were filmed in Libya (don’t know for sure).

There were three directors on the film directing the various “sides” : British & French: Ken Annakin, American: Andrew Marton, German: Bernhard Wicki. They are all capable and they all do well though, ultimately this is a producer’s film. Darryl F, Zanuck (former head of production at 20th Century Fox) was the producer and as was his nature he controlled the production. Everything had to be put past him. Producers who are “auteurs” are few but they exist, Irving Thalberg, Val Lewton, David O. Selznick, Ross Hunter, Adrian Scott, Zanuck. Apparently (uncredited) director Gerd Oswald directed (scenes deleted) in some French exterior episodes as well as the parachuting scenes in Sainte-Mère-Église) and Zanuck himself directed several interior scenes.

The book by Irish born journalist Cornelius Ryan is (largely) accurate and readable in a journalist historian way. It was a best seller and remain in print for many years. He went on to write similar military nonfictions, The Last Battle (1966), and A Bridge Too Far (1974). He wrote the script with additions episodes written by Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall, Jack Seddon. Gary was a popular and prolific writer in France and had written the novel and the screenplay (for Zanuck) for the film The Roots of Heaven (1958). James Jones was a successful US novelist who had made his name with the war novel From Here to Eternity (1951) as well as Some Came Running (1957), both made into successful films. David Pursall and Jack Seddon worked together often including on The Alphabet Murders (1965), The Blue Max (1966) as well as Carry on England (1976).

There are some liberties with history but there are plenty of accurate details and it stays true to the events.

Many people think Saving Private Ryan (1998) which starts at D-Day is more visceral, real and accurate but for me I will take The Longest Day any day (sic) of the week. Saving Private Ryan spirals off into other subplots whereas The Longest Day is only concerned about the battle. Otherwise, I can’t sit in my armchair and say the beach landings were more real in Saving Private Ryan. I do know veterans were trotted out to say they were more real, but they were trotted out for The Longest Day as well. In any event you only know your portion of the battle and memory is errr memory. There seems to be much debate about D-Day landings accuracy between supporters of each film but I’m not interested, and in any event after the landings the rest “Ryan” is hokum man on a mission stuff. The Longest Day stays, smartly, on the first day. If you need before and after films, its perfect accompanying films would be Blake Edwards’ The Americanization of Emily (1964) as a prequel and Samuel Fuller’s The Big Red One (1980) as a sequel.

The film was a mammoth hit at the time with $30.5 million in worldwide theatrical rentals on a $7.5 million budget. It was the highest-grossing black-and-white movie at the time. It received five Oscar nominations and won two for photography and effects.

It helped usher in an era of historically (trying to be) accurate all-star war movies – The Great Escape (1963), The Battle of the Bulge (1965), Is Paris Burning? (1966), Anzio (1968), The Bridge at Remagen (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), The Battle of Neretva (1969), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Midway (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and it certainly influenced later war films like Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Dunkirk (2017).

The book is an easy read. The film I could watch over and over again.

Also, there is a great theme song by Paul Anka which is both melancholy and a tribute. I like theme songs.

NOTES

• Richard Todd actually fought in the battle he acts in in the film. “He was among the first British soldiers to land in Normandy and the first Irishman. His battalion parachuted after glider-borne forces had landed to capture the Pegasus Bridge near Caen. During the operation he met Major John Howard on the bridge and was involved in helping to repulse counter-attacks by the German forces in the area. Five days after D-Day, while still in the bridge defence area, he was promoted to captain. Todd later played Howard in the 1962 film The Longest Day, recreating these events”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Todd
• The title comes from a comment made by the German field marshal Erwin Rommel to his aide Hauptmann Helmuth Lang on April 22, 1944: “…the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive…the fate of Germany depends on the outcome…for the Allies, as well as Germany, it will be the longest day.”

OTHER EDITIONS

1962 US Fawcett film tie-in edition

LINKS

THEME SONG

TRAILER

another trailer